China UnionPay Allies With Tencent’s WeChat Pay for Barcode Payments

Dou Shicong

(Yicai Global) April 2 — China UnionPay Co. has formed a QR code payment partnership with WeChat Pay, a third-party payment service run by internet giant Tencent Holdings Ltd., the bankcard association under China’s central bank said.

China UnionPay inked the cooperative agreement with Tenpay Technology Co., which operates WeChat Pay and China UnionPay, it said on its official website yesterday, adding that the pair has completed system connection, joint testing and verification and that it has officially provided acquirers with pilot access services for WeChat Pay.

Acquirers are banks that ply payment and settlement businesses. Regulators have tried to cut direct links between domestic third-party payment service providers and acquirers since last year to tighten supervision of the payment sector. The country’s central bank the People’s Bank of China also set up NetsUnion Clearing Corp. in August to help it attain that goal.

The rule mainly affects China’s two payment giants — Tencent’s WeChat Pay and Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. ‘s Alipay, which have a combined market share of over 90 percent of the domestic third-party payment market. China UnionPay has thus far not announced a similar partnership with Alipay. China is well on its way to becoming a cashless society and those who still go about with change jangling in their pockets appear increasingly quaint.