SINGAPORE – OCBC customers will from Friday be able to use the bank’s digital app to make retail payments to UnionPay QR-enabled merchants in 47 markets via their OCBC Singapore bank accounts.
They will not need to download, set up, and fund third-party payment apps, or queue for currency exchange, before or during their trips abroad to multiple destinations.
This comes amid expectations there will be a surge in travel to mainland China, following the recent resumption of 15-day visa-free entry for Singaporeans.
But it will also add to the convenience of travellers heading to a host of other destinations, including Malaysia, Thailand and Hong Kong, said OCBC in a joint statement with UnionPay International on Tuesday.
Payments will be made directly from customers’ OCBC Singapore accounts, up to the daily transaction limit of $1,000, with no additional fees or charges.
The exchange rate will be shown to users on the app before they confirm their transactions.
“This tie-up will be especially beneficial to our customers who are travelling to mainland China for work or pleasure,” said Mr Sunny Quek, OCBC’s head of global consumer financial services.
Come September, the OCBC Digital app will also be enhanced to enable OCBC customers to generate a QR code, which merchants across UnionPay’s QR code payment system can scan to process the payment.
OCBC said this practice, known as the “customer present mode”, is common in several markets, including mainland China.
It is in addition to the “merchant present mode” practice of the new feature to be rolled out on Friday, which requires customers to scan QR codes presented by merchants with their OCBC Digital app.
Civil servant Chermaine Koh, 32, welcomed the news as she will be travelling to Shanghai and Hangzhou in October with her four-year-old child.
“I haven’t been to China in 20 years, so I haven’t researched the various payment methods or set up any payment wallets yet. (Being able to) directly make payments with my OCBC Digital app sounds convenient. It would also mean one less thing for me to do as I prepare for my trip,” said Ms Koh.
This scan-and-pay feature is the result of an agreement signed between OCBC and UnionPay International in April 2023, and is the latest cross-border payment collaboration for OCBC.
Other cross-border payment links made by the bank over the past year include peer-to-merchant transactions with Malaysia’s DuitNow QR and Thailand’s PromptPay QR.
Beyond retail banking, OCBC’s business banking customers are also able to accept UnionPay QR payments via the bank’s OneCollect digital merchant collections solution.
Over 100 mobile wallets outside mainland China are UnionPay QR-enabled, said OCBC. Users of these mobile wallets can pay businesses that use OneCollect by scanning the UnionPay QR code.
In June, WeChat Pay and Alipay, dominant mobile payment methods in China, announced that overseas cards such as Visa and Mastercard could be added to their pay accounts from July.
This is to facilitate mobile payment for overseas users in China following the full resumption of travel and international business activities in the country, where retail transactions are now typically cashless.
A 3 per cent fee is charged for each transaction over 200 yuan (S$37).
