Ant Group and Paynet Collaborate to Promote Payment Services for Travelling Malaysians

Ant Group, a Chinese FinTech firm, has partnered with PayNet, a Malaysian payment firm, to promote payment for inbound and outbound Malaysian travelers. According to a statement released on Aug 29, the two companies recently signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) to allow more Asian travelers to Malaysia to enjoy a seamless digital payment experience at over 1.8 million merchants across the country.

The collaboration also enabled Malaysian residents living abroad to pay using their home country's e-wallets.

By the end of this year, users of five leading Asian e-wallets, including AlipayHK (Hong Kong SAR), GCash (Philippines), Kakao Pay (South Korea), and TrueMoney (Thailand), will be able to use cashless payments when they travel to Malaysia with Alipay+, the global cross-border digital payments and marketing solutions operated by Ant Group, by scanning DuitNow QR. More e-wallets are expected to join in the coming months.

DuitNow QR is PayNet's Malaysian National QR Standard, which enables merchants to accept real-time payments from customers of various participating banks and e-wallet operators via a unified QR code.

The partnership, according to the statement, will allow all Malaysian e-wallets supported by PayNet to be accepted by the Alipay+ merchant network globally in 2024. Aside from payments, Ant Group and PayNet will collaborate on joint digital marketing efforts to increase business visibility directly within users' e-wallets.