Fund transfers between Alipay and WeChat Pay around the corner as Hong Kong launches faster payments service

Hong Kong customers of Alipay and WeChat Pay, the two dominant cashless payment operators in China, the world’s largest internet market, will be able to transfer funds from each other for the first time, through the Hong Kong Monetary Authority’s Faster Payment System.

The service will be available from September 30, but the customers of 10 e-wallet operators as well as 21 banks – including HSBC, Hang Seng Bank, Citibank, Standard Chartered Bank, Bank of East Asia and Bank of China Hong Kong – can now start registering for the service.

Hong Kong will take a huge step towards smart banking with introduction of no cost, immediate interbank fund transfers

Howard Lee, deputy chief executive of the HKMA, Hong Kong’s de facto central bank, introduced the service on Monday and said: “This is unique worldwide. In all western markets, and on the mainland, only users of the same e-wallet operator can transfer funds among themselves, but not with others.

“The Faster Payment System will be a breakthrough in fund transfers and payments in Hong Kong,” he said.

Octopus is among the 10 stored-value, or e-wallet, operators that joined the system on Monday, while HSBC’s PayMe mobile payments app will join the service “at the earliest opportunity”, according to a bank spokeswoman.

A spokesman in Hong Kong for Alipay, founded by Alibaba Group Holding executive chairman Jack Ma, welcomed the service and said: “Alipay Hong Kong is honoured to be among the first batch of companies to join the Faster Payment System. We are working on partnerships with a number of banks.”