NAB first of big four banks to jump on the Alipay platform

NAB is confident its teaming up with Chinese payments powerhouse Alipay will prove popular with customers.

NAB has become the first of the big four banks to go live with Chinese payments powerhouse Alipay’s platform. Picture: Jerad Williams

NAB has become the first of the big four banks to go live with Chinese payments powerhouse Alipay’s platform, with the service to be made available to NAB’s business customers early next year.

With an initial pilot set to start this month, NAB’s executive general manager of deposit and transaction services, Shane Conway, said he was expecting a strong uptake from businesses once the ­service was made available more broadly.

“We have looked at the modelling and I think it will be quite dynamic,” he told The Australian.

He added that the bank’s merchant customers had been clamouring to get Alipay integrated into their point-of-sales terminals.

“We’ve listened to our customers. We will be the first major bank to go live and the most critical piece to this is we received lots of feedback … there is huge demand.”

The integration will allow businesses with a NAB merchant terminal to offer Chinese tourists the option to pay with Alipay, which serves over 700 million active users in China.

With 1 million-plus Chinese tourists visiting Australia each year and spending more than $11 billion, businesses offering Alipay would be better placed to grab a slice of that opportunity, Mr Conway said.

“By making China’s No 1 payment method available to NAB business customers, we’re enabling greater customer service and providing our business customers with access to this large tourism sector, which is a win-win for everyone.

“From next year, Aussie businesses with a NAB merchant terminal can offer Chinese tourists Alipay, their preferred QR code payment method, in store and unlock an opportunity to promote their businesses on Alipay’s marketing platform,” he said.

The payments platform, spun off from Alibaba Group in 2011, has been steadily expanding its presence in Australia over the past two years. It serves more than 8000 merchants in Australia and New Zealand, including Chemist Warehouse, JR Duty Free and WHSmith.

Alipay has a similar integration agreement with Australian business-only bank Tyro, with the service going live earlier this month at tax- and duty-free retailer Heinemann Australia’s new stores at Gold Coast International Airport.

The Chinese company also has a memorandum of understanding with Commonwealth Bank, signed in 2016, to explore the integration of the payments system on the bank’s Albert eftpos terminal.

Alipay’s ANZ country manager, George Lawson, said talks with CBA on the Albert integration were still ongoing.

“I would say watch this space on that front,” he said.

“We want the NAB relationship to be successful. For merchants that are on NAB, they now have an easy pathway.

“We are happy to work with all of the financial institutions but things often move at different speeds. We want to run with the fastest gazelle and in this case it’s NAB.”

Mr Conway said NAB’s rivals were likely to follow its lead in giving the platform to their merchant customers and helping them target the tourism dollars flowing in from China.

“What I would expect to happen over time is that other banks follow and it’s important for Australia to be competitive in the global market, particularly in tourism.”

NAB also has Google Pay, which it integrated in April, and Samsung Pay in its payments repertoire. However, it’s still holding out against signing up to Apple Pay, which is only offered by ANZ in Australia.

Mr Conway said there were no immediate plans to offer Apple Pay to customers.

“We are constantly assessing opportunities and understand the payment landscape is evolving very rapidly,” he said.