Within two years, OCBC will enable payments into more than 50 digital wallets worldwide by partnering Visa Direct

Singapore, 7 November 2024 – The OCBC app, enabled by Visa Direct, has become the first mobile banking app in Asia Pacific to let customers send near-instant peer-to-peer transfers to both Weixin Pay (WeChat Pay) and Alipay using just the recipient’s China national identification name and China mobile number. OCBC’s pay-to-wallet service incurs no transfer fees. Weixin Pay and Alipay are the two most dominant digital wallets in China with over a billion users, making up 90 per cent of all digital payments in the country.

The expansion of OCBC’s remittance capabilities is timely as money flows from Singapore to China continue to grow. As more individuals relocate from China to Singapore to live and work, and continue to remit funds home, OCBC has seen a 50 per cent jump in its Singapore customers’ remittances to China from a year ago.

OCBC’s pay-to-wallet service performs the transfer of monies within seconds. This improves on the current average of two to five days using other account-to-account or non-bank remittance services. In addition, it eliminates the need to physically carry cash to non-bank remittance companies to make a cross-border funds transfer.

More than 50 digital wallets to be added in two years
OCBC will continue to work with Visa Direct so that by 2026, the most popular in-country digital wallets like GoPay and Ovo in Indonesia, and GCash, PayMaya and Coins in the Philippines, will be able to receive funds from OCBC Singapore bank accounts almost instantly and at competitive exchange rates. In total, the OCBC app will have access to more than 50 digital wallets, providing the most comprehensive digital wallet access of any banking app in Asia Pacific.

This will meet the rising demand of OCBC customers, whose monthly cross-border funds transfers from Singapore to ASEAN markets have increased an average of 10 per cent from a year ago.

Mr Sunny Quek, OCBC’s Head of Global Consumer Financial Services, said, “Partnering with Visa to offer our pay-to-wallet service marks a significant step in enhancing the convenience and efficiency of global remittances for our customers. We’re starting with access to the two biggest digital wallets in China – Weixin Pay and Alipay – but will quickly be expanding our services by adding more wallets to our digital payment capabilities. There is urgency to do so given the increasing cross-border needs of our customers, chief of which is the need to remit money home. Another use case is e-commerce. Buyers in Singapore sometimes need to make direct payments to small independent sellers in another market.

“Our wider goal is to become the go-to app for cross-border transactions in Greater China, ASEAN and even globally. Our customers can already scan and pay merchants globally using their OCBC app. With the roll out of our peer-to-peer pay-to-wallet service today, we are well on our way to achieving this goal.”

Ms Adeline Kim, Visa Country Manager for Singapore & Brunei, said, “Visa Direct enables consumers to send money cross-borders with ease, convenience and security. Our Green Shoots Radar research showed that close to 50 per cent of Chinese have received money in their digital wallets from overseas, which indicates a need for us to transform the remittance process to make it easier for consumers to send and receive money. Previously, Singapore residents needed to top up their digital wallets and then make transfers via their digital wallets, which is a two-step process. Our partnership with OCBC marks a significant step in transforming money movement for consumers and showcases our commitment to facilitate the movement of funds from bank accounts to wallets seamlessly.”

Making peer-to-peer transfers to Weixin Pay and Alipay
Funds transfers are made directly from OCBC customers’ Singapore bank accounts. There is a daily and per transaction transfer limit of CNY50,000 and annual transaction limit of CNY300,000 for OCBC Singapore customers to the wallet recipients.

To make a funds transfer, customers must first add the digital wallet as a payee:
Step 1: Login to OCBC app and select ‘Pay & Transfer’
Step 2: Select ‘Overseas’ > ‘Add new payee’
Step 3: Select ‘Wallet’ for payee type > choose ‘AliPay’ or ‘Weixin (WeChat) Pay’ and input payee’s mobile number and name > ‘Add new payee’
Step 4: New payee added

To make a funds transfer to the wallet payee:
Step 1: Login to OCBC app and select ‘Pay & Transfer’
Step 2: Select payee and input amount to be transferred in Chinese yuan (the corresponding amount in Singapore dollars will be shown)
Step 3: Select OCBC Singapore bank account to pay from and purpose of transfer > ‘Slide to transfer’
Step 4: Transfer completed