Asian e-wallets to expand in South Korea with local alipay

BEIJING Reuters said on Monday it will help four Asian e-wallets, including the Philippines' GCash and Malaysia's Touch'n Go expand into South Korea with its cross-border payment service Alipay, as travel restrictions begin to be lifted across Asia.

The Chinese fintech giant said in a statement that users of e-wallets that use Alipay including Touch'n Go, Thailand's TrueMoney, and AlipayHK will be able to pay more than 12,000 merchants using their local mobile payments apps when they travel in South Korea.

In 2020, Alipay provides services and technology tools to global merchants and e-wallets that allow them to make payments in overseas markets with their local e-wallets. Its e-wallet clients include Alipay.

With South Korea being one of the most popular destinations of Filipinos, we are delighted that our customers will be able to maximize their GCash app during their travels, said Martha Sazon, chief executive officer of Mynt, which operates GCash.

South Korea ended the requirement for pre-departure COVID 19 testing for overseas travellers, in step with Japan and other countries that removed it earlier this month.

In June of this year, AliPay had enabled Malaysia's Touch'n Go users to pay with the e-wallet in Singapore.