Asia United Bank (AUB) today announced a partnership with Alipay+ to enable its HelloMoney for cross-border payments and to provide a seamless payment experience for users when they travel overseas for leisure and business. This makes AUB the first Philippine bank with an e-wallet that can be used overseas.

Through this collaboration, HelloMoney is to be made available and accepted first in South Korea and Japan, where HelloMoney users can pay at local merchants accepting Alipay+ for shopping, dining, convenience stores, transportation, and other travel-related activities.

“Over the years, AUB has been building a digital arsenal that includes pioneering initiatives and innovations — from end-to-end digital account opening, to enabling clients to make banking easy through their mobile phone and merchants to sustain their businesses even with restricted mobility during the pandemic. With Alipay+'s global presence through its integration with local merchants worldwide, our HelloMoney users will have a wider reach in payment acceptance while ensuring a safe and secure digital transaction,” said Wilfredo Rodriguez Jr., AUB executive vice president and head of Operations & Information Technology. Over a million HelloMoney users will also be able to take advantage of more competitive exchange rates compared to prevailing market rates.

Introduced by Ant Group, Alipay+ is a suite of global cross-border digital payments and marketing solutions designed to enable businesses to process a wide range of mobile payment methods and better serve regional and global consumers through simple technical adaption.

Jia Hang, General Manager of Alipay+ Global Partnerships, Ant Group, said: “AUB has been a long-term partner to Ant Group, and we are excited to extend the partnership further to enable its e-wallet’s cross-border operations through Alipay+. 

Despite it being a relatively young e-wallet, HelloMoney has garnered strong growth and adoption momentum among users. Through this partnership, users of HelloMoney can rely on the e-wallet when they travel overseas, too, without the hassle of carrying cash or change currencies.”

Ahead of the COVID-19 pandemic, AUB launched HelloMoney so users can open an account without going to a physical branch and perform bank-to-bank fund transfers, buy prepaid load, remit money through PeraPadala, pay via QR code, settle bills, withdraw via ATM, and shop using the HelloMoney’s very own virtual Mastercard. 

The launch was immediately followed by the release of Hello Pag-IBIG, the companion mobile app to the Pag-IBIG Loyalty Card Plus where cardholders can manage their account and perform banking transactions. In 2021, AUB introduced the HelloMoney Mastercard for online shopping.

HelloMoney posted double-digit growth in transactions even as lockdown restrictions have started to ease. As of October 2022, the number of HelloMoney transactions has reached 19 million, a 45% increase compared to last year, while the value of transactions reached P63 billion or 49% higher than in 2021.

Asia United Bank (AUB) is one of the fastest-growing publicly listed universal banks in the country. Established at the height of the 1997 Asian financial crisis, AUB is one of only two local commercial banks licensed at the time which has since thrived and expanded its operations. 

It is known for its digital innovations, which started years prior to the COVID-19 global pandemic which spurred many of its competitors to embark on digital transformation. Among its digital innovations are e-wallet HelloMoney, pioneering payments via QR and the early adoption of the national QR PH code, and AUB PayMate, its all-in-one digital payment acceptance product.

Alipay+ offers unified global mobile payment and marketing solutions that connect merchants with multiple e-wallets and payment methods from different countries and regions by collaborating with global partners. 

Consumers can conveniently use their preferred local payment methods while transacting seamlessly in a different market and be able to enjoy marketing offers by the merchants through Alipay+. Alipay+ is developed by Ant Group, the owner and operator of Alipay, one of the world’s leading digital open platforms.

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