Mastercard Incorporated MA recently solidified its ties with the widely used digital platform of China, Alipay, in a bid to enhance its international payment offering suite. The partners teamed up in 2023 to enable international travelers, holding MA cards connected to the Alipay digital wallet, therefore conducting seamless e-commerce payments across the country.

Under the recently expanded tie-up, Mastercard can empower its worldwide bank, fintech and corporate customers to provide their client base with access to the Alipay wallet. This, in turn, is expected to enable its cardholders in any corner of the globe to seamlessly and safely make digital fund transfers to China.

The development of solutions that can lead to enhanced disbursements and remittances continues to remain a key growth strategy for Mastercard and the recent move bears testament to the same. The Alipay app, catering to more than 1 billion users across China, is expected to further strengthen MA’s nationwide presence. An upgraded cross-border payment solutions suite may fetch improved cross-border volumes to the tech giant. Cross-border volume rose 24% year over year on a local currency basis in 2023.

Also, the idea of undertaking this move in China seems to be a prudent decision on the part of Mastercard as the country remains one of the largest international remittance recipient nations in the world. The timeliness of the move can be further substantiated by a rebounding global economy that paves the way for higher demand for cross-border payments and consumers seeking faster and more secure means to send money across the globe. According to Mastercard’s Borderless Payments Report, had online cross-border payments been faster, 68% of consumers would have engaged more in them.

Mastercard Move encompasses an array of international money transfer solutions and the suite has been built with the strength of the tech giant’s existing and future money movement capabilities, some of which are Mastercard Send and Mastercard Cross-Border services. The portfolio imparts the power to participating financial institutions to offer enhanced international payment capabilities to their customers across more than 180 markets.

Mastercard Move boasts a global payout network of more than 150 currencies and has around 10 billion endpoints across the world, comprising bank accounts, card, wallet and cash payout locations.

Mastercard intends to delve and establish a solid presence in nations with promising digital growth prospects and China is one such country. China has been witnessing widespread digital penetration and a rising number of Internet users, thus providing the tech giant with the perfect ground to capitalize on via partnerships with financial service providers or substantial investments.