Alipay+ wallets can now pay at QR Ph merchants in the Philippines

The Philippine national QR standard has been opened to Alipay+ partner wallets, so visitors can pay Filipino merchants with the app they already use at home. Merchants keep the QR Ph code they already display. What changed Philippine Payments Management Inc., the payment system management body accredited by the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas, has connected the QR Ph network to Ant International's Alipay+ wallet gateway. Inbound travellers whose home e-wallet or banking app belongs to the Alipay+ network can scan an existing QR Ph code at a Philippine merchant and settle the payment through the domestic QR rail. The merchant side needs no new sticker, terminal or acquiring relationship, which is what brings the roughly 2.5 million small businesses already on QR Ph into reach of foreign wallet users. Alipay+ has now linked to more than ten national QR schemes across Asia, the Middle East and Latin America, and the parties present this as supporting the central bank's digital payments targets rather than as a separate acceptance scheme.