Kiwi bank becomes first to enter deal with Alipay
(11 June 2018 – New Zealand) Bank of New Zealand has become the first big bank in either Australia or New Zealand to offer its merchant customers the ability to accept Alipay payments.
From July, BNZ customers with a Verifone terminal will be able to take the payments, which up until now have required businesses to have a separate terminal. Merchants who want to sign up for the service will initially need to have a Verifone payment terminal although BNZ said it would expand the service to other terminals over time.
Merchants would be charged a fee for the service, but it would be cheaper than the fee merchants paid when customers used credit cards.
China is New Zealand’s second largest tourism market with visitors spending more than $1.5bn in the country last year. The number of Kiwi businesses accepting Alipay has grown from less than 300 merchants a year ago to more than 2500, primarily in the food and beverage businesses, high-end retail and locations such as Queenstown.
Subscribe