Alipay+, the cross-border digital payment and marketing solutions provider, has announced a landmark partnership with leading European open banking platform, Yapily, to explore the application of open banking on various mobile payment platforms and enhance connectivity between consumers and merchants globally.

The collaboration marks a crucial step in the growth of Alipay+’s global partnership programme. The partnership will catalyse the deployment of an even more convenient and secure payment option for millions of European consumers, in addition to the 1.4 billion consumer accounts already connected by Alipay+ across Asia.

Enabled by Yapily’s open banking infrastructure, consumers who bank with European financial institutions will be able to make cross-border payments to Alipay+ merchants across the world directly from their bank accounts with smooth payment experience and security.

The introduction of such account-based payments is set to streamline Alipay+’s payment process and bolster trust for merchants. Based on Yapily’s open banking payments infrastructure, Yapily and Alipay+ will jointly develop new solutions to provide the premise for merchants to increase transaction value by engaging customers throughout the buying journey, and connecting them to promotions and other value-added services.

For merchants, Yapily’s open banking payments structure will offer the scalability and resilience to deliver service excellence to consumers, as well as the business agility required to further innovate in the payment and retail sectors globally.

Stefano Vaccino, CEO and Founder of Yapily comments: “Open banking presents a significant opportunity to improve the experience for both merchants and consumers when receiving and making cross-border payments. In recognising this potential and launching such new payment solutions, Alipay+ will act as a catalyst for mass adoption of open banking in Europe. We are delighted to be providing the infrastructure that is enabling Alipay+ to realise the potential of open banking and its mission to make it easy to do business anywhere.

Pietro Candela, Alipay+’s head of development in Europe comments: “Europe is on the front lines of open banking. The region’s unique regulatory framework fosters innovation within its banking ecosystem and gives Account-to-Account, instant and mobile app payments room to grow through open banking solutions. As such, we are enthusiastic to begin our collaboration with Yapily, and to develop new payment solutions that bring heightened value and convenience to European consumers and global merchants.”