Hong Leong Bank (HLB) Berhad will provide WeChat Pay payment solutions after the bank has received the approval from Bank Negara Malaysia (BNM) to do so.

The agreement is for Hong Leong Bank to enter into an agreement with Tenpay Payment Technology Co Limited, a subsidiary of Tencent, to provide the payment service.

This collaboration is expected to see Chinese tourists to continue using their WeChat accounts when visiting Malaysia.

This offering marks the start of business collaborations with the Chinese technology giant and more digital payment solutions in the near future.

The partnership between HLB and Tencent using WeChat Pay enables online and offline (O2O) digital payments from retail merchants in Malaysia with an easy-to-adopt, fully integrated cross-border payment solution.

With a simple user interface, users benefit from this quick, mobile app based, QR code payment tool to make purchases in Malaysia in RMB and other currencies.

Launched in 2011, WeChat Pay provides fast and reliable payment services to its users and has rapidly become one of the most popular mobile payment services in China.

As a merchant acquirer for WeChat Pay in Malaysia, HLB can now enable Malaysian businesses to start accepting WeChat payments for both online and in-store payments.

“This is an important development for our Merchant Services business and we are excited to expand the payment ecosystem for greater convenience to our Malaysian merchants” said Domenic Fuda, Group Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of HLB.

“This will be our first foray as an acquirer of the very popular Chinese wallet based payment methodology riding on WeChat Pay technology which has over 600 million monthly active users in China”.