Alipay teams up with European banks to expand business in the region

Alipay, the most popular digital payment tool run by China's Ant Financial Services Group, announced partnership with three European banks on Tuesday, its latest effort to further expand its business in the region.

The payment service with 450 million active users signed deals on Tuesday with financial institutions BNP Paribas, Barclays, UniCredit, and Six Payment Services, a major payment service company, to allow more European merchants use Alipay as a payment tool in Europe.

Ant Financial, the internet finance affiliate of Alibaba Group, has been gearing up its global expansion. Making more Chinese outbound travelers use Alipay in countries outside China is one of the major steps for the internet finance group to expand business overseas.

Alipay first entered Europe in October 2015 when it partnered with quality retailer Tripidi in Frankfurt Airport, Germany, and has since branched out with a range of partnerships, including with German payment provider Concardis in June 2016, and French payment processing group Ingenico in August 2016.

In addition to a variety of offline scenarios, users can now pay with Alipay in locations including Harrods, Selfridges, Printemps and Munich Airport, one of 10 airports worldwide to have joined Alipay's "Future Airport" program, and can process tax refunds via the app in 23 European countries.