Tranglo recently inked major partnerships to tap into China’s US$17 trillion mobile payments market.

Globalisation has led to not just skilled workers crossing borders, but with them, the rise in e-payments services such as remittances, and e-commerce transactions. Fueled by the mushrooming of e-wallets, the high levels of bank account ownership, and widespread smartphone partnership, China leads the world in the digital payments space, with total value hitting US$17 trillion as of 2017.

In its 2019 Migration and Development Brief, the World Bank found that global remittances totalled US$689 billion in 2018, with China being the second-largest remittance recipient at US$67 billion).

Just as tech has helped bridge the global communications gap via social media and broadband connectivity, so too must tech play its role in the payments systems that international payments can be made seamlessly and quickly, at affordable rates.

Fintech has paved the way in recent years through e-wallets for local payment activities and e-marketplaces, yet needs more to be done to address high remittance costs (which average 7% for US$200) as well as international transaction costs involved where merchant and buyer use different payment providers, currencies or wallets.

Tranglo, an international cross-border payments specialist, boasts a global network that spans more than 100 countries, 300 mobile operators, 50 billers, 1,300 banks/wallets, and 130,000 cash pickup points.

The fintech player recently inked partnerships with AliPay and WeChat Pay HK to integrate two of the world’s biggest mobile payment platforms into Tranglo’s cross-border payment network.

Tranglo CEO Jacky Lee said, “When you look at the customer and growth numbers of Alipay (over 1.2 billion) and WeChat Pay HK (over 400,000), the partnerships make perfect sense as they are the most direct route to the heartland of the Chinese payment industry.

“For other industry players, a Tranglo-enabled access to the wider Chinese market puts them in a prime position when we talk about branding.

“The Chinese diaspora around the world is increasing too, and we see a huge potential in terms of processing value,” he added. China (including Hong Kong) is the world’s second-largest remittance market.

Reducing remittance costs to 3% by 2030 (from 7% averaged currently) is a global target under the UN’s Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 10.7. The same World Bank study notes that remittance fees tend to include a premium where national post offices have an exclusive partnership with a money transfer operator.

The World Bank believes the high costs of money transfers reduce the benefits of migration. Renegotiating exclusive partnerships and letting new players operate through national post offices, banks, and telecommunications companies will increase competition and lower remittance prices.

Tranglo is doing its part through its extensive network and by adding partners with wider reach such as AliPay and WeChat Pay HK.

The collaboration with Alipay is expected to benefit a multitude of users, from business payments such as e-commerce transactions to personal remittance among migrant workers, particularly in Asia, where Tranglo has a foothold in the payments market through local partners.

Meanwhile, its partnership with WeChat Pay HK allows the e-wallet’s users to transact via the We Remit function on the mobile payment platform, thereby expanding WeChat Pay HK’s footprint and offering its users more seamless, secure and easy ways to make cross-border transactions.

Lee explained: “Cross-border payments can be quite fragmented. Businesses and consumers can sometimes find the simple process of transferring money daunting, with the involvement of many different players at different stages of an inherently simple process.

“What Tranglo does with these partnerships is to consolidate the global payment services and seamlessly link businesses and consumers, making the process as painless as possible. When you don’t need to jump through lots of hoops, things get really easy and quick, as they should.”

He called on payment firms to leverage Tranglo’s global network to gain access to giants like Alipay and WeChat Pay HK.

“We act as a bridge between these firms in a huge global market (over 1,300 partners), at the lowest cost to their business. Tranglo essentially takes care of their back-end operations while they take care of their customers,” Lee said.

As of December 2019, Tranglo has processed US$5.05 billion in transaction value. In addition to eyeing more global partnerships in 2020 and beyond, Tranglo is actively harnessing and incorporating big data, machine learning and AI into its processes.

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