Australia’s banks will need to connect with Chinese online payment companies such as Alibaba and Wechat if they are to retain a growing number of small businesses that are selling goods through these channels.
Mark Whelan, ANZ Banking Group’s head of institutional banking, told The Australian Financial Review Business Summit that the bank needed to embrace payment platforms to reach millions of Chinese.
“We follow what our customers are doing. There is $800 billion (£657 billion) [of sales] through e-commerce in China and 100 million high income earners so many brands will move into China,” he said.
Mr Whelan said he was monitoring the opportunities for the banks in linking up with online payments systems such as Alipay and Wechat, to allow their customers to better access these platforms.