Alipay and WeChat to tighten overseas payment rules amid Nepal ban

The Chinese digital payment service providers Alipay and WeChat Pay vowed on Tuesday to further regulate the use of mobile payments overseas a day after a ban on their services was introduced by Nepal's central bank.

A customer uses her smartphone to pay using Alipay at a store in Sydney, Australia on April 26, 2018. [Photo: IC]

Local media outlet The Himalayan Times reported that on Monday the Nepal Rastra Bank banned the use of Alipay and WeChat Pay inside the country, as "the country was losing foreign income due to illegal use of those payment applications." The ban is being imposed because, according to the report, "payments for services acquired in Nepal are made in China" and "the money technically never enters Nepal's banking channel."

In response, on Tuesday both Alipay and WeChat Pay said they have taken measures to prevent the illegal use of their payment services in overseas markets, including the payment QR codes that should only be used inside China, according to The Paper. Alipay has urged its users to comply with local laws, and said its cross-border payments are operating in Nepal as normal.

Nepal Rastra Bank said earlier that it was looking for ways to "legalise the use of those digital wallets in Nepal", as China is the country's second-largest source of foreign tourists, who commonly used Alipay and WeChat Pay.

Tourist spending is the third-largest source of foreign income for Nepal. Over 150,000 tourists from China visited Nepal in 2018, a nearly 50 percent of increase on the number of visitors in 2017.