Lender OCBC will become the first Singapore bank to enable customers to scan and pay all merchant QRs in mainland China through its Singapore mobile banking app – a capability that, it says, stems from an expanded partnership with UnionPay International, formalized on November 28 in Shanghai.

The partnership leverages Nets infrastructure to support payments to merchants that accept Weixin Pay ( WeChat Pay ), complementing the OCBC app’s existing ability to scan and pay Alipay+ and UnionPay merchant QR codes.

This Weixin Pay capability will be ready in Q1 2026. This feature is expected to benefit OCBC Singapore customers travelling to mainland China, where QR-based cashless payments dominate daily life – from hailing taxis to dining out.

Customers simply need to scan and pay any Weixin Pay, Alipay+ or UnionPay merchant QR code to make payments. These payments are debited directly from customers’ OCBC Singapore accounts, the bank shares, eliminating the need to download and fund third-party apps or queue for currency exchange.

Already, OCBC’s Scan & Pay feature has seen increased adoption, with payment volumes up 11% year-on-year and active users up 67%. Mainland China is the leading destination for these QR payments, where OCBC Singapore customers use the feature to pay for dining, attractions and shopping purchases across duty-free items, furniture and jewellery.

This coincides with a sharp rebound in travel demand for mainland China. Arrivals from Singapore more than doubled in 2024, according to Oxford Economics, rising from 260,000 in 2023 to an estimated 535,000.

“QR payments are the norm in mainland China,” says Sunny Quek, the bank’s head of global consumer financial services. “For customers who travel there, our goal is to enable them to pay like a local.”