Singtel Inks Deal to Grow Cross-Border Payments
Both parties plan to jointly promote and drive cross-border payments to grow their respective user bases and merchant networks, and explore collaboration around rewards and loyalty programmes.
Singtel Group and Malaysian telecommunications conglomerate Axiata Group have signed a memorandum of understanding to «collaborate in the areas of mobile financial and digital services that will support ASEAN’s efforts to grow the digital economy», the firms announced in a joint news release.
The agreement was made on the sidelines of the 2019 World Mobile Congress in Barcelona, Spain. As a result, Axiata Digital’s mobile wallet Boost Malaysia will join Singtel Group’s cross-border payment alliance VIA, expanding its reach to beyond Singapore and Thailand to Malaysia, where Boost has 66,000 merchants on its alliance network, and over 3.7 million customers.
«Tremendous potential»
«This shows the tremendous potential for us to grow cross-border mobile payments even beyond the countries where Singtel’s regional associates operate. VIA’s continued expansion will provide consumers with the ease and convenience of using one mobile wallet to pay across multiple regional markets as they travel,» Arthur Lang, CEO of Singtel’s International Group, said about the agreement with Axiata.
The two firms said they would jointly promote and drive cross-border payments to grow their respective user bases and merchant networks, and explore collaboration around rewards and loyalty programmes.
«Mobile wallet interoperability has been high on our priority list and we’re excited to kick off this partnership with one of the region’s biggest technology companies. Boost’s merchant base is growing at a strong pace and we’re looking forward to serving Singtel’s e-wallet users when they visit Malaysia,» Mohd Khairil Abdullah, CEO of Axiata Digital, said.
Enhanced Digital Suite of Services
As part of the MOU, Singtel's Open Platform payment gateway, which allows online retailers and service providers to connect to the payment platforms of all members of the Singtel Group, will partner with Axiata's application programming interface Apigate to enable the sharing of product portfolios and offer customers digital content from over 300 gaming and entertainment service providers with seamless payment.
