DBS, Ant International expand partnership to boost cross-border payments

SINGAPORE (Reuters) -Singapore’s biggest bank DBS Group ​and Ant International have on ‌Thursday signed a memorandum of understanding to expand ‌their partnership and scale up cross-border payments and fintech services.

The deal, announced at the Singapore Fintech Festival, ⁠will allow ‌DBS PayLah! users to make QR code payments at over ‍150 million merchants in more than 100 markets via Ant’s Alipay+ network, ​a statement by the companies said.

The ‌companies are also exploring near-instant remittances between DBS customers and 1.8 billion Alipay+ accounts, using global financial messaging standards, according to the ⁠statement.

Other areas of collaboration ​include helping small ​businesses digitise and advancing blockchain-based tokenised deposits. Both companies said ‍the partnership ⁠aims to drive inclusive growth and innovation across the region.

(⁠Reporting by Selena Li in Hong Kong and ‌Yantoultra Ngui in Singapore; Editing ‌by Jacqueline Wong)