The rise of third-party mobile payments in China at the expense of credit and debit cards is threatening commercial banks’ access to the customer data viewed as crucial to newly emerging financial and consumer business models.
The president of Ant Financial, Alibaba Group’s finance affiliate, told the Financial Times earlier this month that payments through its Alipay unit bypass China UnionPay, the state-owned settlement network with close ties to the central bank.
The result is that UnionPay, along with issuing banks and acquiring banks, is hemorrhaging income from merchant fees. The trend is fuelled not only by the rise of ecommerce but also by the