Wirecard Inks Deal With National Bank of Greece To Integrate AliPay

Wirecard announced Wednesday (April 12) that it is now collaborating with the National Bank of Greece (NBG) and is integrating Alipay into the technical infrastructure of Greece’s largest bank as a new payment method.

In a press release, Wirecard said it has enabled National Bank of Greece to integrate Alipay across the country in as many locations as possible. The aim is for most Greek merchants who operate at significant tourist attractions in the country to be able to offer Alipay as a new payment solution at the point of sale (POS) for their Chinese customers, Wirecard said.

“Tourists are one of the most important target groups for Greek merchants. With this in mind, we are particularly proud that we are in a position to allow merchants to offer a payment method trusted by Chinese customers. This has all been made possible by Wirecard’s exclusive technical support and professionalism,” said Nelly Tzakou-Lambropoulou, general manager of Retail Banking at National Bank of Greece in the same press release.

Wirecard said that the Greek islands and the capital of Athens are particularly popular destinations for Chinese tourists. With Greece seeing an increase of 400 percent in Chinese tourists over the past five years, the stated goal of the Greek Ministry of Tourism is to welcome one million by the year 2021.

With the new collaboration, Wirecard and the National Bank of Greece will provide them with Alipay. Chinese tourists can receive offers from local merchants via smartphone push notifications even while traveling by airplane to their respective holiday destination.

Jörn Leogrande, executive vice president, Mobile Services at Wirecard, added in the same press release: “We are proud to implement our technology in NBG’s payment processes. With this, we are enabling thousands of merchants to simultaneously offer Alipay as a new payment method for a financially strong target group. We believe that this, combined with the increasing number of Chinese tourists in Greece, will translate into a considerable sales potential for Greek merchants. Our aim is to work with financial institutions across Europe to integrate Alipay as an alternative mobile payment solution in as many till systems as possible.”