Better late than never: Hong Kong plays catch-up with schemes allowing e-payment across borders, a boon for travellers

Authorities working on scheme to benefit users of city’s Faster Payment System and Thailand’s PromptPay
Ahead of the game, Singapore has already struck e-payment deals with Thailand and other countries

Hong Kong economy

Rachel Yeo

Published: 12:30pm, 18 Mar 2023

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Bangkok resident RJ Rojvirasingh welcomed the news that he will be able to use his Thai banking application for electronic payments in Hong Kong the next time he is in the city.

The business consultant, 36, said he was a regular user of PromptPay, a popular app in Thailand that allows customers to make e-payments directly from their bank accounts.

“If I can use it in Hong Kong, that will be good,” said Rojvirasingh, who is planning a holiday in the city with his girlfriend next year.

Hong Kong and Thailand are working out a cross-border scheme to let travellers use their preferred local payment platform in both places.

A QR code being scanned at a restaurant. Photo: Shutterstock

There were 10.9 million users registered for Hong Kong’s Faster Payment System last year, and Thailand’s PromptPay had at least 55.1 million in 2021.

Financial Secretary Paul Chan Mo-po highlighted the scheme in his budget speech last month, saying it aimed to create a safe, fast and effective online payment method for travellers.

A Hong Kong Monetary Authority spokeswoman said the move would pave the way for more cross-border payment services in future.

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Singapore had a head start by striking a deal with Thailand to allow users of PromptPay and the city state’s PayNow to transfer funds on a real-time basis between the two countries since 2021.

Singapore’s central bank has also made similar arrangements with countries like India, Indonesia, Malaysia and the Philippines.

This year, for example, the Monetary Authority of Singapore and the Reserve Bank of India linked Singapore’s PayNow and with India’s Unified Payments Interface to let users in both countries send and receive funds between bank accounts or e-wallets in real-time.

Dr Steven Wei, a senior teaching fellow at Polytechnic University’s School of Accounting and Finance, said it was worth learning from Singapore, which focused on e-payments as part of its transition to becoming a tech-driven “smart nation”.

He hoped Hong Kong would establish convenient cross-border payment options with its economic and trade partners, such as Asean countries like Vietnam, Singapore and Indonesia.

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Other potential partners included Japan, South Korea and Taiwan, which were popular travel destinations for Hong Kong residents.

“Cross-border payment services have further expanded and are widely used not just for shopping and dining, but also transport,” he said.

Wei said Hongkongers used to prefer using cash, prepaid Octopus cards and credit cards, but the pandemic helped achieve a significant breakthrough in getting people to use e-payment systems such as WeChat Pay and Alipay.

A woman uses her Octopus card to pay for groceries at the Sai Ying Pun wet market. Photo: Xiaomei Chen

The government has pledged to push ahead with application testing and preparations for fintech infrastructure projects, including using virtual currencies “e-HKD” and “e-CNY” as cross-boundary payment facilities.

Nightlife tycoon Allan Zeman said Singapore may have adopted the technology wave earlier, but Hong Kong was catching up fast, given Chinese President Xi Jinping’s wish for it to integrate better with the Greater Bay Area, the emerging tech powerhouse linking Hong Kong, Macau and nine cities in Guangdong.

Zeman, a frequent visitor to Thailand and owner of a villa complex in Phuket, said the cross-border payments scheme would be good as travel was resuming after three years of Covid-19 pandemic restrictions.

“This will help to increase sales,” he said.

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Hong Kong’s tourism industry has shown signs of recovery, with 1.46 million visitors last month – the first time the monthly figure surpassed a million since the pandemic began and more than double the 498,689 who came in January.

Freddy Yip Hing-ning, president of the Hong Kong Travel Agent Owners Association, was not convinced that cross-border payment schemes would have an impact on tourism numbers.

“Hong Kong people don’t care about this,” he said. “When people travel, the most important factors are safety, hotel rates and food prices. That is how they decide their destinations.”

Additional reporting by Oscar Liu