SolarisBank has announced its partnership with the Alipay payment and lifestyle platform. The company belongs to the well-known Chinese group Alibaba Group.
Alipay wants to expand its position in Europe by working with Fintech. Solarisbank will provide the technical infrastructure to expand the network of Alipay acceptance points in the European market.
Tourists from China want to pay mobile
The background to Alipay’s expansion strategy is the rising number of Chinese tourists in Europe. With over 130 million travelers, they make up the largest share of all tourists worldwide. In 2017 alone, 12.7 million Chinese tourists traveled to Europe. At the same time, Chinese travelers spent the most on vacation worldwide: With a growth rate of around 5.4 percent, total spending in 2017 reached around 220 billion euros.
Mobile payment methods are very popular with Chinese tourists because they are less expensive than credit cards. In addition, very few shops in Europe accept Chinese credit cards. Thanks to the cooperation with Solarisbank, Alipay wants to offer tourists more acceptance points for mobile payment in Europe.
“Chinese tourism is booming in Germany and Europe. On the one hand, the cooperation between Alipay and SolarisBank helps Chinese tourists use proven payment methods on vacation without having to withdraw cash. On the other hand, we make it more attractive and easier for European retailers to integrate Alipay, which makes them more interesting to Chinese tourists” says Jörg Diewald, Chief Commercial Officer of SolarisBank.
Fintech with full bank license
The SolarisBank was founded in 2016 and has grown rapidly in recent years thanks to investments of more than 95 million euros by well-known financiers such as Visa and BBVA. Fintech was the first banking-as-a-service platform with a full banking license that enables companies to offer their own financial products.
SolarisBank partners can connect to the platform via API, not just Payments, Lending and Digital Banking products, but third party third party service providers as well. As a result, SolarisBank claims to create a technologically advanced banking ecosystem for fintechs, established digital companies, as well as banks and corporates.