BNP Paribas has partnered with Ant International on multiple initiatives.
Among the projects, BNP Paribas will allow its merchant clients to accept payments via Ant International’s Alipay+, BNP Paribas will sponsor Ant International’s WorldFirst to participate in the Single Euro Payments Area (SEPA) scheme, and BNP Paribas will leverage Ant International’s Whale platform to explore opportunities in tokenized deposits.
Ant Group, which was originally an affiliate of Alibaba, created Ant international to foster international expansion efforts.
French bank BNP Paribas announced this week it has teamed up with Ant Group subsidiary Ant International. The two agreed to work together on four projects to help BNP Paribas foster its digital payment initiatives.
For the first collaboration, BNP Paribas will work with Ant International’s Alipay+, a cross-border mobile payment solution. The partnership will allow BNP Paribas’ merchant clients that use its acquiring service across Europe to accept payments from more than 25 international mobile partners via Alipay+.
The two will also work to help WorldFirst participate in the Single Euro Payments Area (SEPA) scheme. WorldFirst, which is Ant International’s digital payment and financial services platform for global businesses, aims to reinforce its participation in SEPA to help businesses make online cross-border payments and fund transfers within the SEPA Zone. Under the agreement, BNP Paribas will sponsor WorldFirst’s participation in the SEPA scheme, allowing WorldFirst to expedite its integration and onboarding onto SEPA. Ultimately, WorldFirst’s clients will be able to access SEPA payment schemes in real-time and automate treasury payments.
Additionally, BNP Paribas will leverage Ant International’s Whale platform to explore opportunities in tokenized deposits for global treasury management. In turn, Ant International will use BNP Paribas’ infrastructure to build out its Whale platform further.
The Whale platform leverages the blockchain to facilitate commercial digital payments and financial services on a global scale. The treasury management tool offers cross-border payment solutions that leverage tokenized deposits, support for digital wallet functionality integrated into Alipay+, and provide data analytics tools that offer insights into customer behavior and transaction patterns, and more.
“Through our collaboration with a leading industry partner, we will bring together digital payments and innovative technology solutions from Ant International, with BNP Paribas’s depth of experience in the European market, to deliver greater connectivity and make global travel and trade more convenient,” said Ant International President Douglas Feagin.
Ant International is headquartered in Singapore. The firm’s parent company Ant Group, which was originally an affiliate of Alibaba, created Ant international to foster international expansion efforts. In addition to Alipay+ and WorldFirst, Ant International’s other brands include Antom, Anext Bank, and Bettr.
BNP Paribas operates in 63 countries and has about 183,000 employees, including more than 145,000 in Europe. The bank was officially established in May of 2000, after the merger of France-based BNP and international investment bank Paribas.
Photo by Floriane Vita on Unsplash
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