NIC ASIA Bank, one of the largest private-sector commercial banks in Nepal, announced a cooperation with Nepal’s payment system operator FirstPay and Hong Kong based digital banking solution provider Wallyt to launch digital payment services to its merchants through WeChat Pay and UnionPay QR in the country.
The partnership enables merchants associated with the bank to reach more Chinese guests by giving the opportunity to use their domestic payment method.
According to Ministry of Culture, Tourism & Civil Aviation of Nepal, there were 169,543 Chinese travelers visited Nepal in 2019, showing a growth of 10.4%. Chinese travelers account for 14.2% of arrivals by nationality, and has been the second largest source of tourists to Nepal. Numbers started going up in 2011 after Nepal announced free visas for Chinese nationals.
Although it is still uncertain as to when the world will be able to freely travel, but with vaccines beginning to be rolled out across the globe, a return to travel will also soon be on the horizon.
At the meantime, the epidemic accelerated the digital payment trends around the world. Retailers, hotels and travel services in Nepal are rapidly adopting and integrating digital payment applications and working hard to attract more future Chinese travelers.
"We aim to partner with technically agile global Fintech for leveraging the untapped segment of international payment space in Nepal. Working together with Wallyt is beginning of our journey in that direction.” Said Roshan Kumar Neupane, CEO of NIC ASIA Bank who is also the youngest and most dynamic CEO in Nepalese Banking.
“We are pleased to partner with Wallyt to bring world class technologies and payment channels to contribute in accelerated digital transformation in Nepalese Economy. We are incredibly excited about this journey and truly believe the best digitalization of payment is yet to come.” said Saurabh Rijal, CEO of FirstPay Technology Pvt. Ltd.
"Our aim is, working together with NIC ASIA Bank and First Pay, to serve more merchants in Nepal and help them to go cashless with digital payment capabilities.” Magic Tang, Vice President of Wallyt, added, “With this new partnership, Wallyt also shows its global reach with local competence.”
Beside the integrated payment gateway, Wallyt also has full experience and solutions to help the banks go digital. With 25,000 and more QR merchants all over the country, NIC ASIA Bank, FirstPay and Wallyt will work together to offer more digital payment service to meet the requirement of local merchants and users, and help make the country’s economy a cashless economy.