(Yicai Global) Dec. 2 -- Alipay, Ant Group’s third-party mobile payments platform, said it has achieved nationwide interoperability of QR payment codes with China UnionPay to meet regulatory requirements on interconnection and interoperability.

Alipay and UnionPay, a Shanghai-based financial services firm, have facilitated their work on openness and connectivity with 28 banks and institutions, including Industrial and Commercial Bank of China and China Construction Bank, Alipay said on its WeChat account today.

To make payments, users can now scan Alipay’s QR codes via the apps of banks, UnionPay’s Cloud QuickPass and other institutions.

Hangzhou-based Alipay and UnionPay have been communicating and exploring the interoperability of QR payment codes since last year, and have gradually promoted the service in various cities after the pilot verification at the end of last year.

Alipay said in October that it had opened online payment scenes to UnionPay Cloud QuickPass, covering 85 percent of Taobao merchants in the first group. Users who have installed Cloud QuickPass can directly pay via the app after placing an order on Taobao, Alibaba Group Holding’s online shopping platform.

The People’s Bank of China explicitly mentioned promoting QR payment code interoperability in the FinTech Development Plan 2019-2021 issued in August 2019.

The central bank also talked about studying and developing technical standards for QR code payment interoperability, unifying payment coding rules, building a technical system, removing barriers to QR code payment services, and realizing interoperability of the QR codes of different apps and merchants.

On Sept. 30, Alibaba rival Tencent Holdings said its WeChat Pay had achieved cross-recognition of QR codes with Cloud QuickPass for offline payment, and users can scan WeChat codes through Cloud QuickPass in provincial capitals across China to make payments. The WeChat mini program also gradually supports Cloud QuickPass.

Editor: Peter Thomas