China Hana Bank, Alipay Entry

[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Min-young] Hana Bank China Limited announced on the 16th that it has partnered with Alibaba's Ant Group, China's largest e-commerce company, to open the Alipay (Zhifubao) exclusive mobile branch 'Hana Xiaochengxu.'

With the opening of this digital cyber branch, Hana Bank China can now offer various deposit products to approximately 1 billion customers using Alipay, China's leading mobile payment platform. This is the first among foreign banks operating in China.

Hana Xiaochengxu is available even to those who are not customers of Hana Bank China, allowing users to purchase Hana Bank China's non-face-to-face financial products through the Zhifubao mobile application without visiting a physical branch.

To use the service, users can directly enter search terms such as ‘?? (Hana)’ or ‘???行 (Hana Bank)’ in Chinese on the main screen of Alibaba's Zhifubao, or click related content within Zhifubao to find and access ‘Hana Xiaochengxu.’

Lim Young-ho, head of Hana Bank China, said, “By opening a cyber branch within Zhifubao, a national app in China, we have secured a digital sales base that allows us to meet virtually all individual customers using Zhifubao anytime and anywhere, overcoming the limitations of time and space of traditional offline branches. In the untact era, we will accelerate Hana Bank China's digital transformation by diversifying customer touchpoints through continuous expansion of digital branches.”