Tenpay WeChat Pay
Woori Bank signed an exclusive business agreement with China's Tencent to provide a fund settlement service. Accordingly, the bank will be exclusively paid an exchange commission when Chinese tourists make payments via Tenpay, or WeChat Pay, which is Tencent’s simple payment service, in Korea.
Woori Bank announced on Nov. 24 that it will offer domestic fund settlement service for Tencent’s international payments. The bank will make profits from currency exchange fees when the bank pays local stores in Korean won after receiving remittance in foreign currencies from Tencent’s transaction.
Woori Bank is the only bank in Korea to establish partnership with Tencent. The business partnership will run for an indefinite period. In other words, the bank will make monopoly profit on exchange commission when Chinese tourists pay with Tenpay in stores in Korea, including duty free shops.
Assuming five percent of 15 trillion won (US$13.11 billion) of the annual amount Chinese tourists consumed in Korea are paid with mobile payment services, such as Tencent and Alipay, the annual foreign currency exchange fees are estimated to be 10 billion won (US$8.74 million). When existing cash and credit card payments are gradually being replaced with such mobile payment services, the relevant market will grow further.
In addition, Woori Bank plans to start introducing a similar platform in online purchases made by foreigners from early next year. Based on its exclusive partnership with Tenpay, the bank will also receive exchange commission when Chinese consumers make purchases via Tenpay from Korean online stores.