Tencent's TenPay Global and Mastercard Partner to Expand Cross-Border Payments
Tencent's TenPay Global and Mastercard have signed a memorandum of understanding to integrate their cross-border payment networks, focusing on QR code payments, remittances, and AI-driven transactions.
Tencent's cross-border payment division, TenPay Global, and Mastercard announced a collaboration at the Hong Kong Fintech Week on November 2. The agreement aims to facilitate mobile payments for inbound travelers, allowing users to leverage their existing digital wallets or banking applications to scan WeChat Pay merchant QR codes across China.
This partnership combines Mastercard’s global network with the WeChat ecosystem. Data from Mastercard indicates that inbound spending in China rose by 51.3% in the year ending June 2026. Furthermore, transactions made by international e-wallets via WeChat Pay saw significant growth in the first eight months of 2026, with volumes increasing by over 80%. Currently, TenPay Global maintains connections with over 60 financial institutions and supports transfers from more than 150 countries.
Beyond basic payment interoperability, the companies plan to utilize Mastercard’s 'Move' infrastructure to streamline remittance flows into the WeChat ecosystem. The scope also includes the development of AI-integrated payments. The firms intend to explore the safety and interoperability of AI commerce through Mastercard’s 'Agent Pay' and 'Agent Connect' products, which govern how autonomous AI agents execute transactions and interact with payment services.
The initiative builds upon Mastercard's existing 'Wallet Pay' framework, which already incorporates TenPay Global services. Both companies stated the objective is to harmonize risk management and currency exchange processes to accommodate the rising demand for digital payment access among international visitors in China.