Tencent Announces Memoranda of Understanding with Visa and Mastercard for Cross-Border Transfers and Payments
Key Facts
On October 29, 2026, Tencent announced that it had signed a memorandum of understanding with Visa to explore broader cooperation in cross-border payments, AI-powered commerce and global business growth, according to a company statement. Tencent said the memorandum aims to develop services for travelers through the TenPay Global and Visa Pay platforms, alongside solutions for participating merchants on the Weixin Pay and Visa networks. The companies also plan to deepen cooperation on remittances through Visa Direct, enabling money to be sent from abroad into the Weixin Pay ecosystem. Tencent described the agreement as a framework for exploring broader cooperation, not a completed launch of a new service. On November 2, TenPay Global, Tencent’s cross-border payments platform, announced a separate memorandum of understanding with Mastercard covering payment and remittance interoperability and agentic payments.
The proposed cooperation with Mastercard includes expanding remittances through Mastercard Move, a service for sending money to the Weixin ecosystem. TenPay Global’s statement said the service supports transfers to more than 200 countries and territories in more than 150 currencies. The agreement also covers combining the companies’ capabilities in payment processing, currency conversion, risk management and fraud prevention. The proposed scope of cooperation allows digital wallet providers, financial institutions and payment service providers to participate. These provisions remain part of a memorandum of understanding to explore cooperation, according to the announcement issued on November 2.
The statement also cited payment-related growth indicators in China. Spending by inbound visitors in mainland China rose 51.3% year on year in the twelve months ended June 2026. Between January and August 2026, the number of international digital wallet transactions through Weixin Pay in mainland China increased 81.8%, while their value rose 80.6% from the same period a year earlier. The statement presented these figures alongside the proposed cooperation between TenPay Global and Mastercard. Tencent also said the Visa memorandum covers exploring applications of AI, agentic commerce and payments managed by AI agents, subject to regulatory requirements and data security.
These agreements differ from the November 1 announcement by Thunes and UnionPay International, which concerns instant transfers to UnionPay cards in mainland China. According to Thunes’ statement, the service covers 79 Chinese banks and allows transfers of up to $10,000 per recipient cardholder per day. The statement said the main expansion corridors include Africa, Australia, Indonesia, New Zealand, Thailand and the United States. The UnionPay agreement announced with Thunes may therefore explain the confusion in the earlier draft, but it is not a partnership between UnionPay and Tencent. UnionPay and Thunes announced in January 2026 the launch of a cross-border remittance service in 5 markets, including Hong Kong, Singapore, the United Kingdom and France.
Tencent previously announced on December 20, 2024, a partnership between TenPay Global and Ria that enabled money to be sent from Ria’s digital and physical channels to a Weixin Pay wallet balance or linked bank accounts. Tencent said at the time that China was among the world’s top three remittance destinations in 2023, with inflows of $50 billion during the year. Separately, Visa and UnionPay International announced an agreement on February 3, 2026, to connect Visa Direct with the MoneyExpress platform. The initiative aims to enable transfers and business payments to beneficiaries in mainland China through a single network. Visa said expanded availability was expected to begin in the first half of 2026 and, once complete, would reach more than 95% of UnionPay International debit cardholders, with use cases including payments to creators, freelancers and contractors, as well as reimbursements and family remittances.