Tencent and Mastercard Sign MOU on Cross-Border Payment Interoperability and Agentic Payments

Proposed collaboration spans QR acceptance for international visitors in the Chinese mainland, remittances into the Weixin/WeChat ecosystem and AI-enabled commerce

TenPay Global, Tencent’s cross-border payment platform, and Mastercard have signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) to explore greater cross-border payment interoperability and new opportunities in agentic payments, the companies announced during Hong Kong FinTech Week 2026.

The proposed collaboration aims to make cross-border commerce more connected. For international visitors, that means more ways to pay using familiar digital wallets and issuer apps at QR-enabled merchants in the Chinese mainland. For merchants, it creates more opportunities to serve international customers.

More ways to pay for international visitors

The announcement comes as inbound travel to the Chinese mainland continues to grow, alongside international visitors’ payment needs. According to Mastercard data, inbound spending in the Chinese mainland grew 51.3% year over year in the 12 months to June this year. From January to August 2026, transactions made with international digital wallets via Weixin Pay in the Chinese mainland grew 81.8% in number and 80.6% in value year on year. With international travel and spending rising, payment interoperability can give visitors more ways to pay while helping merchants capture growing cross-border demand.

As part of the MOU, TenPay Global and Mastercard will combine their capabilities in payment processing, currency conversion, risk management and fraud prevention, to support a more seamless payment experience for international visitors and merchants. Both companies will also engage digital wallet providers, financial institutions and payment service providers to broaden participation in cross-border QR payments.

The proposed collaboration builds on Mastercard’s payment facilitation initiatives in the Chinese mainland and Mastercard Wallet Pay, a portfolio of solutions designed to support interoperability and innovation across digital wallets and card-based payments.

More accessible cross-border remittances

TenPay Global and Mastercard also plan to deepen their existing cross-border remittance collaboration through Mastercard Move,  giving more overseas senders a convenient way to transfer money into the Weixin ecosystem. Mastercard Move brings together Mastercard’s global money movement capabilities, supporting transfers across more than 200 countries and territories and more than 150 currencies, with reach to nearly 17 billion endpoints and 95% of the world’s banked population.

TenPay Global and Mastercard will explore opportunities across payment interoperability, wallet innovation, cross-border payment infrastructure, security and fraud prevention, including how Mastercard’s value-added services could support future innovation within the broader Weixin/WeChat ecosystem.

Scaling AI-powered commerce with trust

Looking ahead, the collaboration will explore how the same principles of interoperability, trust and security can extend into agentic commerce, as AI agents reshape how consumers and businesses discover, decide and transact. This includes exploring solutions such as Mastercard Agent Pay, Mastercard Agent Connect and Virtual C-Suite to scale trusted AI-enabled commerce for both consumers and merchants.