The China-based payment service provider, WeChat Pay, has secured permission to operate its electronic payment service in Nepal.
The Nepal Rastra Bank (NRB) recently allowed NMB Bank to provide the settlement services of transactions made through WeChat Pay in Nepal.
WeChat Pay, however, has yet to start providing its services in the country due to some technical reasons.
As a result of the recent coronavirus outbreak in Wuhan of China, the number of Chinese travelers visiting Nepal has dwindledof late.
Meanwhile, Alipay, another China-based payment service provider, is also in the process of obtaining license from NRB to start its services in the country after finalizing the technical details.
WeChat Pay and Alipay are popular among Chinese tourists and these payment apps were being used to pay for transactions in Nepal’s hospitality sector.
However, these payment apps were previously being used illegally in Nepal as they had not acquired the permission.
Earlier, Nepal could not log the spending made by Chinese tourists through Wechat Pay as foreign income because the Chinese mobile payment platform was not registered in the country.
