Hong Leong Bank Customers Can Now Scan to Pay at 120 Million QR Merchants in China
Malaysians heading to China can now pay at local shops by scanning a QR code straight from their Hong Leong Bank app. The bank has switched on HLB QR Pay for China through a tie-up with UnionPay International, and customers who convert ringgit to yuan before they fly pay no transaction fee on those purchases.
Key facts
- What launched: HLB QR Pay for China inside the HLB Connect mobile banking app, built with UnionPay International (UPI), the overseas arm of China’s card and payment network UnionPay.
- Where it works: more than 120 million merchants in China that accept UnionPay or Weixin Pay (WeChat Pay) QR codes, from big retailers and restaurants to small stalls and individual sellers.
- How to pay: scan the merchant’s QR code, or show a QR code in the app for the merchant to scan. Money comes straight out of the customer’s HLB account, with no separate wallet to top up.
- Fee-free yuan balance: Pay&Save Account holders can convert ringgit (MYR) into offshore yuan (CNH) ahead of a trip using the account’s Multi-Currency Feature. Payments made from that CNH balance carry no transaction fees or service charges.
- Back-up funding: if the yuan balance runs short, the payment is automatically charged to the customer’s main ringgit account.
Why QR matters in China
China is one of the most QR-heavy payment markets in the world. In daily life, most people pay by scanning codes on their phones rather than using cash or cards, and many small merchants, such as hawkers and market traders, only display a QR code. For visitors, that has long been a practical headache: foreign cards are not accepted everywhere, and setting up a Chinese super-app wallet with a foreign bank card can take time.
Hong Leong’s approach keeps everything inside the bank’s own app. Andrew Jong, the bank’s managing director of personal financial services, said QR payments are accepted almost everywhere in China, from shopping malls to street food stalls, and described China as a key destination for Malaysian travellers, business people, professionals and students. He said the UnionPay partnership is a step towards a more seamless global payment experience for customers.
What it means for Malaysians
- Travellers and students: the biggest practical win is the option to lock in an exchange rate. By converting ringgit to yuan before travelling, customers know what their spending money is worth in advance, rather than taking whatever rate applies on the day of each purchase. That helps with budgeting for a holiday, a study semester or a business trip.
- Cost control: spending from the CNH balance is fee-free. The bank has not said what charges, if any, apply when a payment falls back to the ringgit account, so frequent travellers should check the conversion terms in the app before relying on that route.
- Less app juggling: paying from a bank account removes the need to pre-load a separate travel wallet, which is one more password and one more balance to track.
- For banks: the launch shows Malaysian lenders competing harder with e-wallets for travel spending. Overseas QR payments used to be a selling point mainly for wallet apps; banks are now building the same convenience into mobile banking, often bundled with multi-currency accounts.
The move also fits a wider trend. Bank Negara Malaysia (BNM), the central bank, and the national payments network PayNet have spent several years linking Malaysia’s DuitNow QR with neighbouring countries’ QR systems. Hong Leong’s China service runs on a commercial card-network partnership rather than a central bank link, but it points in the same direction: scan-to-pay that works across borders without carrying cash.
What to watch
- Whether Hong Leong publishes the exchange rate and any fees for payments charged to the ringgit account, which will decide how competitive the service is against e-wallets and travel cards.
- Whether other Malaysian banks follow with their own China QR links, or extend similar services to other popular destinations.
- Uptake among Malaysian students and business travellers, a group the bank has named as a core target.
Related on FinDeskAsia: ASEAN’s cross-border QR payments hit a record and DuitNow explained.
Sources: The Star (October 2026); Fintech News Malaysia (October 2026).
