WorldFirst sees big money in cross-border payments

International payment company WorldFirst is eyeing opportunities in China's fast-growing cross-border payment market, despite the fiercely competitive landscape.

Jeff Parker, managing director of WorldFirst Asia-Pacific, a London-based cross-border payment service, said the company participated in the China International Import Expo to win over customers.

"I think the payment services landscape is very competitive. But there are a lot of niches within that landscape," said Parker, referring to WorldFirst's strategy to compete with its local and international counterparts, such as virtual wallet Alipay, Union-Pay and Western Union.

He said that while the market is competitive, WorldFirst's strength lies in a niche sector that does not overlap with existing players' business.

"A lot of payment is based on customer-to-customer, such as WeChat Pay and Alipay, while companies like Western Union focus on just the traditional way to wire money internationally from A to B."

But WorldFirst is hastening to increase its presence in China with a fast money transfer service that targets a very specific demographic.

Parker said his confidence comes from the convenience the service can provide business clients, offering greater convenience and efficiency when converting and receiving money from overseas. This is what the growing number of small and medium-sized Chinese cross-border business operators and foreign companies need in China, he said.

"Historically, you had to sell overseas, convert your money, transfer that money back to China, and you have to go through another transaction to pay your suppliers," he said. "But we can help clients with multinational accounts to receive money within a day. For small businesses that is very exciting."

But Parker noted he also has concerns. As a growing business, WorldFirst needs to be more aggressive and enhance its presence in the market in order to expand its business, he said. Thus, the CIIE came just at the right time.

"The biggest thing about the CIIE (for us) is to get more people to know about us and understand what value we can bring to their businesses. So coming to the CIIE is a good opportunity."

"President Xi Jinping's inspiring speech at the CIIE opening ceremony has demonstrated China's commitment to further open up the financial service sector," he said. "We are dedicated to the tradition of building strong and mutually beneficial business relationships with Chinese enterprises. We look forward to supporting more Chinese small and medium-sized enterprises with faster, safer and easier cross-border payments, enabling them to grow globally."

Jiang Haifeng, a partner at Ernst& Young, predicted competition in the industry will intensify, as a growing number of foreign financial institutions are entering the Chinese market, due to the lowering barriers to market access.