By Cristina Roca

UniCredit SpA (UCG.MI)'s UniCredit Bank said Friday that it has become the first bank in Hungary to sign an agreement with Alipay, a mobile-payment platform with more than 700 million active users operated by China's Ant Financial Services Group.

The agreement will allow UniCredit Bank's merchant clients to offer Chinese tourists the possibility of paying for goods and services via Alipay from 2019, the Italian lender said. The move is aimed at capitalizing on the fast-growing influx of Chinese visitors to Hungary, it said.

According to official data cited by UniCredit, the number of Chinese tourists to Hungary grew more by than 34% to 227,000 last year, with the average visitor spending $1.400 there.

Ant Financial is an affiliate of e-commerce giant Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. (BABA).

Write to Cristina Roca at cristina.roca@dowjones.com; @_cristinaroca

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

October 12, 2018 10:31 ET (14:31 GMT)

Copyright (c) 2018 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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