Alibaba partners with Bank of China to better support Alipay payment system

Thursday, China's e-commerce leader Alibaba Group announced about its collaboration with the Bank of China on international business development and domestic programs expanding. 

This deal follows senior Alibaba executives visit to Silicon Valley earlier this year, who met with such companies as Google, eBay and Amazon.com in order to discuss possible partnerships. Thus, Alibaba raised the topics, including bringing its online auction and payment platforms to the US. 

The Bank of China deal gives the biggest support to Alibaba's online payment subsidiary Alipay that will work with the bank to make foreign transactions easier for users. Alipay is to work with Bank of China to offer currency conversion for cross-border purchases, which could encourage sales between foreign and Chinese users. Alipay might also look for cooperation with PayPal, as the company was open to talks with any potential partners.

Besides Alipay, Alibaba Group also operates Taobao, called "China's eBay," and leading B2B e-commerce site Alibaba.com. 

Alibaba will also work with Bank of China to expand a loan program for Chinese SMEs. This program is expected to facilitate 6 billion yuan (US$880 million) in loans this year, gives vendors credit ratings based partly on their Alibaba transaction history.