Alipay to Release Online Mutual Funds Investment Service

Alipay, Alibaba’s online payments service announced yesterday to launch a new product “Balance Keeper” (not official translation) for investing in mutual funds on Alipay’s platform. It also supports other Alipay services including online payments and money transfer. (source in Chinese)

Staff from Alipay introduced that this new service embedded the systems of mutual fund companies’ into Alipay platform. When users put money into the Balance Keeper, Alipay will automatically helps them set up mutual fund accounts. A user also can make payments for online shopping with the balance in the account. Moreover, there is no minimum investment limit.

Its first currency mutual fund will be Zenglibao offered by the Tian Hong Asset Management. Alipay concluded that “The aim of the Balance Keeper is to create opportunities for adding values to users’ pocket money.” This new move has been the first attempt after Alipay got the license for third-party payments of funds in May 2012.