Starting Monday, Chinese tourists can pay via Alipay to retailers who have a partnership with Barclays in UK.

Chinese expats, students and tourists are expected to spend more than 1 billion pounds (1.31 billion U.S. dollars) at such retailers in UK this year, news website Banking Technology said citing Barclaycard.

British shopping malls including Harrods and Selfridges already accept Alipay.

Alipay is an online payment tool run by Alibaba's financial arm Ant Financial.

Last December, the financial arm signed partnership agreement with BNP Paribas, Barclays, UniCredit, and Six Payment Services, a major payment service company, to expand its online payment service in Europe.

Currently, Alipay can be used in France's Printemps, Germany's Zwilling store chain, and stores in Munich Airport.

Alipay's main target is providing service to 520 million Alipay users who use mobile payment when they travel in EU, Liu Yu, head of Alipay in EU, said to Xinhua.

According to Liu, Alipay also has signed MOU (memorandum of understanding) related to cashless payment with Monaco government in June.

Email: zhanglingxiao@nbd.com.cn