Seven mobile wallet providers agreed a collaboration to develop and promote a payment interoperability network covering nine European markets, with travellers from China also able to use the facility.

Once the platform is completed, users of any of the participating providers will be able to make QR-code payments in selected retailers across Portugal; Spain; Germany; Austria; Slovenia; Iceland; Norway; Finland; and Sweden.

The wallet providers involved are Bluecode International, ePassi, momo Pocket, Pagaqui, Pivo, Vipps and China-based Alipay.

European companies in the group have a combined user base of 5 million, with payments accepted in 190,000 merchants. Providers will adopt Alipay’s QR code format, which will also enables merchants adopting the system to take payments from Chinese nationals using Alipay.

Bluecode International CEO Christian Pirkner said: “It has always been our vision to enable European banks with a widely accepted payment offering.”

Mariano de Mora, CEO of Spain-based wallet company Momo Group, estimated the collaboration would bring “millions of users” onto its merchant network and vastly widen options available to its own customers.

In addition to promotion of a single QR code platform in the countries the partnership fits with Alipay-parent Ant Financial’s strategy of extending acceptance for its platform globally.