Hong Kong’s leading ATM operator, Jetco, plans to introduce an inter-bank service for mobile and online payments, with the threat of rival services from the likes of Alipay, Tenpay, Facebook and Apple acting as a prompt for banks, according to the South China Morning Post.

Jetco operates the ATMs of all banks in Hong Kong and Macau (apart from HSBC and Hang Seng) and chief executive Angus Choi said he wants to move into mobile payment and peer-to-peer (P2P) solutions over the next few months.

Hong Kong is lagging mainland China and other developed countries in this area, he said.

The potential threat posed by internet giants Alipay and Tenpay, as well as Facebook and Apple, is motivating local banks to introduce their own mobile payment systems by the end of this year, Choi said.

“Tencent and Alipay are very interested in entering the [Hong Kong] market,” he said. “That is one of the reasons the banks are becoming more aggressive.”

Analysts see banks trying to catch up with internet companies. Many have been reluctant to lose the transaction fees for online transfers by enabling customers to perform the same function through their smartphones but are being forced to act or face losing market position

As well as Chinese internet companies or US internet giants, the banks may face competition from Octopus, which is currently used by more than 95 per cent of Hong Kong residents for contactless payments on its public transport system and with merchants around the city. It has introduced limited mobile payment features.