China’s Ant Financial buys small stake in Swedish unicorn Klarna
Klarna is already embedded into Alibaba’s AliExpress.
China
PPRO gives Europe’s merchants access to Chinese shoppers with UnionPay
The Chinese ecommerce market is currently valued at more than $1 trillion.
The impact of COVID-19 on the Chinese market
The effects of the coronavirus on the local fintech market isn’t all negative.
Inaccuracies of facial recognition: security, prejudice, pollution and fashion
The issue of accuracy is one which is often cited but rarely explained.
HSBC to cut 35,000 jobs in a major restructure to boost returns
Job loss figure more than triple the number expected to be cut by the bank.
Guotai Junan International updates derivatives tech with Finastra
Hong Kong firm goes live on Fusion Sophis.
Industry undecided on UK’s fintech funding success
The industry is undecided over roughly $1 billion dollars.
WorldRemit ties up cross-border remittance partnership with Alipay
London-based firm gives users green light to sent money to Alipay wallets.
Chinese regulators planning digital banking go-ahead
New set of rules could see a bevy of digital challengers in China.
Ping An Technology builds innovation lab with Intel to boost cloud tech
The lab will also “supercharge” Ping An’s AI-based services.
Tencent brings third player UnionPay to China’s mobile payments arena
UnionPay’s QuickPass serves just 240m users, whilst 1.2bn use Tencent’s WeChat.
China drafts rules to tackle risky half a trillion financial leasing sector
Only 2,985 of the 10,900 leasing firms in China are active businesses.
Covered Bond Bank migrates international branches to Avaloq Banking Suite
New York, Singapore, and Shanghai all switch to Avaloq system.
ATB Financial’s Holbrook steps down as chief transformation officer
He had been at the Canadian firm for nine years.
Hong Kong’s sustainable finance start-up MioTech closes Series A funding
The start-up wants to expand its presence in Singapore and Mainland China.
Chinese regulator opens market access for foreign banks
CIRBC unveils rejigged rules to encourage foreign investment in Chinese market.
China suspends London-Shanghai exchange partnership
The rumoured order comes amid rising political tensions.
China’s fintech scene started late but trumps US, says Baidu’s fintech arm
Du Xiaoman Financial talks fintech and AI in China.
Hong Kong’s fintech WeLab raises $156 million to launch WeLab Bank in 2020
Backers included Alibaba’s Hong Kong Entrepreneurs Fund and China Construction Bank.
Ant Financial to raise $1 billion fund for Southeast Asian and India start-ups
The fund is for payments and online finance start-ups.
China gears up digital yuan with potential digitisation of ID cards ahead of 2020 launch
Now the central bank could be entering phase two of its project.
How paytech helps the gaming world tap the under-banked populations
Paysafecard and G2 Esports reveal how paytech taps underbanked gamers.
China’s Ant Financial is actively looking for Singapore banking licence
The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) has five licences on offer.
Tencent-backed Yeahka seeks $300m in Hong Kong IPO
The company aims to seek a listing hearing as soon as February.
BRICS nations aiming for common payment system
Russian official says the association is looking to reduce reliance on USD.
Sberbank CTO: Banks are ‘no less’ fintech than tech upstarts
“We [the banks] are fintechs,” says Sberbank’s CTO
Alipay aims for integration with 10m European SMEs by 2024
Chinese payments firm continues its acceptance march in Europe.
Israel’s anti-fraud fintech Riskified reaches unicorn status with $165m fundraising
The round was led by General Atlantic.
Alipay launches prepaid card for international visitors
Prepaid card scheme for international visitors is a first for the giant Chinese payment firms.
German bank association fires shots at Libra, calls on politicians and central banks for digital euro
The association wants a crypto led by European commercial banks and politicians.
How to provide customers from China with a habitual and convenient service
An official account is the first step for a company towards the Chinese audience.
Natwest, Nationwide and RBS pull banking apps from Google Play for Samsung S10 users
The S10’s fingerprint feature glitch means it can be unlocked by anyone.
India’s fintech Paytm in talks with T Rowe Price for $1 billion funding round
Existing investors SoftBank and Ant Financial are also expected to participate.
China to ditch some foreign ownership limits next year as trade-war concession
Limits to be scrapped for securities, futures and fund management firms next year.
PayPal is first foreign company to nab Chinese payments licence
Acquisition of GoPay gives PayPal a way into the Chinese market
Beijing’s digital currency drives Chinese fintech stocks skyward
China’s fintechs have seen share price rises of up to 200%.
Sibos 2019: Watch out for Asian big techs like Alipay, Accenture warns banks
Bigtechs have been quietly accumulating lots of data.
Sibos 2019: London could be “centre of the world” for RMB
HKEX CEO says stock exchange merger will boost UK capital
JD.com fintech affiliate launches new digital wallet in Thailand
JD Digits has partnered with Central Group to launch digital wallet app Dolfin.
Deutsche Bank launches first Shanghai innovation hub
The new hub will be the innovation arm of Deutsche Bank in China.
