As students gear up for back to school, the competition for international tuition payments continues to heat up. Geoswift, UnionPay International and Western Union Business Solutions are offering Amazon gift cards to Chinese students studying in 14 countries that use their service for cross-border tuition payments.
TransferMate, a global B2B payments platform, announced the expansion of its senior management team following its achievement of full U.S. regulatory approval.
With competition for cross-border payments heating up, new data from currency exchange website XE.com show that U.S. residents are transferring money internationally most often to pay bills or for living expenses, followed by travel expenses, mortgage and rental payments, and cash gifts.
With MoneyGram and Western Union betting that Facebook-loving consumers will use “sendbots,” the old guard of remittance providers may have an edge on startups.
China’s Ant Financial Services Group appears to have beat back a surprise challenge by Euronet Worldwide to acquire MoneyGram. After raising its offer for the money transfer giant by more than one-third, to $1.2 billion, Ant’s bid has earned the approval of MoneyGram’s board of directors. But the deal still must win regulatory and shareholder approval before Ant officially acquires MoneyGram and gains a massive foothold in the global remittance market.
Cachet Financial Solutions expects to raise nearly $9.3 million in its public offering this week, according to an SEC filing. The Minneapolis-based financial technology provider and Pay Award winner, which priced its offering at $4.50 per share, plans to use the proceeds for working capital, to pay down debt and other, unspecified purposes.
Ant Financial Services Group, the online and mobile financial services affiliate of Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba Group, has just become a competitive juggernaut in the remittance business with the acquisition of MoneyGram, the second-largest provider of money transfer services based in the U.S. The transaction of approximately $880 million for all of MoneyGram’s common and preferred shares announced Jan. 26, not only helps MoneyGram compete with Western Union, it helps the combined company compete with startups that have been trying to shake up the market for years.
