China

The most popular payment method in Hong Kong is no longer considered safe by many protesters.

Russia and its BRICS partners are developing cross-border alternatives to U.S.-dominated payments systems such as Swift, driven by the rise in cross-border trade and a desire to find non-dollar alternatives to international payments systems vulnerable to sanctions by the U.S. government.

Merchants outside of China who have the QR code technology to accept Alipay and WeChat Pay are part of a growing trend to serve Chinese tourists who are comfortable paying via their smartphones.

Spanish bank BBVA and duty-free travel retailer Dufry are partnering to accept mobile payments from China's WeChat Pay at the Madrid airport.

European mobile wallet providers Bluecode, ePassi, Momo pocket, Pagaqui, Pivo, and Vipps are working together with China's Alipay for the first time to promote a unified, interoperable QR code that would connect Europe's current fragmented mobile payment landscape.

China UnionPay is assembling the relationships it needs to directly issue cards in Europe, but local saturation suggests UnionPay’s best bet is to use European merchant relationships to counter its own domestic rivals in China rather than disrupting Visa and Mastercard.

The Federal Communications Commission is expected to consider changes that would allow consumers to block calls from numbers not on their contacts list while the House should vote to extend the National Flood Insurance Program.

One credit union economist says tit-for-tat on tariffs could slow economic growth but will not result in an economic downturn.

While the European Union positions itself as one common, homogeneous market, the reality is that the European e-commerce market is very diverse with both leaders and laggards.

Tencent Holdings Ltd. reported the slowest pace of sales growth since it went public in 2004, as China’s largest company struggles to revive a battered gaming division while battling the country’s decelerating economy.

"If you gathered the U.S.-based senior counsels of the major Chinese banks operating in the United States," said Joseph Loffredo, assistant general manager and chief financial officer at the New York branch of China Merchants Bank, "you'd find one outlier, a lady about half the age of most of the others."

As threats from nimble fintechs and global e-commerce companies abound, Visa’s turning to open development tools to place itself in the middle of the innovation, rather than making a solitary counterplay itself.

SnapPay has grown rapidly in its role as an acquirer and payments gateway for Chinese mobile payment acceptance in North America, and it is ready to show merchants the next step.

Alipay Financial Services’ Hong Kong unit is collaborating with McDonald’s, enabling consumers to order and pay for items at the fast-food chain within the AlipayHK wallet.

China signaled its intent to ban cryptocurrency mining, dealing a fresh blow to an industry buffeted by tumbling virtual currency prices, stiff competition and waning investor interest.

After forming a series of high-profile partnerships with various payments service providers, China's UnionPay International has declared its plan to challenge Visa and Mastercard’s duopoly of the U.K. card industry.

Italian payments provider Axepta-BNL Group is launching the WeChat Pay service to its clients, saying it is the first in the country to offer the popular Chinese mobile payment and social networking app.

Meituan Dianping is reaping the benefits of scale in its core food delivery division as it feels the pain of competition from arch-foe Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. in smaller businesses such as hotel bookings.

Chinese mobile payment apps Alipay and WeChat Pay have made deep inroads into Western markets, and now UnionPay, China’s state-run card network, is catching up.

Wirecard and Cimple Marketing have teamed with Estonia-based cruise ship operator Tallink Grupp to enable shops on its 14 vessels to accept China’s top three payment options.