Ant Group

China's Ant Financial Group, the company behind Alipay, was among eight companies that EMV standards governing body EMVCo has named as technical associates to its secure-payment consortium.

Alipay is chasing Chinese tourists to Japan, where it’s signing up a growing number of retailers and eyeing the long-term potential of the nation’s $45 billion digital payments market.

Almost 10,000 merchants in Hong Kong and Macau will offer discounts throughout December to Alipay users from Mainland China. Merchants in India, Thailand, and other markets will also participate.

Successful mobile payment players such as Starbucks, Alipay and WeChat Pay all rely on optical scanning technology rather than NFC to execute payments. It's time the rest of the industry take note, writes Maikki Frisk, executive director of the Mobey Forum.

National Payment Corp. of Vietnam (NAPAS) and Ant Financial Services have signed a memorandum of understanding for a strategic partnership extending acceptance of Ant’s Alipay wallet to Vietnam.

India’s push to build a broad biometrics-based consumer identity database—now 1 billion strong—has been a boon to Paytm and other mobile payments providers leveraging Unified Payments Interface (UPI), the open-architecture structure supported by India’s government.

Chinese tourists visiting the U.S. may begin paying cab fares via Alipay this month in Las Vegas and next month in New York through an expanded acceptance deal with Verifone.

Competition between card networks, tech titans Facebook and Google, Chinese fintech proxies Paytm and Hike, and M-Pesa will be fierce, and offer signs how other large emerging payments markets may evolve, writes Eric Grover, a principal at Intrepid Ventures.

Alipay has entered agreements with Nordic trade and tourism institutions to further enable merchants in that region to accept payments from Chinese customers through Alipay's in-app marketing program.

Menusifu receives a $3 million round to boost a system that integrates with Alipay and WeChat Pay, enabling Chinese travelers to make direct payments with renminbi from Chinese bank accounts and digital wallets.

Alipay has worked with First Data, Verifone, Ingenico and others to connect with merchants in North America, but more as a service for Chinese travelers than a direct competitor to existing payment providers.

The preparations underscore the trouble Chinese buyers face in persuading the panel that investigates foreign acquisitions to greenlight takeovers.

Chinese tourists visiting Malaysia can now use their Alipay mobile wallet at all 242 Starbucks locations in the country.

China's Alipay already has broad global reach—its mobile wallet is accepted at more than 100,000 retail locations in 70 international markets—but in North America it’s just getting started.

Alipay and WeChat Pay have become important drivers in the Chinese economy, putting the central bank in a position to force all third-party payment firms to connect to the new clearinghouse.

MoneyGram’s total revenue declined slightly during the second quarter to $410 million, resulting in flat growth compared to the previous quarter based on constant currency.

Germany-based Payworks is the latest to partner with Ant Financial’s Alipay as it works to expand the base of merchants capable of accepting the popular Chinese online and mobile payments app in Europe.

Ant Financial’s Alipay has formed a partnership with a large Malaysian bank, enabling the bank to advance its own mobile payments services using Alipay’s platform.

On the discussion table: Alipay, Jack Ma, blockchain, AI, building a true digital system, payments, financial inclusion.

Since e-commerce merchants often operate without walls, it makes little sense to operate with borders.