Ant Group

Stripe will collaborate with WeChat and Alipay to make it easier for merchants around the world to accept payments from Chinese consumers.

Consumers using the Alipay app will be able to find nearby merchants that accept the popular Chinese mobile wallet, and receive coupons for local deals.

Chinese tourists visiting Spain will be able to shop at Spanish stores using their Alipay mobile wallets through an agreement between BBVA Group and Ant Financial Services, the Alibaba affiliate that operates Alipay.

Ant Financial's Alipay, the payments affiliate of Alibaba, broke into the U.S. last year through a deal with First Data, and now it's expanding in Canada—alongside Tencent's WeChat—through partnerships orchestrated by Canadian tourism authorities.

Pizza Hut has played a large role in building China's middle class. It's also a major cog in Ant's investment in Yum China.

The Trump administration must weigh risks to national security in its review of the $1.2 billion deal. Its decision will shed light on whether — given the president’s “America First” rhetoric — Chinese investment is still welcome in the U.S. financial services sector.

Collaboration has now become a constant theme in the payments industry, where longtime enemies are putting aside their differences to survive in the fast-paced digital world.

Ant Financial, China’s largest provider of internet financial services, will continue investing in mobile-payment providers around the world to boost offshore revenue and buttress itself from rising competition and tighter regulation at home.

MoneyGram’s stockholders have voted to approve a deal to be purchased by China’s Ant Financial for $1.2 billion.

Alipay's big partnership with First Data will extend its merchant base, but travelers from China will benefit before U.S. consumers.

Alipay wants to leverage the millions of Chinese customers who travel abroad by offering them services in different parts of the world.

Ant Financial raised its agreed offer for MoneyGram International Inc. by 36 percent as the financial-services company controlled by Chinese billionaire Jack Ma tries to top a competing offer and overcome security concerns.

As more of China's citizens engage in travel and commerce across the nation's borders, more companies want to help them pay and collect money. Many of China's dominant payment brands are extending their reach globally, but U.S. and European companies are also focused on this audience.

China-based Ant Financial is preparing to fight for MoneyGram despite a rival bid from Euronet Worldwide, based on signals the company sent today in an open letter to the money-transfer company’s management, employees and customers.

Ant Financial said it’s considering whether to make a higher offer for U.S. money-transfer firm MoneyGram International Inc., after that company said an unsolicited takeover bid by a smaller, little-known rival could be a better deal.

JD.com Inc. agreed to sell its finance arm for 14.3 billion yuan ($2.1 billion) in cash while retaining a share of its future profits, part of a deal to spin off the fast-growing division and create a strong rival to billionaire Jack Ma’s Ant Financial.

Ant Financial, the parent of China’s largest online payment service, is seeking to raise less than $3 billion by issuing debt to fund its acquisitions, people familiar with the matter said.

To date, Ant's Alipay has been comparable to PayPal, seldom venturing beyond payments. The financial products Alipay plans to pursue as it enters new markets put it more firmly in direct competition with mainstream banks.

Alipay's deal to buy MoneyGram for $880 million may be the centerpiece of its strategy to expand beyond China's borders, but it's not its first move in recent months. The Alibaba payments affiliate has already extended its reach in several other ways.

The U.S.-to-China payments corridor is one of the biggest in the world, according to the most recent World Bank data. It is dwarfed only by the U.S.-to-Mexico corridor, which the Trump campaign targeted as part of its border wall plan.