Fintech

Jack Ma’s Ant Financial Services Group has deep enough pockets to win the bidding war against Euronet Worldwide for MoneyGram, but money may not be the deciding factor in this deal.

Leaked documents appear to show NSA analysts were able to hack into Middle Eastern banks’ servers through the Swift service bureau EastNets. The same tools could conceivably be used by cybercriminals and nation-states with more sinister motives.

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.

A review of activity that long ago would not shed additional light on the scope of misconduct in Wells Fargo's retail banking unit, CFO John Shrewsberry said in an interview.

Earnings season kicked off with some banks capitalizing better than others on higher rates and still-low deposit costs. Banks will have to keep working on that balance as they contend with rising credit card losses, slower commercial lending and other issues.

Google can make up ground on its rivals with its new bank collaboration. But it will need help to expand the strategy quickly.

The service will start with transfers to India and the Phillipines, though Remitly plans to add more recipient countries in the near future.

Efforts to combine mobile wallets and loyalty programs have had mixed success over the years, but many companies are undeterred. Here are a few that are working to find the right mix of technologies.

South Africa doesn't rank as high on Mastercard's mobile readiness rankings as some other countries, but a need for convenience and security is drawing more attention to the channel, particularly among the young.

Despite some mixed signals, the Chinese government has shown a willingness to loosen restrictions on imports. That would be good news for international payments players.