China’s Ant Financial, an affiliate of Alibaba, is continuing its acquisition spree by purchasing stakes two digital payments firms, including South Korea’s Kakao Pay and the Philippines’ Mynt.
Alipay, Ant’s digital payment service, invested $200 million in Kakao Corp.’s Kakao Pay, a popular South Korean social media portal enabling digital payments, according to Reuters. The move will streamline the payment process for South Koreans shopping on Alibaba.
This month Ant also took a “substantial minority” interest in Mynt, a financial technology company operated by Philippines-based Globe Telecom, which announced the deal on its website Feb. 17.
Ant, which has agreed to buy MoneyGram International for $880 million, recently announced it’s raising $3 billion to fund various acquisitions.
An employee scans a quick response (QR) code displayed on the Ant Financial Services Group's Alipay app, an affiliate of Alibaba Group Holding Ltd., inside a Sa Sa International Holdings Ltd. store in an arranged photograph in Hong Kong, China, on Tuesday, Nov. 1, 2016. The urgency to prepare regulatory environments for fintech is growing as banks begin offering digital services such as biometric authentication and as mobile-payment systems such as Apple Pay and AliPay are introduced around the region. Photographer: Anthony Kwan/Bloomberg
The Ohio-based bank reports a 10% expense reduction within a year of moving its contact center technology to Google Cloud through a partnership with UJET.
Medallion Financial CEO Andrew Murstein sees more growth on the horizon for the New York lender's fintech banking operation, which saw activity spike in the first half of the year.
Truist Foundation will fund a multiyear economic development initiative to revitalize business corridors in five Southeastern cities; First Horizon has hired Wells Fargo's Shaun McDougall to head consumer banking; Ally Financial commits over $150 million to support workforce development; and more in this week's banking news roundup.
