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 effort to establish rules governing consumers' access to their financial data has been effectively derailed by litigation, moves made by the Trump-era CFPB and JPMorganChase's decision to start charging data aggregators for access to customer data.
Strong loan and deposit growth led to a double-digit increase in revenues and an even bigger jump in profits at the Columbus, Ohio-based regional bank.
Flagstar shareholders approved a plan to merge its holding company into the bank; Huntington tapped a new chief auditor, along with two new business leaders; First Foundation hired a new chief credit officer; and more in this week's banking news roundup.
Approximately three years after the one-time non-depository bought Roscoe (Texas) State Bank, Cornerstone Capital Bancorp agreed to purchase Peoples Bancorp.
Regional banks say their asset quality is solid amid skittish investors. The KBW Nasdaq Regional Banking Index was largely stable Friday after falling by as much as 7% the day before.
