Alibaba's Ant Financial payments unit, which operates Alipay, is seeking uses for blockchain as it tries to quadruple its user base in the next ten years.
Eric Jing, Ant Financial's CEO, told
The innovation will drive an aggressive growth plan for Ant Financial's Alipay. Alipay's mobile wallet has about 450 million users, and Ant hopes to expand that to 2 billion in the next decade.
Sens. Ed Markey and Ron Wyden argue that the Small Business Administration neglected to warn small firms of the risks of merchant cash advances and closed off a key "escape route" from the resulting debts.
In a move seen to bolster his 2028 presidential run, California Governor Gavin Newsom named Rohit Chopra, the former director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, to lead a new oversight agency; a Pine Bluff, Arkansas, bank employee was sentenced to 36 months in federal prison for bank theft; a Fairfax, Virginia, security administrator has been charged with allegedly stealing more than $6.6 million from his employer; and more in this week's banking news roundup.
New Federal Reserve stats show most consumers carry and store paper money, even as digital payments become mainstream.
The Mississippi lender's pending acquisition of OFB Bancshares, the parent company of One Florida Bank, offers an entry point into the fast-growing Orlando market.
At some banks, executives are overpromising results and putting tremendous pressure on tech teams, leading to a range of problems.
Fund managers are seeking to change the way banks think about Community Reinvestment Act investing.
