Tag Archives: Payments & Commerce News

Ant Financial, a subsidiary of Chinese tech giant Alibaba Group, has finally reached the testing phase of its business blockchain. The fintech arm of the tech giant, which has been working on a blockchain network created to support small and medium-sized businesses, has commenced its blockchain testing.Blockchain Tech Soon to Go LiveA top official at Ant Financial, Jieli Li who is the senior director of technology and business innovation at the company, stated during the World Blockchain...

E-commerce retailing giant Amazon is planning to expand its reach in the food industry and open a new brand of grocery store. As CNET has reported, a new grocery store will be opened in Woodland Hills, California, in 2020.Amazon spokesperson said:“Amazon is opening a grocery store in Woodland Hills in 2020.”When asked about Whole Foods acquired by Amazon for $13.7 billion in 2017, the company has stated it is going to make a new brand totally different from this network and Amazon Go...

FCA-regulated payment platform Wirex, has announced a new offering for its customers, called the Wirex Visa Travelcard. Making the announcement at the Fintech Festival held in Singapore, the London-based financial services company said that it hopes the card would give its users the much-needed ease required for them to initiate and settle different kinds of transactions using both digital currency and fiat. The travel card is powered by VISA and is accessible and usable for all of the...

Photo: ShutterstockJapanese business and financial services company SBI Holdings Inc. has announced its decision to form a capital and business alliance with Fukushima Bank, to achieve several goals including increasing profitability for financial institutions in general, as well as improving local customer assets and productivity of related companies. The alliance will also see Fukushima Bank incorporating MoneyTap payment app, which is powered by Ripple.The general goal of improving...

M-DAQ, a Singapore-based FinTech startup has added a new feather to its cap by receiving backing from Samsung Venture Investment Corporation. The Korean tech giant’s investment wing has recently joined other investors in M-DAQ’s pre-series D round.As per the Bloomberg report, the FinTech startup’s valuation has doubled to S$500 million, post the Samsung backing. Its previous valuations stood at S$250 million in November 2015.However, the exact amount invested by Samsung hasn’t been disclosed...

During the Singapore Fintech Festival 2019, the biggest fintech event, Mastercard, an American multinational financial services corporation, has announced the launch of Fintech Express. The initiative will allow fintech companies to get access to a wide range of digital-first products, flexible commercial agreements, and support in global licensing. Mastercard has already welcomed the first member to participate in the program – Rapyd, the world’s largest local payments platform..@Mastercard...

Every year on November, 11, the Chinese celebrate the biggest shopping event knows as Singles’ Day. It is always a big deal for the retailing giant Alibaba and legions of other online shoppers, and this year is no exception. Alibaba, that has been promoting the event since 2009, has said that in the first nine hours, sales for the Singles’ Day shopping blitz reached 158.31 billion yuan ($22.63 billion), which is equal to more than half of last year’s record haul for the 24-hour event.Singles’...

Singapore’s central bank – Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) – has recently joined hands with Wall Street giant JP Morgan and Temasek. The partnership aims to build a blockchain-based prototype for cross-border multi-currency payments.The announcement comes just a time when global banking institutions are exploring blockchain and digital currency payments. MAS also said that its blockchain prototype can carry payments in different currencies on the same network. In the official press...

United States’ retail behemoth Walmart has decided to expand its current offerings of financial services by offering money remittance services within its network of nearly 5,000 stores across America. It already has two money transfer services (the Walmart2Walmart and Walmart2World service launched last year) but the retail giant has also decided to power Walmart2World with Ripple‘s partners MoneyGram and Ria.November 4, 2019."@Walmart is announcing the next step in its commitment to help...

The G7 meeting participants state that things like stablecoins including Facebook‘s Libra should be strictly regulated and the risks connected with them are not yet studied well. Per EU lawmaker and a German conservative Markus Ferber:“At the very least, we need a robust regulatory framework to deal with virtual currencies. The (executive EU) Commission has been way too complacent on the issue so far. With the threat of Libra on the horizon, it is time for action now.”The draft text of the...