Asia

Japan’s Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group Inc. is investing more than $700 million in Southeast Asian ride-hailing giant Grab, gaining access to millions across the region that use the mobile app to book cars and meals.

Mastercard Inc. won approval to set up a bank card clearing business in China, gaining access to a $27 trillion payments market as part of the nation’s financial opening, though more regulatory steps will be required.

The timing couldn’t be worse for ag and energy lenders as well as global banks, which were all counting on the Chinese market to help bolster commercial lending and fee income.

Stock markets have endured dramatic swings since the coronavirus erupted in China and talks of pandemics surfaced. But the notoriously volatile bitcoin market has been steadily climbing as investors see value in crypto's ability to thrive as traditional financial rails are under pressure.

Competition between hundreds of national and global payment systems forces everybody to continually adapt, up their games, culling weaker and underperforming systems and inviting the search for better mouse traps, says Intrepid Ventures' Eric Grover.

Progress in the trade war is welcome news for Mastercard’s ambitions in China, though the coronavirus jeopardizes the rosy outlook.

Starbucks has invested heavily in building its business and payment technology in China, so the coronavirus weighs on an otherwise strong strong earnings performance.

Mastercard will financially back Indian merchant commerce platform Pine Labs' embrace of multi-channel installment financing as a payment option in addition to cards.

Projects in both countries are picking up steam and serving as an example to the rest of the world, says ACI Worldwide's Craig Ramsey.

In a move to increase the security of card transactions, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) is requiring all advanced features such as contactless to be turned off for new and re-issued cards until the user opts-in.