Asia

Samsung has reached an agreement with an online marketplace for financial products in India that will allow consumers to apply for credit cards and loans through the Samsung Pay app.

Facebook Inc has no plans to offer its Calibra digital wallet services in its largest market, India, the social giant said, just as a top government official expressed skepticism about its newly-announced cryptocurrency Libra.

The U.S. card brands are already pushing Indian regulators to relax their data storage rules, and a new quirk in the country’s tax code creates a battle on an entirely different front.

The latest skepticism to Facebook Inc.’s plans for its new cryptocurrency called Libra comes from India as Asia’s third-largest economy is not keen on allowing the digital currency in the country.

FamilyMart and 7-Eleven Japan are using mobile payment technology to compete with each other and attempt to manage the country's labor shortage.

India’s soaring digital payments market has prompted Mastercard and Visa to increase their investments in India, targeting one of the world’s largest cash displacement opportunities while complying with local regulations such as expensive data store requirements.

Banks are rightly focused on PSD2 as an international gateway for fintechs to disrupt banking, though potential deregulation in Singapore can give digital payment companies another route to take share directly away from banks.

Facebook grabbed the spotlight this week with the announcement of its Libra cryptocurrency initiative, and its list of high-profile supporters suggests that it's the only game in town. But banks have their own projects in the works.

Spanish bank BBVA and duty-free travel retailer Dufry are partnering to accept mobile payments from China's WeChat Pay at the Madrid airport.

Singapore ride-hailing giant Grab held talks to acquire payments provider 2C2P Pte and was turned down, according to people familiar with the matter, a sign of the ambitions Southeast Asia’s most valuable startup has in financial services.