Asia

European mobile wallet providers Bluecode, ePassi, Momo pocket, Pagaqui, Pivo, and Vipps are working together with China's Alipay for the first time to promote a unified, interoperable QR code that would connect Europe's current fragmented mobile payment landscape.

China UnionPay is assembling the relationships it needs to directly issue cards in Europe, but local saturation suggests UnionPay’s best bet is to use European merchant relationships to counter its own domestic rivals in China rather than disrupting Visa and Mastercard.

The Federal Communications Commission is expected to consider changes that would allow consumers to block calls from numbers not on their contacts list while the House should vote to extend the National Flood Insurance Program.

One credit union economist says tit-for-tat on tariffs could slow economic growth but will not result in an economic downturn.

While the European Union positions itself as one common, homogeneous market, the reality is that the European e-commerce market is very diverse with both leaders and laggards.

The new initiative could help expose American credit unions to best practices in biometrics, payments and monitoring collateral from their counterparts in Africa, Asia and beyond.

Tencent Holdings Ltd. reported the slowest pace of sales growth since it went public in 2004, as China’s largest company struggles to revive a battered gaming division while battling the country’s decelerating economy.

Japanese credit card brand JCB is working with Viva Wallet to build its merchant base in Europe as part of its ongoing expansion to new global markets.

Visa and Mastercard are driving digital transactions by financially empowering women in emerging markets who are unbanked but manage their families’ spending. The card networks are particularly targeting women in gig economy jobs and women-owned businesses.

"If you gathered the U.S.-based senior counsels of the major Chinese banks operating in the United States," said Joseph Loffredo, assistant general manager and chief financial officer at the New York branch of China Merchants Bank, "you'd find one outlier, a lady about half the age of most of the others."