Asia

China’s Alipay mobile wallet is now accepted by airport retailers in the Middle East and Africa through a collaboration between Qatar Airways and Wirecard.

With 1.3 billion people who are mostly unbanked in an economy where 85% to 95% of all transactions are still conducted in cash, few other markets have such an opportunity to modernize payments.

For the U.S., being late to the real-time payments game has some tactical advantages, namely the ability to learn from other countries' successes and failures.

China's declaration on Wednesday that its payments market is now open to foreign companies gives Chinese payments processors an opportunity to grow globally — but it's made similar moves before, with little effect.

China will permit foreign companies to access its $27 trillion payments market, further opening up the world’s second-largest economy.

Alipay already has inroads in Mexico, where its mobile wallet is accepted at some retailers popular with Chinese tourists. Through a partnership with Openpay, it’s expanding Mexican merchants’ access to these transactions in person and online.

Alipay has partnered with FreedomPay and expanded an existing deal with First Data to deepen U.S. merchant acceptance at key destinations for Chinese tourists.

Adyen is working to expand its point-of-sale presence in its push to become an omnichannel payments provider, this week reaching Singapore.

Just 16 months after demonetization forever changed the way Indians pay for things, WhatsApp is set to disrupt the market yet again.

On-demand transportation and mobile payments provider Grab has launched Grab Financial, which will serve as its fintech platform.