Asia

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.

China’s Ant Financial, which already has a large stake in India’s Paytm and operates its own Alipay wallet in China, is taking a 45% stake in Pakistan’s Telenor Microfinance Bank (TMB).

Ant Financial’s consumer lending has reached at least 600 billion yuan ($95 billion) despite the affiliate of Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. facing a tougher environment for securitizing its loans, people familiar with the matter said.

In India, tens of millions of merchants still operate largely in cash with a mostly unbanked rural population. Technology could solve their problems, but the bigger differentiator may be in how payment services are sold.