Asia

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.

Countries all over the world are embracing faster payment processing, and Di Challenor is one of the major forces behind the movement in Australia.

Japan’s financial regulator ordered further improvements at embattled cryptocurrency exchange Coincheck Inc. and penalized six others, including one operated by publicly listed GMO Internet Inc.

Sentbe, a South Korean international money-transfer company, is expanding its payout options and market reach in a partnership with the mobile cross-border payments network TransferTo.

Ripple, the U.S. digital payments company, is working with 61 Japanese banks on an application that will enable customers to settle cash transfers instantly around the clock, the latest effort to apply blockchain technology in finance.

Ant Financial’s Alipay is working with the Canadian payments processor Motion Pay Technology to push Ant's geographic reach in North America.

Ant Financial, which operates China's popular Alipay wallet, has a plan for the U.S. that goes beyond its abandoned purchase of MoneyGram.

Wirecard has partnered with SES-imagotag, which makes electronic shelf-labeling systems, for a new technology enabling consumers to buy products directly from store shelves with their smartphones.