Asia

Global testing laboratory FIME is opening its first office in China to meet demand for Chinese payment vendors expanding globally.

India’s income tax officials are investigating transactions at various illegal bitcoin exchanges, a week after the country’s central bank cautioned users of the virtual currency about potential risks.

Almost 10,000 merchants in Hong Kong and Macau will offer discounts throughout December to Alipay users from Mainland China. Merchants in India, Thailand, and other markets will also participate.

One of the world's largest bitcoin exchanges, bitFlyer, has landed in the U.S. with a focus on institutional investors — a move that suggests bitcoin's days as a payments instrument are still a long way off.

Paytm Payments Bank is targeting to become the world’s largest digital bank with 500 million bank accounts and aims to turn into an integrated financial services company that offers everything from wealth management to share trading.

Alibaba Group Holding Ltd.’s $2.9 billion deal to buy a slice of China’s largest hypermart chain pits it against Wal-Mart Stores Inc. in the world’s largest retail arena.

Australia has a high ratio of consumers using contactless payment cards, while mobile payment adoption has lagged because of some large banks’ aversion to supporting Apple Pay and slower uptake in the region for Android Pay.

National Payment Corp. of Vietnam (NAPAS) and Ant Financial Services have signed a memorandum of understanding for a strategic partnership extending acceptance of Ant’s Alipay wallet to Vietnam.

India’s IDFC Bank and local mobile wallet provider MobiKwik are collaborating to provide a virtual prepaid Visa card for nearly 65 million MobiKwik users.

Many companies in the payments realm want to be seen as the next Uber, but Uber's Asian counterpart Grab is working to become something else — the next Octopus.