Asia

One of Australia’s largest banks, Westpac, is the first of the country’s biggest four banks to adopt Samsung Pay, expanding customers’ contactless mobile payment options.

Future Retail Ltd., India’s biggest department store chain that gained from the government’s surprise currency clampdown, still has room to extend the rally that’s more than doubled its market value this year.

Jack Ma’s Ant Financial Services Group has deep enough pockets to win the bidding war against Euronet Worldwide for MoneyGram, but money may not be the deciding factor in this deal.

Despite some mixed signals, the Chinese government has shown a willingness to loosen restrictions on imports. That would be good news for international payments players.

Companies that allow merchants to quickly set up card acceptance through mobile technology are rushing to fill a void in the Indian market following the country's dramatic shift in cash policy.

Australian regulations recently denied banks the right to negotiate with Apple Inc. to directly add Apple Pay to their digital apps, but the victory may do little for Apple, considering consumers in the country appear to have little interest in using mobile wallets.

As more of China's citizens engage in travel and commerce across the nation's borders, more companies want to help them pay and collect money. Many of China's dominant payment brands are extending their reach globally, but U.S. and European companies are also focused on this audience.

Singapore-based ride-sharing company Grab is looking to expand its reach in Indonesia through its acquisition of Kudo, an e-commerce platform for unbanked consumers who would be unable to use Grab's own digital payment platform.

For London-based fintech provider Tramonex, seeing so many Chinese tourists visiting the U.K. meant a chance to join the success of WeChat Pay. But how to accomplish this was less clear.

There's been a lot of funding flowing into technology that targets the spending of Chinese travelers as they visit other countries. But this narrow use case isn't the only opportunity for investment and innovation.