Asia

Trends in China such as mobile payments, omnichannel shopping and social commerce show us what a post-coronavirus world could look like for brands and retailers in the U.S., says Azoya International's Franklin Chu.

The shortage of personal protective equipment (PPE) for medical workers is one of the most troublesome elements of the coronavirus outbreak, though prior work to declutter cross-border supply chain payments provides some hope.

Amazon, Walmart and Facebook are using point of sale credit, deliveries and in-app payments to outflank Paytm in India, honing services that they see as vital to shaping the global economy's recovery.

Mastercard CEO Ajay Banga says he is certain that science, medicine and innovation will lead the world out of the coronavirus pandemic, but there is little indication of when that will happen.

Business payments gateway Cashfree has established new features for its insurance, web aggregator and broker clients in India to streamline policy premium collection, claim settlement and payouts to agents and hospitals.

Commonwealth of Australia (CBA) reports digital wallet users spent a AUS$1 billion (about $630 million) in March 2020, a high for the bank that's part of an acceleration to digital wallets and contactless cards during the coronavirus crisis.

Huawei Pay hopes to benefit from UnionPay's network and scale as it launches in Singapore, a market that already has several large mobile pay apps including Apple Pay.

The coronavirus pandemic has forced Irish fintech Prepaid Financial Services Limited (PFS) to drop its sale price by $117 million to close its deal with EML payments Limited.

Japanese digital wallet provider Kyash has raised $45 million in a fundraiser to expand its mobile offerings to help Japan convert to a cashless society during the coronavirus outbreak.

TransferWise has partnered with Alipay to expand money remittance options for its users to instantly send Chinese yuan to friends and family in China.