Alibaba Receives U.S. Money Transmitter License (May 19, 2015)
Alibaba, the China-based e-commerce giant, appears to be sharpening its focus on the U.S. payments arena. Washington State granted “Alipay U.S. Inc.” a money transmitter license, according to Faisal Khan, a Pakistan-based financial consultant, who discovered the filing via the National Mortgage Licensing System’s public records. The move suggests Alibaba is in the process of applying for similar money transmitter licenses in all 48 states that require them, Khan suggests.
Most existing e-commerce giants, including Google, Amazon and Facebook, already have U.S. money transmitter licenses, Khan notes. Microsoft in March set about obtaining its U.S. money transmitter licenses. The goal of companies filing for these licenses, Khan speculates, could be achieving ubiquity for payments along the lines of PayPal, which built a global money transfer network over several years, including in China.
Alibaba Group Holdings in September 2014 raised $25 billion with its U.S. IPO, the largest global IPO in history.
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