China


Payments: how the West will be copying the East

Payments industry practitioners in the European Union are understandably obsessed with the implications of the revised Payment Services Directive (PSD2). This was evident at the recent European Payments Summit, held in the Netherlands, where PSD2 dominated many of the discussions.

WeChat Wants to Grow Payments in U.S. and Europe

WeChat is on the move again. The China-based social messaging and mobile wallet platform plans to expand its presence in Europe and the U.S., efforts that could bring it better relationships with advertisers, brands and payment providers.

China’s CredEX Fintech lending app surges past $4.3bn mark

China-based CredEX Fintech says its mobile lending app’s total credit extended has exceeded CNY 30 billion ($4.3 billion) since its launch ten months ago. According to the firm, its user base has gone beyond five million, daily credit has been extended up to CNY 100 million ($14.4 million), and the average credit extended stands at […]

China’s Chained Finance brings blockchain boost to SME funding

Chinese fintech firms Dianrong and FnConn have launched Chained Finance, the “first-ever” blockchain platform for supply chain finance. According to the pair, supply chain finance companies have been limited by existing technology and, to date, have only served about 15% of suppliers needing financial resources. They claim the vast majority of the 40 million SMEs […]

Standard Chartered China teams with Tencent FiT for e-commerce solution

Standard Chartered China is partnering with Tencent Financial Technology Group (Tencent FiT) to launch a new e-commerce solution for corporates. The deal makes Standard Chartered the “first global bank to offer a one-stop online collection solution with WeChat Pay” and combines its cash management offering with the online payment gateway. The bank says it can […]

Haier Finance opts for Bloomberg’s FX electronic trading platform

China-based Haier Finance has adopted Bloomberg’s foreign exchange (FX) electronic trading platform (FXGO) and multi-asset risk system (MARS) for trading and risk management. Bloomberg FXGO provides access to liquidity from over 300 providers worldwide and commission-free trading for financial institutions, corporations, money managers and hedge funds across “all major” FX instruments including spot, forwards, options, […]

Citi analyses VC investments in fintech for fresh insights

Citi’s global perspectives and solutions team has issued a 100-page report on digital disruption in the fintech industry. It has analysed venture capital (VC) investments in the fintech industry between 2010 and 2016, as well as the emerging technologies across the globe.

The Monday mindset: 16 January 2017

Fintech zeitgeist! Welcome to the first in a new series of brief reports. Every Monday, we might look back at last week; look ahead to this week; share a few thoughts (our own or others); or discuss anything that catches our eye. Anything goes, so here goes. Rome versus Carthage. Britain versus France. History shows […]

Shanghai Prepaid Card Association blacklists 20 merchants

The Shanghai Prepaid Card Association is warning consumers about buying prepaid cards from certain merchants because of “malpractice in managing their prepaid card schemes”, reports Paybefore. According to an announcement on Shanghai’s municipal Website, the notice includes a blacklist of 20 companies in Shanghai for committing various infractions. The association is urging consumers to quickly […]

Bolero powers Bank of China’s first-ever electronic credit

Bank of China (Hong Kong) (BOCHK) has used Bolero’s ePresentation solution for its first-ever electronic back-to-back documentary credit, reducing the time required to help a large iron ore shipment from Australia to China. The transaction was arranged jointly with NAB (National Australia Bank) and China Guangfa Bank.

East West Bancorp deploys cloud-based risk solutions from SS&C

East West Bancorp is implementing SS&C’s integrated risk and finance solution, Evolv, to manage reserving under current US GAAP and new CECL accounting standards. The solution is delivered in the cloud. The contract was signed with Primatics Financial, a subsidiary of SS&C. “Preparation for CECL is critical for our business,” Sharon Cheung, controller at East […]

Commerzbank processes first live BPO between Germany and China

Commerzbank has processed its first transaction settled by a bank payment obligation (BPO) between Germany and China. The BPO covers the export of chemicals between Commerzbank’s customer (the buyer), Trigon Chemie in Germany. The seller is an unnamed customer of Industrial and Commercial Bank of China in Beijing. Trade business between the two was previously […]

Chinese tourism inspires Ingenico and Alipay payment partnership

Payments provider Ingenico has partnered with Alipay to give Chinese tourists visiting Europe the ability to pay via their Alipay app at any store using the Ingenico solution. With this partnership, Alipay will be imbedded into Ingenico’s in-store payment gateway, which will allow acquirers across Europe to integrate and offer Alipay acceptance to their merchants. […]

China: where the digital payments action is

Earlier this year a couple of surveys were released indicating that the real action in digital payments is in China. This shouldn’t be surprising: China’s economy continues to grow (despite doomsayers predicting a coming “crash” for at least a decade) and the Chinese government is investing billions into science and technology. The fruits of this […]

MasterCard to apply for payment licence in China

MasterCard plans to become a payment service provider in China, according to Reuters. It is still pondering whether to do so alone or with a partner, it is understood. Ann Cairns, president of international markets at MasterCard, told Reuters that China is “pretty crucial” to MasterCard’s future, but the company is still “trying to understand […]

Taiwan Business Bank expands contract with Wolters Kluwer

Wolters Kluwer’s regulatory reporting platform, OneSumX, will be used by the Chinese branch of Taiwan Business Bank. With the need for enhanced regulatory reporting to the China Banking Regulatory Commission (CBRC), the bank required “scalable solution to meet the new standards”, the vendor says. These include the CBRC’s requirements for Basel III & Foreign Asset […]

Visa and MasterCard could get access to $8.4tn Chinese card payment market

China will let foreign payment card firms operate in the country under rules issued on 7 June, according to Reuters. The announcement gives Visa and MasterCard the opportunity to tap into a CNY 55 trillion ($8.4 trillion) card payment market. Both companies have been lobbying for more than ten years for direct access to China’s […]

Chinese choose ICAP for $65m trading platform revamp

China Foreign Exchange Trade System (CFETS), the nation’s official inter-bank market trading platform and infrastructure provider, has chosen ICAP in a $65 million deal. The technology for fixed income and foreign exchange (FX) electronic execution services in mainland China will be delivered by EBS BrokerTec, ICAP’s electronic FX and fixed income business. The deal, valued […]

Saxo Bank partners with China’s Lufax for trade finance

Saxo Bank has formed a new white label partnership with Lufax, a Chinese internet finance company. The partnership, expected to launch within the next three months, will see Lufax use the trading technology SaxoTraderGO. The bank says SaxoTraderGO will provide Lufax’s clients access across the trade cycle – from pre-trade, execution and post-trade services for […]

Sydney Stock Exchange develops blockchain settlement system

Sydney Stock Exchange (SSX, formerly Asia Pacific Stock Exchange) is building a settlement system based on the distributed ledger technology. Specialist consultancy firm Bit Trade Labs is assisting with the project. To begin with, the new blockchain system will be used to settle trades in private companies, but SSX hopes that once the regulator grants […]

Samsung Pay launches in China

Samsung Electronics and China UnionPay (CUP) have launched the mobile payment service Samsung Pay in China. The South Korean firm joins Apple in entering the country, as the US giant launched its mobile payment system in China last month. That was also in partnership with state-owned bankcard association CUP. Samsung Pay currently supports credit and […]

Deutsche Bank and Bank of China partner for cash management

Deutsche Bank has become the first foreign bank in China to establish host-to-host connectivity with Bank of China, as part of the project to deliver international cash management (ICM) services to corporate clients. The two banks have implemented an interbank host-to-host platform, with the first customer – Bosch China – already on-board. The project commenced […]

Apple Pay launches in China

Apple has launched its mobile payment system in China today, in partnership with state-owned bankcard association, China UnionPay. The company will face tough competition, but it received good news this week when Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC) said its customers would be able to use Apple Pay. In an interview with Reuters, Jennifer […]

Deutsche Bank delivers ERP integration for Bosch in China

Deutsche Bank has implemented an electronic enterprise resource planning (ERP) integration solution for Bosch’s foreign currency and renminbi (RMB) cross-border payments in China. Headquartered in Germany, Bosch is a global supplier of technology and services. The company’s operations are divided into four business sectors – automotive technology, industrial technology, consumer goods, as well as energy […]

BAML launches China cross-border cash pool in Shanghai

Bank of America Merrill Lynch has launched an automated US dollar cross-border cash pooling services for corporations operating in the Shanghai Free Trade Zone. ZF TRW, a division of ZF Friedrichshafen, manufacturers of automobile safety systems, has implemented the working capital solution and is serving as the pilot client.

Deutsche Börse in tripartite deal to create new Chinese exchange

Deutsche Börse strengthened its links with mainland China this week with the establishment of a partnership with the Shanghai Stock Exchange and China Financial Futures Exchange to create new marketplace for the trading of renminbi-denominated offshore products under the new brand of the China Europe International Exchange.

European stock markets plan Shanghai links

Closer links between the Shanghai Stock Exchange and UK and European exchanges may be on the cards. The London and Shanghai exchanges are exploring a scheme to link their markets. At the same time, European exchange group Euronext announced a deal with the Shanghai Stock Exchange to promote its listed members to Chinese investors.

Reforms needed to build on Shanghai-Hong Kong Stock Connect success

The Shanghai-Hong Kong Stock Connect link has made significant in-roads in the opening of China’s capital markets to international trading but barriers to participation, including restricted trading strategies, introduce risk and create operational complexity. The long-term success of the venture hinges on removing these barriers, according to a study carried out for the DTCC.

RMB breaks into top five world payments currencies

The Chinese renminbi has become one of the world’s top five payments currencies, according to new figures released by Swift. The currency, first introduced to foreign investors in 2007, overtook the Canadian dollar and the Australian dollar in the last two months of 2014 to reach the top five.

China opens up A-shares market as RMB gains traction

A landmark deal between China’s Hong Kong and Shanghai stock exchanges is set to open up unrestricted access to the China A-shares market to foreign investors for the first time, starting this month. The deal also reflects the rising internationalisation of the Chinese renminbi currency worldwide.

Europe surging ahead in RMB internationalisation

Europe now represents 10% of total Renminbi payments in value worldwide and is leading adoption beyond Asian countries, with four European countries in the top 10, excluding China and Hong Kong, according to Swift. Overall, the RMB strengthened its position as the seventh most used global payments currency and accounted for 1.57% of global payments.

Hong Kong gets set for China Connect

Firms in Hong Kong are ramping up system roll-outs in anticipation of the forthcoming Shanghai-Hong Kong Stock Connect, scheduled to go live in mid-October.
But the proposed link will face a number of problems,

China moves cautiously towards options market launch this year

As China prepares to open an options market for the first time later this year, big changes are afoot in Asia’s biggest market. French trading technology specialist Horizon Software talks to Banking Technology about the kind of tools that will be needed to liberalise the Chinese economy.