Hello fintech friends,

Here we go again - Please find another week of Chinese fintech news, regulatory updates and product launches below.

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Licensing & Regulations 

• Tiktok’s Chinese sibling Douyin is finalizing the $190m purchase of a payment license from Chinese third-party payment provider Union Mobile Financial (UMF), signaling its ambition to enter the offline payment field. 
• India has decided to defer the approval of Paytm's 500 million rupee ($6 million) investment in its Paytm Payment Services arm, citing security concerns over a Chinese shareholding in the parent company.
• ZTO Pay has completed the filing for its cross-border RMB payment business.
• Payoneer is likely to acquire China’s payment license soon. 
• Allianz has secured regulatory approval for its fund unit in mainland China.

Product & Partnership Launches 

• Binance is looking to return to the Indian market by paying a $2m fine. It also secured a full virtual-asset services provider (VASP) license in Dubai.
• Airwallex has a few exciting launches: 
  • Launched its Borderless Visa Card in Canada, giving Canadian businesses a virtual card issued by Peoples Trust Company. 
  • Expanded payment acceptance products to the US. 
  • Partnered with BILL to help BILL customers make faster international payments. 
  • Was selected to be the official payment partner of Bird, a Dutch communication platform. 
• PingPong Payments launched with TikTok Shop US and UK sites after launching in Southeast Asia. It has also become the exclusive payment partner for B2B ecommerce platform Pietra.
• Ant Group Owned WorldFirst launched a new cross-border payment solution targeting B2B trade. 
• MoneyGram and Tencent Financial Technology announced a new partnership to facilitate digital remittances to users of Weixin Pay wallets throughout China.
• Moomoo, a Singaporean investments platform owned by Futu Holdings of China, announced a global strategic partnership with Nasdaq and also claimed to have acquired over 1m users in three years. 
• Yeepay announced a partnership with SUNRATE to provide more compliant and efficient payment solutions to Chinese firms expanding overseas. 
• Japan's QR payment authority plans to partner with Chinese, Southeast Asian and Indian QR payment systems to launch an interoperable QR payment system by 2025.
• Tencent has simplified the process of registering WeChat accounts and linking them to Weixin Pay for international visitors in China.
• Alipay signed 11 partnerships aiming to create several International Consumer-Friendly Zones in China.
• Checkout.com plans to accelerate growth in China. 

Financing, Investment & Acquisition 

• The People's Bank of China announced a $70 billion re-lending scheme to boost the country's science and tech sectors.

Other News 

• The US has no immediate plan to sanction Chinese banks over Russia. 
• Alibaba co-founder Jack Ma has sent a lengthy internal memo expressing support for the company's restructuring efforts. This is a rare move for the billionaire, who has remained out of the spotlight since his public criticism of Chinese regulators.
• TikTok Shop’s merchant base has exceeded 500,000.  

Other Reads

• Chinese fintech Ant Group targets global growth after Jack Ma’s exit
• Asia Remains Interested In Web3 – For Now
• Report: Middlemen Handle 50% of Russia’s Payments to China

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