China

This Month in Fintech - China (December 23’)

Jack Ma, founder of Alipay. Photo: Reuters

Happy New Year, Fintech friends!

I hope you had a wonderful New Year celebration and are ready for a Chinese fintech news briefing!

December was not a quiet month: Alipay's IPO seems to have finally seen some light, and TikTok strikes back in Indonesia with a huge investment. China is tightening regulations on non-bank payment providers while relaxing the data transferring rules with Hong Kong for fintechs. Lazada received more funding from Alibaba but still saw the need to make staff cuts.

There's a lot to cover, so let's dive in. Enjoy the read, and remember to leave me a comment if you want to join the conversation!

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Licensing & Regulations

China's central bank has approved the restructuring of Ant Group's Alipay, clearing the way for its delayed IPO. Founder Jack Ma's voting rights were reduced from 53.46% to 6.21% as part of the overhaul.
China issued new rules to increase the supervision over non-bank payment providers. This is to prevent fund misappropriation and financial crimes while ensuring transparent fee structures and consumer data protection for these platforms.
Hong Kong and mainland China have announced the launch of a pilot scheme to enable easier cross-border data transfers in the Greater Bay Area in an unprecedented move. The first phase will involve the banking, credit referencing and healthcare sectors. This is expected to greatly reduce the compliance costs for cross-border enterprises.
The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) suspended non-bank and non-card remittance routes to China.
TNG Digital Wallet was fined by Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) for failing to fulfill anti-money laundering and counter-terrorist financing measures.
China is developing a plan known as the "One Province, One Policy" to tackle financial risk. This plan will allow provinces to tailor the central government’s policies to handle financial risks.

Financing, Investment & Acquisition

TikTok announced its return to Indonesia with $1.5 billion Tokopedia investment. Earlier this year, TikTok Shop was forced to close its new e-commerce services in Indonesia due to the government’s ban.
Alibaba added an additional $630m to Lazada to address the rising competition from TikTok, Sea. Lazada also initiated a round of layoffs less than a month later, affecting all functions and countries.
Shein has applied to IPO in the US.

Product & Partnership Launches

Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) and the Bank of Thailand have announced the launch of a new cross-border payment service “FPS x PromptPay QR Payment”, which allows HongKongers travelling to Thailand to use the Faster Payment System (FPS) to make payments up to a daily limit of HK$10,000. HSBC will be the exclusive settlement bank in Hong Kong.
The central banks of Singapore and China agreed to partner on cross border CBDC payment acceptance.
Airwallex became the official payment partner of WooCommerce and Coupang
Citcon has partnered with Alipay+ to offer international e-wallet payments for retail merchants across the US.
UnionPay and Cambodia Central Bank launched QR code payment.
Citigroup has announced a delay in developing a wholly-owned securities business in China in order to comply with the country’s data laws.