Hello fintech friends,

Tomorrow is Lunar New Year’s Eve. Happy Year of Dragon to you all! 

2024 definitely didn’t start quietly, a lot have happened with Chinese fintechs. Read along and please feel free to contact me if you have any feedback for me!

Yours,

Ning

Licensing & Regulations 

• Chinese regulators have decided to revise its AML rules to include crypto transactions. 
• ICBC received a fine of USD 32 million from the New York State Department of Financial Services (NYDFS).

Financing, Investment & Acquisition 

• Ant Group is finalizing a $200 million deal to acquire Dutch payments firm MultiSafepay, a company providing income and expenditure services to over 18,000 SMBs. 
• SHEIN is seeking Chinese regulator’s approval for its US IPO and now it is being held for cybersecurity review.
• DBS Group plans to increase its ownership in China’s Shenzhen Rural Commercial Bank from 13% to 16.69%, which involves a new acquisition of approximately US$285 million worth of shares. 
• Hong Kong-based fintech FundPark has secured a USD 250 million private loan with Goldman Sachs. 
• Airwallex plans to IPO in 2026.
• Lianlian Payments resubmitted its IPO application to the Hong Kong Stock Exchange. They submitted their last application in June 2034.
• HashKey, the operator of one of the two Hong Kong-licensed crypto exchanges, raised $100 million at a $1.2 billion valuation.
• Alibaba Group is looking to sell several consumer sector assets, including grocery business Freshippo and retailer RT-Mart. 

Product & Partnership Launches 

• Airwallex has partnered with 1688 (Alibaba’s wholesale platform) to enable buyers to make direct purchases on-site. 
• Singapore-based fintech Aleta Planet partnered with Alipay to serve the surging payment needs from Chinese tourists. It also just announced a partnership with AXS to launch a remittance service to China. 
• National Bank of Oman (NBO) has announced a strategic partnership with UnionPay to introduce contactless payments in the region. 
• NayaPay has partnered with Alipay+ to improve digital payment system in Pakistan. 
• Dubai Duty Free has partnered with Alipay+.
• Card payment provider Octopus plans to expand digital payment in HK taxis to enable UnionPay, Alipay and AlipayHK. 
• Citigroup announced a delay in the launch of its China investment bank because it needs more time to comply with China’s data laws and requirements. 

Other News 

• Chinese regulators took actions to stabilize the stock market, including injecting sovereign funds. Additionally, China replaced Yi Huiman with Wu Qing as the head of the China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC).
• JD.com won anti-trust case against its main rival, Alibaba with a USD 141 million damage. 
• Tencent CEO Pony Ma told fintech unit to reduce share in Chinese payments market to avoid challenging banks.
• Airwallex appointed Nadav Tamam to lead its enterprise business in Israel and the Middle East.

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