Hi friends,

Happy Monday! Welcome to the latest edition of our This Month in Chinese Fintech newsletter.

I promise to keep this short but information-packed. In this issue, we will cover the significant fine imposed on Alipay and Tencent, Binance's ongoing regulatory and operational challenges, as well as the exciting new products and partnerships by companies like Flywire and Airwallex.

Alrighty, without further ado, let's dive in!

Best regards,

Ning

Venture Financing & Acquisition 

• Binance Labs invested $15M in Web3 gaming startup Xterio.
• Sequoia’s China unit is opening an office in Singapore to use it as a base for investing in Southeast Asia. 
• SUNRATE closed its Series D-2 funding round, led by Sequoia Capital Southeast Asia.

Licensing & Regulations

• Binance’s operations in Nigeria were declared illegal by the SEC;  but the company obtained an operational license in Dubai.
• China imposed fines exceeding 10 billion Yuan on Ant Group, Tencent, and other fintech companies, marking the end of the tech crackdown. Ant Group announced a share buyback following the hefty fine, resulting in a valuation of $78.5 billion, significantly lower than the anticipated $315 billion from the abandoned 2020 IPO. The buyback allows certain investors to exit, while Alibaba Group, its parent company, has chosen not to participate.
• Pan Gongsheng has been appointed as the new governor of the People's Bank of China (PBOC), signaling the government's concerns about financial stability.

Product & Partnership Launches 

• Touch 'n Go Group saw success in China's e-payments market through its partnership with Ant Group.
• Tencent partnered with Flywire to streamline the overseas payment process for students. 
• The National Bank of Cambodia (NBC) and UnionPay International signed an agreement to enable payments between tourists from both countries. 
• Alipay and Tencent started accepting foreign credit cards. 
• South Korea’s Naver Pay announced plans for strategic expansion into the Chinese market. 
• Brex is using Airwallex's local currency collection service to facilitate its global expansion plans. 
• PingPong introduced Currentz SaaS, a payments-as-a-platform product, to help financial institutions easily launch their own payment services.

Other News 

• Binance suspended deposit and withdrawal services for certain Multichain-bridged tokens. The company also experienced layoffs, with over 1,000 employees affected, and an exodus of executives.
• David Messenger was appointed as the CEO of International Business at PingPong. He previously served as the CEO of Lianlian Global, one of PingPong's direct competitors in China.
• OCBC is betting on Greater China to contribute significantly to its long-term growth. 

Interesting Read

• Why a growing number of Chinese investors are looking to Africa’s tech space