Hey there fintech friends,

It's time for another dose of the latest and greatest news in the world of money moves! We've got a lot to cover this month, from Ant Group's delayed license application to Airwallex's big expansion to Israel. But don't worry, we promise to keep things light and interesting. So let's dive in!

Enjoy,

Ning

News

• China has released web3 whitepaper titled “Beijing Internet 3.0 White Paper on Innovation and Development (2023)”, which coincides with the forthcoming crypto hub initiative in Hong Kong scheduled for June 1.
• China launched national blockchain center to train half a million specialists.
• Futu and Tiger Brokers have taken down their trading apps in China to comply with the Chinese Securities and Regulatory Commission (CSRC)’s requirements on its cross-border operations in the country. Futu has since announced its expansion to Malaysia.

• Israel has reportedly seized 190 accounts belonging to Binance on suspicion of links to a terrorist organization. In addition, North America markets continue to be challenging for the exchange. Binance is now facing a US probe of possible Russian sanction violations and it has decided to pull out of Canada amid tightened regulation. However, it’s not all bad news as Binance will kick off Japan operations after the acquisition of Sakura Exchange Bitcoin (SEBC).
• China's UnionPay surpasses Visa with the largest market share of debit card transactions.
• Wind, China’s leading financial data provider, is cutting foreign users from access to certain business and economic data due to the government’s new data restriction.

Financing & Acquisition

• ByteDance’s short video app Douyin (Tiktok’s Chinese version) held preliminary talks with Wanda about the acquisition of its digital payment unit 99Bill for about 1 billion yuan ($144 million).
• Ant Group is considering selling its stake in its virtual banking unit in Hong Kong.
• Alibaba Group is exploring a U.S. initial public offering for its international ecommerce unit as part of its restructuring plan.
• HSBC defeated major investors’ Asia Spin-off proposal.
• Bitget Exchange has launched a new Web3 fund as it eyes a Hong Kong license.
• HSBC plans to increase its lending scheme for start-ups to $3 billion to expand its support for new economy companies in Hong Kong and mainland China, after acquiring Silicon Valley Bank's UK unit in March and seeing strong inflows from its clients. Furthermore, it has decided to buy out its China fund management JV partner.
• Hong Kong NFT firm Artifact Labs raises US$3.25 mln in seed round.

Licensing & Regulations

• Ant Group’s application for its financial holding company license in China is being held until the second half of this year or later. The delay is due to the restructuring of China's financial regulatory system and the creation of a new regulatory body that will be responsible for approving Ant Group's application. Meanwhile, its founder Jack Ma joined Tokyo College as a visiting professor.
• Tencent-backed YEAHKA has obtained Money Service Operator (MSO) license from HK.
• Landmark Commerce, an electronic trading company, has acquired a major payment institution (MPI) license from the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS).
• China's state-owned Greenland is planning to apply for a virtual asset trading license in Hong Kong, in addition to having already obtained a digital banking license from Singapore.

Product & Partnership Launches

• Airwallex had a big month:

            - partnered with Expedia to offer discounts to business travelers

            - partnered with MODIFI to launch Global Account Solution for cross-border B2B payments

            - partnered with payments network TrueLayer to offer real-time payments

            - announced expansion to Israel

• Lianlian Global landed a strategic partnership with Worldpay to offer acquiring services in Singapore.
• Alipay+ launched mobile wallet integrations in Thailand.
• Tencent officially launched palm payments in Beijing.

• HSBC launched POS financing for B2B sales to HK-based merchants.
• BNP Paribas (China) and the Bank of China (BOC) plan to launch digital wallet services and promote interbank wallet application of digital yuan.

Interesting Read

• Can Chinese Payment Apps Gain Traction Globally?
• No clarity yet on China’s confused tech crackdown
• A peek into China’s stance on web3