Jack Ma’s Ant Financial Buys MoneyGram for $880 Million
Ant Financial, the financial technology company controlled by billionaire Jack Ma, stepped up its international expansion by buying U.S. money-transfer service MoneyGram International Inc. The $880 million transaction, Ant’s second U.S. deal, will connect MoneyGram’s network of 2.4 billion bank and mobile accounts with Ant’s customers. Ant, which was once part of Alibaba, is seeking to expand abroad amid increasing competition from Tencent Holdings Ltd.’s Wechat payment system at home. The MoneyGram deal will further that goal, following recent partnerships with Paytm in India and Ascend Money in Thailand. “This gives us a very attractive business that’s already quite engaged with a substantial consumer base in the U.S.,” said Douglas […]
WorldRemit partners with Xpress Money to deliver wider service offering to diaspora communities
Digital money transfer service WorldRemit has partnered with international money transfer brand Xpress Money to open up new remittance routes to 11 countries – including Bangladesh, Pakistan, Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, Vietnam, Jordan, Ethiopia, Uganda, Algeria and Lebanon. The partnership has extended WorldRemit’s footprint into new territories, and is expected to further support the growing demand for instant remittances in these countries. According to the World Bank, remittances play an important role in these economies, contributing significantly to GDP. For example, Pakistan received almost $20 billion in remittances in 2015, while Indonesia received almost $10 billion, and Bangladesh received $15 billion, or almost 10% of its GDP. WorldRemit […]
With TravelersBox, turn foreign change at airports into digital currency and iTunes credit
It’s a dilemma that travelers have faced for decades: You’re heading home from a foreign country with a handful or two of spare change. It’s not enough to exchange or buy something at the airport, so what do you do with it? TravelersBox hopes to answer that question. The company has kiosks placed in 10 countries around the world, including Turkey, Georgia, Italy, the Philippines, Israel, and Japan. Users feed their spare change into the machine and can choose to have it converted into a number of useful digital items, from iTunes credit to Starbucks gift cards to PayPal deposits. TravelersBox machines aren’t the first of their kind. In 2015, […]
Cards, ATMs, POS will be redundant by 2020 in India: NITI Aayog
Amid the big push being given to digital transactions post-demonetisation, Niti Aayog CEO Amitabh Kant today said cards, ATMs and POS machines would become redundant in the country by 2020. “….India is in the midst of huge huge disruption in the world of both financial technology and in terms of social innovation (there is) huge huge innovation and this disruption will enable India to leapfrog…,” he said. “…and by 2020 my view is that in the next two-and-a-half years, India will make all its debit cards, credit cards, all ATM machines all POS machines totally irrelevant,” Kant told a session at Pravasi Bharatiya Divas 2017, a three-day mega event of […]
US needs to lead digital currency revolution, or other nations will
While the U.S. is consumed by understanding the Russian hacking into its presidential election, the other global power is claiming silent victory in a worldwide cryptocurrency competition. Currently, China is the biggest entity mining bitcoins, claiming 70 percent of all mining equipment globally. Computers, known as “miners”, solve complicated mathematical algorithms, provide hashing power, keep record of transactions and get awarded by a bitcoin. The miners are rewarded with bitcoins for solving challenging cryptographic problems that verify other bitcoin transactions worldwide. At the beginning of the blockchain revolution, bitcoin mining was easier; algorithms were less complicated. Over time, algorithms become more complicated and soon there will barely be any algorithms […]
The world is on the brink of having its first ever entirely cashless day
by Sebastian Siemiatkowski – CEO of Klarna How soon will we reach the first cashless day, when all your purchases will be made without a note or coin changing hands? In Sweden, it’s any day now. In 2010, 40 per cent of Swedish retail transactions were made using cash; by 2014 it was down to 20 per cent and it’s still falling. And e-commerce is growing. At Klarna, we make a payment to the retailer immediately – not just online, but in-store too – and customers settle up later, so you can buy anything without using cash. The question is: what’s next? There are three big changes coming in the […]
Value of digital currency Bitcoin surges past $US1000
The value of Bitcoin has surged above $1000 as the digital unit continues a dizzying rise that made it the best-performing currency of 2016. Its value has more than doubled in the last year and it was trading at around $US1,024 in afternoon European trading yesterday, after breaking through the $US1000 mark on Sunday. It is now within reach of its historic high of more than $US1200 reached in 2013. Some analysts believe the rise in Bitcoin is due to some investors treating it as a safe-haven, like gold, at a time of global uncertainty. Others believe buying is being driven by speculative demand, with investors anticipating future rises and […]
China is behind the latest Bitcoin craze
Bitcoin had a great 2016. The cryptocurrency rallied 120% to $952, and is threatening to break the $1,000 mark for the first time. While Bitcoin has seen a consistent bid throughout the year, its 57% gain (in US dollar terms) over the past three months has been particularly impressive.So what’s behind the move? China. In his latest edition of “Greed & Fear,” CLSA’s Christopher Wood notes, “Daily turnover in Shanghai-based BTC China, the world’s largest bitcoin exchange by volume, has risen from around Rmb1bn in late September to a peak of Rmb27.8bn on 22 December and Rmb16.4bn on Wednesday (see Figure 11) while the Bitcoin price has risen by 70% […]
