October 14, 2017 @ 8:20 pm By Xu Gao  |  

Tencent Received License to Sell Insurance on WeChat and QQ This week, China Insurance Regulatory Commission (CIRC) announced that it had grant an operation license to Shenzhen Wei Min Insurance Agency Co. Ltd. Tencent owns a majority stake (57.8%) of this new insurer. Fubon Property… Read More

September 30, 2017 @ 2:00 am By Xu Gao  |  

CreditEase Fintech Investment Fund is Making a New Investment. Guess Who the Fund is Interested in?  Last week (September 18th -24th), CreditEase Fintech Investment Fund, a venture committed to investing growth-stage Fintech startups in China and globally, announced a new round of investment to three… Read More

September 2, 2017 @ 4:00 pm By Xu Gao  |  

Regulators in China are Said to Plan a Blanket Ban on Initial Coin Offerings In response of the ICO craze, regulators in China including PBC, CSRC and NIFA have held several internal meetings to discuss the best approach to regulate this emerging token creation events…. Read More

August 29, 2017 @ 2:36 pm By JD Alois  |  

In a local announcement, Apple added WeChat Pay, part of Tencent, for payments in its App store and online music. WeChat is a social network similar to Twitter that has evolved into providing additional services. Apple already accepts Alipay, part of Alibaba, for payments on… Read More

August 19, 2017 @ 8:18 am By Xu Gao  |  

Alibaba’s Yuebao Reduces Credit Limit for Personal Balance to RMB 100,000 Alibaba’s Yuebao is now the nation’s largest money market fund with assets hitting RMB 1.43 trillion (US$210.18 billion) as of the end of July, up sharply from the end of last year. On August… Read More

August 12, 2017 @ 12:31 pm By Xu Gao  |  

China Sets up Centralized Clearing Platform for Online Payments The People’s Bank of China, the country’s central bank, has required all banks and third-party payment institutions to connect to a unified platform by June 30 of 2018 to ensure effective regulation and transaction security. The… Read More

August 6, 2017 @ 1:00 pm By Xu Gao  |  

Baidu Partners With PayPal to Tap Cross-border Payments On July 28, Baidu annouced a strategic agreement with PayPal to tap oversea merchants as Chinese tech companies ramp up the fight for overseas payment partnerships. The partnership allows Baidu Wallet users to make online purchases outside… Read More

July 10, 2017 @ 3:26 pm By JD Alois  |  

Wirecard has announced an agreement with Tencent’s WeChat Pay, one of the leading mobile payment solutions in China. WeChat or Weixin are deeply integrated into Chinese people’s daily life with a combined monthly active users of over 938 million. The mobile payment solution, WeChat Pay, has… Read More

June 21, 2017 @ 11:21 am By JD Alois  |  

This is kind of interesting. A report provided by MyPrivateBanking in Switzerland entitled Digital Wealth Management in Asia: Focus on China and India, states that 80% of leading wealth managers in China use WeChat. In India, 40% of leading Indian wealth managers connect clients to advisors through mobile… Read More

June 19, 2017 @ 6:22 pm By Timothy Li  |  

During July 2016, I was part of a delegation of US Fintech executives visiting our counterparts in Hong Kong, Shenzhen, and Shanghai, China. We toured and visited some of the most exciting Fintech platforms in China such as LuFax, CreditEase, Tencent (the creator of WeChat),… Read More

June 13, 2017 @ 12:30 pm By Therese Torris  |  

This article highlights three takeaways for Fintech firms from Mary Meeker’s 355-page-long report: 1) The Internet’s center of gravity shifts to Asia; 2) The biggest get bigger; 3) Fintechs must use gamification to improve customer engagement. Since 2001, Mary Meeker, a Partner at venture capital… Read More

May 1, 2017 @ 8:16 pm By JD Alois  |  

FinTech Australia is pointing to payments company Airwallex securing $13 Million USD in a Series A funding round as indicative of the strength of Australian-Asian Fintech links. FinTech Australian CEO Danielle Szetho said the announcement illustrated the strong and growing links between the two regions…. Read More

April 23, 2017 @ 4:37 pm By JD Alois  |  

The UN sponsored Better than Cash Alliance is out with an interesting report on Fintech and payments in China. The Alliance partners with governments, companies, and international organizations that are the key drivers behind the transition to make digital payments widely available around the globe…. Read More

March 31, 2017 @ 6:06 pm By Xu Gao  |  

Boao Forum for Asia Annual Conference Highlights Fintech: How will it Change Finance? Related: Boao Forum for Asia publishes “2016 Fintech Report” The four-day Boao Forum for Asia (BFA) Annual Conference 2017, themed with “Globalization & Free Trade: The Asian Perspectives”, was held from March… Read More

March 21, 2017 @ 10:18 pm By JD Alois  |  

Austrade, the Australian government trade commission for exporters and information for companies wanting to do business with Australia, is in China this week. A delegation of Aussie representatives are in Shenzhen and Shanghai sizing up Fintech opportunites.. Austrade says the emergence of China’s vibrant Fintech… Read More

February 15, 2017 @ 11:29 am By Xu Gao  |  

PBOC Becomes the First Central Bank to Issue Digital Currency Just at the start of 2017, People’s Bank of China (PBOC) took a big step in the area of digital currency. According to its announcement, PBOC has managed to test digital bill trading with beta-digital… Read More

December 19, 2016 @ 11:23 am By Samantha Hurst  |  

On Monday, Nigeria-based fintech startup, Paystack, announced it raised $1.3 million during its seed funding round. Those who participated in the round included Tencent, Comcast Ventures, and Singularity Investments. The company, which was founded by Shola Akinlade and Ezra Olubi, is a Y Combinator-backed startup,… Read More

June 16, 2016 @ 7:06 pm By Spencer Li  |  

Auto financing P2P platform Weidai.com received RMB 1 billion Series C Investment Founded in 2011, Weidai.com is China’s first and largest specialty P2P platform that focuses on providing secured automobile loans. It also provides used car financing services through partnerships with used car marketplaces. The company… Read More

January 3, 2016 @ 2:07 pm By Spencer Li  |  

A flurry of internet finance-related regulatory documents were issued in China last week just before the New Year. On December 28th, the People’s Bank of China (“PBOC”) issued the final rules on online payments while the China Banking Regulatory Commission (“CBRC”) issued the draft rules… Read More

December 4, 2015 @ 3:26 am By Spencer Li  |  

Following in the footsteps of Chinese internet giants such as Alibaba, Tencent, and JD.com, leading Chinese P2P platforms have begun evolving into one-stop wealth management platforms. Alibaba’s Ant Financial, Tencent’s WeBank, and JD.com’s JD Finance (for some background on these platforms, please refer to a… Read More