Payments

The move by the global payment and treasury management firm follows the acquisition of Transfar Pay from the Transfar Group.

This idea behind the framework is to improve liquidity management and operational speed through six key policy areas.

Corporate treasurers in the region are increasingly leaning on technology to improve their predictive capabilities, including interacting with other departments, utilising ERP and AI.

In a pilot, Shanghai Commercial Bank issued a pre-authorisation on a co-loading freight forwarder’s commercial card so the main freight forwarder was paid within three days, and the co-loader has 56 days to pay; the bank uses the airport's cargo data platform for verification.

The global firm has added account issuance, domestic money transfers and e-money issuance to its Major Payment Institution licence.

Kelvin Li, general manager of platform tech at Ant International, discussed with CT the fintech’s digital assets strategy to support large-volume, intragroup, cross-border fund moves.

The rise of super-apps and digital platforms is reshaping payments infrastructure – and giving banks and fintechs a new path to growth.

Payment Connect, which currently involves 12 financial institutions, links Hong Kong's FPS with China's IBPS, and went live on June 22.

The SEA provider gives consumers access to BNPL credit via a payments app.

The licence allows the global payment firm to directly partner with local firms.

The partnership aims to connect European and Asian local market payment capabilities across B2B and consumer spending flows.

The two firms are targeting cross-border payments and in-country collections in Indonesia, India, Thailand and Vietnam.