Alibaba financial services subsidiary Ant Financial says it is interested in expanding to Japan; the financial services firm has been expanding in the Eastern World with ventures in Thailand, Indonesia, Australia The Philippines and Korea; it already has plans to double the number of Japanese stores that accept Alipay to more than 45,000 this year; while further details on an expansion timeline have not been released, a spokesperson for the firm has said, "In Japan, there is a strong need of financial services from small and micro enterprises, and Ant is willing to share its standards and experience with local partners." Source
Russia's Sberbank will integrate new artificial intelligence (AI) to replace 3,000 employees in its legal department; the AI solution follows comments from CEO Herman Gref in September 2016 which forecasted that 80% of the bank's decisions would soon be attributed to AI systems; as AI solutions evolve, regulators are considering industry standards and frameworks for changing labor markets. Source
Bloomberg Intelligence provides insight on Asia's fintech market in 2017; in internet finance Alibaba and Tencent have a strong market position with high barriers to entry set for the growing market; blockchain is expected to remain at the forefront of fintech development with use in online money transfers, electronic payments, banking and internet finance; insurtech will also be important with technology focused on sales distribution, product development and client engagement; data tracking, artificial intelligence and internet of things technology are also expected to be factors for insurtech. Source
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Red envelope gifting is a Chinese New Year tradition that has become digitized as a result of advanced payment processing; the January 27 weekend marks the beginning of the Chinese New Year and the country is expected to transact over 100 billion digital envelopes, an increase from 32 billion in 2015 which reported a 1,000% increase from the prior year; payment processors integrated with social media have increasingly been gaining market share and supporting digital transaction growth; bitcoin transactions are also expected to increase for the Chinese New Year. Source
A report from WDZJ and yingcanzixun.com titled, "2016 China Online Lending Monthly Report (Nov.)" provides insight on China's online lending market in November; says online lending originations reached a new monthly high of CNY 200 billion in November; total historical origination volume of over CNY 3 trillion; 2,454 platforms with eight new businesses and 98 entering suspension or closing down. Source
In guidelines released on its website, China said it would restrict overseas investment in sectors such as property, hotels, cinema, entertainment and sports teams; the announcement comes as Beijing is supporting overseas technology and initiatives such as the massive global infrastructure investment plan One Belt, One Road; specific industries under close watch include Hollywood entertainment, the hotel industry and foreign insurance investments; overall, the efforts from the Chinese government are another step in reigning in foreign investment and supporting economic development. Source
India will be utilizing the world's largest biometrics database, Aadhaar, to implement smart health cards for its senior citizens; senior citizens will be receiving an Aadhaar-based smart card; the cards will include information on their health, healthcare and healthcare history; the Aadhaar smart cards will also have payment processing capabilities; the government will test the use of the Aadhaar smart cards in 15 districts during the 2017-2018 fiscal year. Source
New statistics show e-commerce spending in China continues to rise, with projections estimating the average digital buyer will spend RMB12,198 ($1,836) online in 2017, an increase of 7% over 2016; growth is expected to slow to 5% or less after 2017; the forecasts could point to a peak for China's e-commerce giants and also serve as a catalyst for the broad ranging expansion of China's top e-commerce companies. Source
Prime Minister Modi's plan to demonetize has put a lot of strain on much of Indian society, now the ICICI Bank is looking to ease that burden by helping to make 100 villages cashless in 100 days; the plan was born out of a successful program that made one village cashless in 2015; the 100 villages will be spread throughout the country and will help 10,000 people overall; local people will be able to use their mobile phones to transact with merchants and banks. Source