Chinese consumers are increasingly using mobile payment technology; currently 57.7% of the country's internet users are using mobile payment services; the shift to mobile payments is being supported by the growth from fintech companies which has also helped to make China the world's leading fintech hub; four of the world's largest fintech unicorns, Ant Financial, Lufax, JD Finance and Qufenqi, all have their headquarters in China; Bitcoin is also popular in China, accounting for 42% of the digital currency's transactions; statistics also show mobile payment services advancing ahead of traditional bank offerings with Alipay reporting more than 50% market share in mobile payments; while the country has seen exponential growth from fintech services, Chinese regulators are evolving fintech regulations which could require greater compliance requirements from fintech companies. Source
Marketplace lending loan servicer First Associates has announced the opening of a new operations center; the operations center is located in Baja California, Mexico with capacity for 1,000 seats; in comments regarding the announcement, First Associates CEO David Johnson said: "We couldn’t be more excited about our new Baja facility. We are able to deliver the same outstanding quality and service as our San Diego operations center, offer an economically advantageous option to our clients and provide significant opportunities in a developing business community that is an important part of the greater San Diego/Tijuana metro area." Source
Overstock.com launches a joint venture with RenGen and Argon Group for an automated trading system for tokens via ICOs; according to Overstock CEO Patrick Byrne the JV will be the first platform to meet regulatory requirements of both the SEC and Finra. Source.
The real time payments network Zelle has added new tech partners to their growing network; partners include ACI Worldwide, CGI, D3 Banking Technology and IBM; the new partners will help to accelerate technology, reduce risk and control costs for Zelle as their payments network grows over time. Source.