Hi fintech friends,
A lot of movement this week! After nearly a year of regulatory hurdles, Ant Group has finally cleared the path to launch its wealth management business in Hong Kong. Meanwhile, Bitget Wallet is making waves in Bangladesh with new off-ramps to local mobile wallets, and not to mention that the industry is buzzing as Hong Kong gets incredibly close to announcing its first batch of stablecoin licenses—with HSBC, OSL, and Anchorpoint expected to lead the pack.
Read on for more news in the below.
Licensing & Regulations
HSBC, OSL Group, and Anchorpoint—a Standard Chartered joint venture—have been shortlisted as the likely recipients of Hong Kong’s first stablecoin licenses. No mainland China company made the cut. An announcement is expected to come out as early as March 24.
Ant Group finalized all regulatory requirements to complete its $358.88 million acquisition of a controlling stake in Bright Smart Securities by the end of March 2026, allowing them to get into wealth management business in HK.
Chinese regulators reportedly instructed several overseas-incorporated firms to relocate their domiciles back to China before they could proceed with listing on the Hong Kong stock exchange.
Product & Partnership Launches
Ant International signed a strategic partnership to become the official sponsor of the Argentine National Football Team for the Asia region.
Telco SaaS company Circles partnered with Airwallex to integrate embedded finance capabilities into its platform, allowing telecom operators in over 70 countries to launch digital banking services.
Visa and Trip.com launched a virtual travel card program in the Asia Pacific to automate payments and simplify reconciliation between booking platforms and hotels.
Outpayce from Amadeus and UnionPay International collaborated to enable airlines to natively accept UnionPay cards for both direct and indirect bookings through the Amadeus Travel Platform.
PAObank (formerly Ping An OneConnect Bank) introduced a flexible wealth management service for retail customers, allowing them to switch between investment trading and interest-earning savings within a single account.
Belgian payment processor OpenWay and UnionPay International expanded their partnership to launch the first global integration of "Big Pay" functionality for UnionPay cards on its Way4 platform.
Bitget Wallet launched a new bank transfer feature in Bangladesh, allowing users to convert USDT and USDC into Bangladeshi Taka for direct deposit into mobile wallets like bKash and Nagad.
Mastercard Move partnered with the Bank of Shanghai to enable bi-directional cross-border payments, providing global SMEs with direct access to China's domestic bank account network.
Financing & Acquisition
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