Hi Friends,

Welcome back to This Week in Fintech - China! The weather is finally better and hope everyone is summer-ready!

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Below are the news updates for this week.

Licensing & Regulations

• Trump's trade war has caused China's export order plunged, but Beijing has reiterated its commitment to bolstering jobs and stabilizing its economy amidst the tariff pressure.
• China has been developing a system for tracking bank netting, effectively providing insulation for Russia-China trade from Western sanctions.

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Financing

• Ant Group is expanding to the brokerage business by acquiring a $362 million controlling stake in Bright Smart Securities & Commodities Group in Hong Kong.
• Ant Bank has received a $100 million investment from its parent company, Ant International.

Product & Partnership Launches

• Tencent Cloud is powering Airstar Bank's move to the cloud.
• Airwallex has partnered with Panax for streamlined global cash management.
• TikTok is reportedly planning to launch its e-commerce operations in Japan.
• UnionPay International has partnered with Dojo to increase its card acceptance in the UK. It has also partnered with HFC Bank for first local ATM acceptance in Fiji, driving financial inclusion.

PSA: May is the Stablecon Month - Register now to connect and network with founders, partners, and investors in the global stablecoin ecosystem. 

The Coin Related

• Binance is implementing stricter crypto transfer rules for users in South Africa; and it launched Fund Accounts, a solution aimed at lowering the entry barrier to crypto for fund managers.
• Crypto Exchange OKX has launched OKX Pay, making cryptocurrency payments and self-custody more accessible. In a related development, Mastercard has partnered with OKX and Nuvei to enable stablecoin transactions.
• OSL Pay launched its cross-border fiat-to-crypto infrastructure.