Banking

Mobile Payments Market : Alibaba’s Ant Financial Invests 20% in Thailand’s True Money

Asia Pacific is estimated to account for 50% of global payments revenue growth in 2015, when total payments revenues worldwide reached $898 billion, according to a 2012 McKinsey report.

Published

5 years ago

November 18, 2016

Zhang Fang

Ant Financial, the financial affiliate of Chinese e-commerce group Alibaba, announced yesterday that it has formed a strategic partnership with Bangkok-based digital payment company Ascend Money, tapping the multi-billion-dollar online and mobile payments market in Southeast Asia.

Ant Financial didn’t disclose the size of its investment in Ascend Money. It said it would help Ascend grow online and offline payments and financial services business. However, a statement posted in June by China’s Ministry of Commerce said Ant Financial intended to buy a 20% stake in Ascend, with an option to increase its holding to 30%.

Online and mobile-based purchases in Southeast Asia are expected to exceed $22 billion last year, according to a Forrester report citing data from Singapore-based mobile payment company MatchMove Pay.

Asia Pacific is estimated to account for 50% of global payments revenue growth in 2015, when total payments revenues worldwide reached $898 billion, according to a 2012 McKinsey report.

Its partner Ascend was separated from communication conglomerate True Corporation and is now a subsidiary of True’s parent company, Thailand’s Charoen Pokphand Group, which has businesses in agriculture, retail and telecommunications.

The company operates the True Money electronic wallet service and the Ascend Nano online lending platform. It has key licenses to operate in six Asian countries including Thailand, Indonesia, the Philippines, Vietnam, Myanmar and Cambodia. True Money had 800,000 users as of February, according to the company.

Source: Alibaba’s Ant Financial Taps SE Asia’s Multibillion-Dollar Mobile Payments Market

Economics

Thailand’s economic growth expected to return to 2019 levels in mid-2023

Although the economy would recover next year, the recovery is still substantially below potential level resulting in a large output loss and could affect Thailand’s potential economic growth in the future with the economy expected to return to 2019 levels in mid-2023.

Published

1 week ago

October 10, 2021

Boris Sullivan

The Siam Commercial Bank (SCB), one of Thailand’s largest commercial banks, said in its latest economic outlook report that the country’s economy may wait until the second semester of 2023 to return to 2019 growth levels.

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Banking

S&P maintains Thailand’s credit rating at BBB+ with stable outlook

Standard and Poor’s (S&P) maintained Thailand’s credit rating at BBB+ . The global rating firm expects the country’s gross domestic product (GDP) to grow at 1.1% this year, with a more optimistic growth at 3.6% per year from 2022 to 2024.