Standard Chartered and Ant Financial buckle up for Belt and Road drive
Standard Chartered and Ant Financial have signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) as they target expanding their fintech clout along the “Belt and Road Initiative” route.
Belt and Road refers to China’s strategy to get more connectivity and co-operation between Eurasian countries. The firms don’t reveal any specific plans – just that their relevant expertise will complement each other.
José Viñals, chairman of Standard Chartered, says they aim to “broaden access to inclusive financial services along the Belt and Road route”.
Standard Chartered says 69% of its global footprint already overlaps with the Belt and Road countries. While Ant Financial adds it has more than 520 million active users, and works with partners in emerging markets.
Standard Chartered Bank has been working together with Ant Financial since 2012, in areas including funding settlement, FX services and Alipay wallet related solutions.
Swift dollars
Elsewhere, Standard Chartered today (18 December) went live with its US Dollar (USD) Swift global payments innovation (gpi) services to extend its offering to customers making USD cross-border payments.
With gpi, customers can receive end-to-end confirmation of their payments over the transaction life cycle. This enables them to “manage their cash better and offers benefits such as faster, same day use of funds with increased visibility over transaction statuses and costs”.
