UK cross-border e-payments firm PPRO has boosted its presence in Asia Pacific through the acquisition of Alpha Fintech. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Business payments outfit Airwallex is pitching itself directly against Stripe Billing through the acquisition of billing platform OpenPay. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.

The Australian Securities Exchange (ASX) is planning to turn to a third party to replace its ageing clearing and settlement system.

Nexi has announced a strategic partnership with Microsoft to digitise payments solutions and secure cloud-based infrastructures across the European market.

The ongoing digitalisation of financial services has increased the risk of money laundering (ML) and terrorist financing (TF), according to the European Banking Authority (EBA).

Vodafone has struck an agreement with Microsoft to invest $1.5 billion over the next ten years to develop new digital and financial services for businesses and consumers.

Japanese banks MUFG, SMBC and Mizuho are participating in a pilot using stablecoins and the Swift network for cross-border payments.

Ripple’s XRP token has surged 10% after the firm declared victory in its four-year legal tussle with the Securities and Exchange Commission

Mastercard has acquired Swedish cybersecurity firm Baffin Bay as part of plans to build a multi-layered protective shield for customers across the world

Revolut is targeting the $48 billion Chinese remittance market through a partnership with Ant International.

Standard Chartered is working with Chinese networking conglomerate Huawei on the development of IoT sensors that would automatically trigger payments to corporates by providing real-time data on the movement of goods.

AI-native loan origination platform Casca has raised $29 million in a Series A funding round led by Canapi Ventures.

Ryft, a UK startup hoping to emulate the success of Stripe, has received an FCA licence following its £1.2 million seed raise in September.

Google is prepared to take the US Consumer Financial Protection Bureau to court over plans to establish supervisory authority over Google Payment Corp.