Alipay operator Ant Financial’s proposed $1.2 billion purchase of Dallas-based money transfer firm MoneyGram was finally blocked by the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS), a U.S. government inter-agency regulatory body. Ant Financial was unable to convince the committee, even with three filings for approval, that Ant Financial would be able to protect the personal information of U.S. citizens. It’s a big blow to Ant Financial parent Alibaba and CEO Jack Ma’s global ambitions. This is a confirmation that Alipay, and by extension Tencent’s WeChat Pay, will be forced to focus largely on Chinese tourists globally, without pursuing users from other markets.
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