Ant Financial to establish mobile pay in Bangladesh

Ant Financial Services Group, the company behind the popular payment app Alipay, is extending its tentacles to Bangladesh through a partnership with a local mobile financial service provider, another step toward its globalization goal of serving 2 billion users within 10 years.

The financial technology giant on Thursday entered into an agreement with bKash, a payment platform established by the central bank of Bangladesh, pledging to help the latter with technological upgrades it needs to serve the country's unbanked and underbanked population.

The duo will join forces to co-create a local version of a mobile payment tool mimicking Alipay, with core functionalities like money transfer embedded on feature phones at the current stage, sources told China Daily on Friday.