Ant International Expands Fintech Reach with AI Push
Digital payments company Ant International has restructured its operations and expanded its artificial intelligence-powered financial services across Asia, reporting growth across all divisions in 2024.
The Singapore-headquartered firm, which processes cross-border payments and provides financial technology solutions to merchants and consumers, has reorganised into four units: Alipay+, Antom, WorldFirst and a new embedded finance division.
Cross-border expansion
The Alipay+ division, which provides technology for mobile payments and digital wallets, has connected 90 million merchants across 66 markets to 1.6 billion user accounts.
The unit works with 35 payment partners, including electronic wallets, banking applications and buy-now-pay-later services. Small and medium enterprises represent 90% of merchants accepting QR payments through the platform.
The division has integrated with national QR code payment systems including Singapore's SGQR, Malaysia's PayNet, South Korea's ZeroPay, Cambodia's KHQR, Nepal's NepalPay QR and Sri Lanka's LankaPay.
Cross-border transactions through its partner network increased threefold in 2024, excluding volumes from Chinese payment app Alipay.
Merchant services and cross-border growth
Antom, which provides digital payment processing for merchants, saw its total payment volume double between January and November 2024 compared to the same period in 2023. The unit's card processing volume increased tenfold year-on-year.
The company has launched new products including Antom Copilot, which reduces payment integration time from up to 10 days to minutes, and Antom EasySafePay, a system that streamlines digital wallet payments by removing the need for users to switch between applications while providing protection against account takeovers.
WorldFirst, a cross-border payments platform acquired by Ant International in 2019, reached US$100bn in annual payment volume in 2024, four times its 2020 level. The unit has processed more than US$300bn in payments for one million small and medium-sized enterprises globally, expanding from its initial focus on Asia and Europe.
“In 2025, we will continue to be laser-focused on supporting SMEs across borders with AI-powered innovative and trusted payment, digitalisation and inclusive financing solutions"
Technology and financial inclusion
Through collaborative innovation with global financial institutions, the new embedded finance unit uses artificial intelligence and blockchain technology to provide services including foreign exchange, treasury management and lending to customers across Ant International's other divisions.
In line with G20's commitment to lower cross-border payment costs through technology innovation, the unit developed a Time-Series Transformer AI foreign exchange model that predicts currency needs by the hour with 90% accuracy, aimed at helping multinational merchants in airline and e-commerce sectors reduce treasury management costs.
Its blockchain settlement network now handles more than one-third of Ant International's processing volume through 24/7 real-time settlement.
Through ANEXT Bank, its Singapore digital bank subsidiary, Ant International has launched bettr, a credit service for small businesses.
The service has reached 11 million customers in Bangladesh and Indonesia, most of whom are first-time borrowers now accessing uncollateralised loans based on what the company describes as more accurate and fairer credit ratings. Total loans under management across Ant International's SME financing services doubled in 2024 compared to 2023.
“2024 has been a transformative year for Ant International,” says Peng Yang, Chief Executive Officer of Ant International. “We are committed to advance inclusive growth through AI-powered innovation and collaboration on cross-border travel, trade, commerce and inclusive finance.”
Looking ahead, Yang adds: “In 2025, we will continue to be laser-focused on supporting SMEs across borders with AI-powered innovative and trusted payment, digitalisation, and inclusive financing solutions through expanded public- and private-sector collaboration.”
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