Ant International has secured a payment licence in Brazil as it looks to expand payment and account services in the country.
In a statement, the Singapore-headquartered company said it has received a Payment Institution (PI) licence from the Central Bank of Brazil.
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The PI licence “builds on the services” it already offers in Brazil through its merchant payment and digitalisation platform Antom, the statement added.
Antom enables merchants to accept PIX, credit cards and alternative payment methods. Ant International said the new licence will strengthen its local and cross-border payment capabilities in the market.
Ant International Brazil general manager Rodrigo Reif said: “With the Central Bank’s invaluable support, we are ready to step up more reliable and comprehensive global payment and account services to enterprises, platforms and SMEs in the country’s dynamic digital economy, in ever deeper collaboration with its highly developed payments ecosystem and financial services industry.”
Ant International, a business arm of Jack Ma-founded Ant Group, provides cross-border payments and account services, embedded credit and treasury services, and other finAI and blockchain solutions to clients across Asia, Europe and the Americas. The company is said to process more than 20 million transactions a day.
The Brazil licence follows other developments at Ant International.
In July, it closed a Series A equity financing round of approximately $1.2bn. Ant International said at the time that the proceeds will be used to accelerate global expansion.
Earlier this year, Ant International’s Alipay+ connected with Argentina’s national QR payment scheme, Transferencias 3.0, through a partnership with fintech group PVS. The integration is intended to enable international travellers make QR code payments across Argentina.
