Powering Global Trade with AI-Driven Payments, Interoperability, and Inclusive Financial Innovation
Ant International has significantly expanded its global fintech footprint, now connecting more than 150 million merchants with over 2 billion user accounts worldwide. The milestone was revealed at the company’s flagship MoMents 2026 fintech executive forum in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, underscoring its growing role in shaping the future of AI-driven commerce and financial interoperability.
As a global leader in digital payments, digitisation, and financial technology, Ant International has built one of the most extensive payment ecosystems in the world. The company currently supports more than 300 payment methods across over 220 markets, covering all major card networks alongside a diverse mix of mobile wallets, banking applications, and national QR payment systems. These include widely adopted frameworks such as Singapore’s SGQR, Malaysia’s DuitNow, South Korea’s ZeroPay, Thailand’s PromptPay, Indonesia’s QRIS, and Sri Lanka’s LankaPay. This extensive compatibility allows merchants to seamlessly engage with consumers across borders, reducing friction in international transactions and enhancing the overall user experience.
In recent months, Ant International has continued to strengthen its network by onboarding additional financial institutions and digital payment platforms. New partners include iFAST Global Bank from the United Kingdom, Thailand-based KBank and SCB, Saudi Arabia’s barq, and ShopeePay, a major e-wallet player in Southeast Asia. These integrations reflect the company’s strategic emphasis on interoperability, ensuring that businesses can access a unified infrastructure while catering to region-specific payment preferences.
The scale of Ant International’s operations is evident in its daily transaction volume, which now exceeds 20 million transactions on average. This high throughput is supported by ongoing expansion efforts across Asia, Latin America, and the Europe, Middle East, and Africa (EMEA) region. The company has been actively securing licenses and forming strategic partnerships to deepen its presence in these high-growth markets.
In Southeast Asia, Vietnam has emerged as a key focus area. Ant International has partnered with NAPAS and Vietcombank to introduce cross-border QR payment services, enabling smoother transactions for both local businesses and international visitors. Beyond payments, the company is collaborating with the Ho Chi Minh City government on initiatives aimed at developing an international financial center, signaling its long-term commitment to the region’s financial infrastructure.
In Latin America, Ant International entered into a strategic partnership with Mexican fintech firm R2 in late 2025. This collaboration is designed to accelerate the expansion of small and medium-sized enterprise (SME) lending, addressing a critical financing gap in the region. By leveraging its technological capabilities and global network, Ant International aims to improve access to credit and empower local businesses to scale.
Meanwhile, in the Middle East, the company is working closely with the Saudi Central Bank and the national payment network mada. Plans are underway to introduce Alipay+ cross-border QR payment capabilities in 2026, further enhancing connectivity between regional markets and the global digital economy. Additionally, Ant International is exploring the rollout of Islamic finance programs across Southeast Asia and other emerging markets, aligning its offerings with regional financial practices and cultural considerations.
A key differentiator for Ant International is its ability to support businesses engaged in cross-border commerce, particularly SMEs. The company currently ranks first globally in terms of the number of accounts it manages for such businesses. This leadership position highlights its effectiveness in enabling smaller enterprises to participate in international trade, a domain traditionally dominated by large corporations.
According to CEO Peng Yang, the convergence of financial interoperability and AI-driven commerce is unlocking new opportunities for businesses of all sizes. By expanding its network and deepening partnerships, Ant International aims to deliver innovative, high-impact fintech solutions that drive resilience and revenue growth in rapidly evolving markets.
Central to this vision is a layered solutions strategy built around four core business pillars: Alipay+, Antom, Bettr, and WorldFirst. Together, these platforms provide a comprehensive suite of services tailored to enterprises, SMEs, and emerging markets.
The company’s global payment capabilities are designed to transform payments from a transactional function into a strategic growth engine. By enabling seamless, cross-border transactions, businesses can access new markets and customer segments with minimal friction. Complementing this is the concept of global accounts—AI-powered, borderless financial accounts that allow businesses to operate internationally from day one. This approach effectively democratizes global commerce, making it accessible even to startups and small enterprises.
Beyond payments and accounts, Ant International offers strategic value-added services, including embedded financing, credit solutions, and treasury management tools. These capabilities are designed to support inclusive growth by providing businesses with the financial resources and insights needed to scale sustainably.
Innovation remains at the core of Ant International’s strategy, particularly in the areas of artificial intelligence and blockchain. The company collaborates closely with customers, partners, and regulators to develop solutions that not only drive efficiency but also ensure security and compliance across jurisdictions.
One of the most notable innovations unveiled at MoMents 2026 is the Agentic Mobile Protocol (AMP), an open-source framework designed to enable agent-driven payments within mobile environments. As the first protocol of its kind, AMP facilitates secure, AI-native interactions across digital wallets, banking apps, super apps, and even wearable devices. This development represents a significant step toward fully autonomous, intelligent payment ecosystems.
Another major initiative is the AI-as-a-Service platform known as GenAI Cockpit. This platform provides fintech partners with tools to build and deploy AI-driven solutions, ranging from customer service assistants to sales copilots. Early adopters include Malaysia’s TNG eWallet and Pakistan’s easypaisa, both of which are leveraging the platform to enhance user engagement and operational efficiency.
To address the critical need for security in digital transactions, Ant International has developed AI SHIELD, a comprehensive risk management system powered by advanced machine learning models. With over 7 billion parameters, AI SHIELD integrates multiple data types to detect high-risk transactions with more than 95% precision. In addition to improving fraud detection, the system has been shown to increase payment success rates by up to 13.5%, demonstrating its dual impact on security and performance.
In the realm of financial forecasting, the company introduced the Falcon TST AI FX model, an industry-first mixture-of-experts (MoE) model designed for time-series analysis. With over 8.5 billion parameters, the model achieves prediction accuracy of up to 93% and is used internally to manage cash flow and foreign exchange exposure. Its deployment has resulted in FX cost reductions of up to 60%, and its open-source release in 2025 aims to foster broader innovation in the field.
For small businesses, Ant International has launched EPOS360, an AI-powered application that integrates point-of-sale systems with payments, banking, financing, and operational tools. Initially rolled out in Singapore and later introduced in Malaysia via TNG eWallet, EPOS360 provides SMEs with a unified platform to manage and grow their operations.
Another solution, Antom Copilot, focuses on automating merchant services. By leveraging insights from real-world use cases, the copilot streamlines processes such as chargeback dispute handling, improving efficiency by up to 46%. Within a year of its launch, a significant majority of merchants using Antom have successfully completed self-service payment integration through the platform.
The MoMents 2026 forum itself served as a convergence point for industry leaders, including executives from global payment networks, banks, fintech firms, technology companies, and regulatory bodies. Discussions centered on the evolving landscape of financial services in the age of AI commerce, with key themes including payment transformation, global interoperability, the rise of AI-native super apps, advancements in Islamic finance, and the importance of trust and security.
As Ant International continues to expand its ecosystem and invest in cutting-edge technologies, it is positioning itself at the forefront of a new era in global commerce—one defined by intelligent systems, seamless connectivity, and inclusive financial access.
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