Ant International Shares Local Investment, AI Innovation and Partnerships Growth Strategy at MyFintech Week 2025

Douglas Feagin, President of Ant International, shared thoughts on the company's future strategy for Malaysia in an opening keynote at MyFintech Week 2025, titled 'Beyond Borders: Mobile Payment in the AI era'.

Ant International:

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Making payments at Stellar Coffee, a cafe in Kuala Lumpur popular with tourists, is now easier for users of Alipay+'s 15 partner e-wallets across key travel markets such as Singapore and Indonesia

Increasing Investments in Ant International's Digital Business Centre in Kuala Lumpur

Ant International, headquartered in Singapore, has been expanding its human and technology investments in Malaysia as a regional technology and commercial hub. The Ant International Digital Business Centre in Kuala Lumpur, created in 2024, now houses close to 800 engineers and professionals working across AI R&D, technology, security, product development and customer service to serve Ant's global clients. "We are accelerating hiring in Kuala Lumpur, and expecting another 25% staff growth in the coming months," said Feagin.

According to Feagin, Ant International's investment in Malaysia aligns with the Malaysia Digital Economy Blueprint, which outlines a framework for the country's digital transformation, including talent development and the creation of a digitally inclusive society.

Malaysia has emerged as a key Southeast Asian market, and is among the leaders in QR-code adoption when it comes to digital payments. Its national QR payments scheme, DuitNow QR, has 2.5 million merchants registered, almost three times the number of traditional point-of-sale terminals in Malaysia.

Expanding Partnerships to Enhance Regional and Global Travel & Trade Connectivity

"Innovation and collaboration are necessary ingredients to drive genuinely inclusive, sustainable growth," said Feagin. Ant International is expanding cooperation with Malaysian regulators and partners to promote digitalization of cross-border trade and commerce for Alipay+ and its other business lines.

Alipay+, the global wallet gateway service under Ant International, has been a key partner of PayNet, Malaysia's national payments network provider, to support travellers using global wallets to pay on DuitNow, the country's national real-time payments network.

In 2024, Malaysia welcomed close to 38m foreign visitors, a 31.1 percent increase compared with the year before. That same year, more than 80 percent of inbound QR payments to Malaysia via DuitNow were made through Alipay+.

"We look forward to expanding our relationship with PayNet and local businesses to maximize travel and cross-border commerce for Malaysia, including bringing on global tax refunds, remittance connectivity, and AI-powered travel services," said Feagin.

WorldFirst, Ant International's global business account service, secured a Class A Money Services Business license from the Central Bank of Malaysia in August to better support Malaysian and regional SMEs to grow international business. As of June 2025, WorldFirst has served over 1.2 million SMEs globally, with a total transaction volume of over 300 bn USD.

“Solutions like these enable small merchants to focus on the things they want to do – attract new customers, increase revenues, and give back to their communities,” said Feagin.

Supercharging digital economy through AI

Technology cooperation and capacity building for fintech partners has been a focus for Ant International. In June 2025, it introduced Alipay+ Cockpit, an AI-as-a-Service platform that enables fintech businesses to develop their own AI growth and security tools tailored to the complex commerce and financial landscape of emerging markets.

"Democratizing AI for emerging markets and small businesses is our core mission," Feagin said. "Ant International is working with partners and regulators to develop a future-ready Trusted AI architecture. While regional businesses make fuller use of agentic AI tools for growth, they should also should also be able to rely on an AI security platform supported by compliance knowledge, threat detection and combat capabilities."

Ant International is introducing a range of new AI tools to Malaysian partners, including Alipay+ EasySafePay 360, an account protection program for users of participating Alipay+ mobile payment partners. It uses AI-powered risk-management solutions to safeguard transactions and offers money-back guarantees for verified unauthorised transactions.

“Global shifts as we see today present huge challenges, but also new opportunities and openings for a vibrant, young economy like Malaysia," said Feagin. "We look forward to expanding our partnerships here, learning more, and contributing more to talent development and technology advancement across the country."

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