The fintech PingPong has just obtained an electronic money license in Luxembourg, after having been approved as an electronic money institution (EME) by the Commission de Surveillance du Secteur Financier (CSSF).

The fintech, which has offices in Hangzhou, Hong Kong, Japan, but also in New York and San Francisco, officially became a unicorn last March with a valuation of $ 1.5 billion. She had filed her licence application a few months before that, in December 2019.

With its authorization in hand, PingPong intends to expand its service offer. This firm specializing in transparent cross-border transactions is already present in 14 different markets and hopes to access others. This license will also allow it to provide a secure e-wallet and access a host of new services.

" We are extremely proud to announce the award of an EME license in Luxembourg, a globally recognised centre for the fintech sector and a pioneer in the EU market. In addition to strengthening our existing services, which are capable of supporting customers in various markets like Amazon, eBay and Walmart, the license gives us the flexibility to extend our business model beyond e-commerce platforms. In addition, it is a testament to our global growth and adds to the many licenses we hold around the world, laying the groundwork for the establishment of many more e-wallets ," said Ning Wang, co-founder and chief commercial officer of PingPong.

Digital currency, a major challenge

Speaking of digital currency, it's hard not to think of Libra, the currency created by Facebook that was to be launched in 2020. The project was hampered by the reception at least reserved from regulators. For this reason, Facebook  announced in August 2019 that it was possible that the launch of its currency would be postponed or even canceled.

More recently, the Financial Times announced that Libra should be released in January. However, some changes have been made to the project and Libra should be more like a stablecoin, a virtual currency less volatile than bitcoin, for example. Its value will be supported by the US dollar, it is learned.

After Facebook, it was the turn of central banks to talk about digital currency. In recent  announced in February that they wanted to launch their own currency to prepare for the eventuality that cryptocurrencies dethrone cash.

Timothy Lane, a deputy governor of the Central Bank of Canada (BoC), argued that by launching their own digital currency, the BoC would avoid domination by a currency launched by a large corporation that could threaten citizens' privacy while undermining " Canada's monetary sovereignty."

However, such a project does not happen overnight and while banks are slow to adapt to digital, mobile cross-border payment services, like what PingPong offers, have seen their popularity explode in recent years.

Europe recorded  growth of more than 500% according to Silicon Canals. Fintechs like PingPong have taken the opportunity to expand into different markets and their sales could reach a record value of $3.914 trillion this year, according to emarketer figures .

" With the dynamism that the pandemic is giving it, e-commerce is becoming a dominant force in the retail sector and a catalyst for globalization. This EME license will allow us to diversify our offering and provide customer support that differs from that of the traditional banking system. In doing so, it consolidates our world-class cross-border payments capability and positions us as the bank of the future of e-commerce," concludes Ning Wang.