Special report | Payment systems

The financial world’s nervous system is being rewired

And it is not America that is doing it

TWO WEEKS before Christmas, executives from OneConnect, a Chinese technology firm, boarded a plane to New York. They landed in a chilly atmosphere: American legislators were about to bar Huawei, a telecoms giant suspected of spying for Beijing, from supplying American agencies. But OneConnect did the job. On December 13th it listed on the New York Stock Exchange, raising $312m, which valued it at $3.7bn. Analysts expect the loss-making firm’s share price to climb by more than 70% in the next 12 months.

This article appeared in the Special report section of the print edition under the headline “Piping up”

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From the May 9th 2020 edition

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