Ant Financial, the digital payments arm of e-commerce giant Alibaba, is buying US-based MoneyGram for $880m (700m pounds).

电子商务巨头阿里巴巴的数字支付部门蚂蚁金服日前以8.80亿美元（折合7亿英镑）的价格收购了美国的速汇金。

MoneyGram has about 350,000 outlets¹ in nearly 200 countries. Ant Financial has more than 630 million users.

速汇金在近200个国家拥有约35万家分店。蚂蚁金服则拥有超过6.3亿名用户。

The takeover by the Chinese group will need regulatory approval from the US Committee on Foreign Investment.

这笔由中国企业的收购还需美国外国投资委员会的监管批准。

Eric Jing, chief executive at Ant Financial, said in a statement that the marriage of the two companies will "provide greater access, security and simplicity² for people around the world to remit³ funds, especially in major economies such as the United States, China, India, Mexico and the Philippines".

蚂蚁金服首席执行官井贤栋在一份声明中表示，两家公司的联姻将“为世界各地的人们提供更便利、安全和简单的汇款，特别是在美国、中国、印度、墨西哥和菲律宾这些地区”。

Ant Financial has a big market share in the online payments industry in China.

在中国，蚂蚁金服占据了很大一块的线上支付的市场份额。

The acquisition could help the company extend the lead as well as expand overseas, as competition is growing in China with rival Tencent's WeChat payment system.

随着对手腾讯的微信支付的出现，中国国内的竞争有所加剧，此次收购有助于该公司扩大其领先地位，拓展海外市场。

US-listed Moneygram's shares rose by nearly 9% on the news. The takeover has been approved by MoneyGram's board of directors.

据悉，已在美国上市的速汇金的股票上涨近9%。此次收购已经获得速汇金董事会的批准。