Dear Subscriber,

Our final newsletter of 2015! It’s been quite a year. Despite with it not being the ‘Year of Apple Pay’ that Tim Cook predicted, we will end the year with the payment service, which is partnering with UnionPay in China, hoping to make the most of a market in which 94 million people spent $9.8 billion via mobile in one day. Elsewhere, Russia is looking to minimise its dependence on foreign payment systems such as Visa and MasterCard, by introducing its own payment card called ‘Mir’. And finally, what with it being the festive period, we’ve got an infographic that breaks down the best way to protect your money when going abroad. Merry Christmas!

Apple is working with UnionPay to bring its mobile payment service to China as early as 2016, according to reports from The Wall Street Journal.

Out of 10,131 digitally active consumers in Australia, Canada, Hong Kong, Singapore, the UK and the US, 15.5 per cent have used at least two FinTech services – which are defined as financial services products developed by non-bank, non-insurance, online companies – in the past six months, according to research from EY.

Russia has made a concerted effort to move away from being dependent on international payment systems such as MasterCard and Visa, by introducing its own platform called ‘Mir’, which translates as “peace” or “world”.

The infographic below breaks down the most important things to consider when going abroad, from letting your bank know you’re going overseas to bringing emergency cash.

Credits, a blockchain startup, is joining forces with technology and banking companies such as IBM, J.P. Morgan and Intel in the Linux Foundation Open Ledger Project.