MoneyGram and Ant Financial Services Group earlier this week announced they have mutually agreed to terminate their amended merger agreement following the inability to obtain the required approval for the transaction from the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States, according to a press release.

The companies said that despite the failure to address the committee's concerns, they plan to work together on new strategic initiatives in the remittance and digital payments markets that will help each company achieve its objective of enabling consumers around the world to enjoy better money transfer services.

"The geopolitical environment has changed considerably since we first announced the proposed transaction with Ant Financial nearly a year ago," Alex Holmes, MoneyGram CEO, said in the release. "Despite our best efforts to work cooperatively with the U.S. government, it has now become clear that CFIUS will not approve this merger. We are disappointed in the termination of this compelling transaction, which would have created significant value for our stakeholders."

Under the new strategic business cooperation, MoneyGram and Ant Financial will explore and develop initiatives to bring together their capabilities in remittance and digital payments to provide their respective customers with user-friendly, rapid-response and low-cost money transfer services into China, India and the Philippines, among other Asian markets, as well as in the U.S. and other key regions around the world.