Mention Euronet, and you’re likely to picture its iconic blue and yellow ATMs. They’re a global staple, found anywhere, from transport hubs to high-traffic retail locations. But in the high-stakes world of modern finance, these machines are the tip of a much larger spear. ATMs actually account for less than a fifth of Euronet’s revenues. The bulk of the business runs in the background, powering the infrastructure that moves money at scale. Euronet provides the connective tissue of modern finance. It powers modern payments and money movement, from national payment switches and point of sale services to cross-border transfers, currency…

Imagine losing more money than Thailand’s entire economy produces in a year. That’s the depth of Asia’s fraud crisis in 2024, where fraud losses hit a staggering $688 billion according to recent reports. What’s even more alarming? The United Nations crowned Southeast Asia as “the ground zero for multi-billion-dollar global internet scamming”, a dubious honour that should have every business leader, compliance officer, and financial professional sitting up and paying attention. In spite of high-profile enforcement actions, like the seizure of US$15 billion in Bitcoin from a Cambodian tycoon and increasingly aggressive regulatory crackdowns across the region, fraudsters are thriving.…

AI’s been reshaping financial services for several years now. But as its digital adoption accelerates, one factor determines whether AI extracts value or adds complexity: choosing the right partners for specialised applications. According to McKinsey, while AI tools are now widespread, most organisations have not embedded them deeply into their workflows, limiting their ability to generate impact at the enterprise level. The right AI fit has the capability to unlock something powerful, like transforming financial systems into agile, high-performance engines that respond as instantly as a digital-native platform. On the flip side, AI trained on flawed data and assumptions festers…

The digital banking landscape in Singapore has undergone a rapid transformation, with four players gaining approval from the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS). These digital banks are revolutionising how financial services are delivered to consumers and businesses alike, leveraging technology for convenience, innovation, and accessibility. In this article, we’ll explore the offerings of these players, highlighting their key features and what makes them unique. Last Updated: 22 January 2026 What Are Digital Banks? Digital banks are financial institutions that operate exclusively through digital platforms such as mobile apps and websites. They do not have traditional physical branches, which allows them…

Bill Deng, Founder and CEO of XTransfer, watched multinational corporations move billions across borders with relative ease, while SMEs were left navigating a maze of fragmented ledgers, opaque fees, and the ever-present risk of having accounts frozen without warning. That imbalance, Deng argues, was reinforced by the industry’s growing reliance on de-risking. This was a compliance-driven retreat that pushed smaller businesses to the fringes of the formal financial system, as they were deemed not very profitable yet high in risk exposure. And for many SMEs, a single flagged transaction could mean days without access to working capital, payroll disruptions, or…

For much of the past decade, the Asia Pacific was treated as crypto’s permissive frontier. A region where innovation could move faster than policy, where scale often came before supervision, and where enforcement lagged ambition. That era is ending. As the region heads into 2026, crypto is no longer being tested on its ability to grow. It is being tested on its ability to comply. What is emerging across the Asia Pacific is a coordinated tightening of standards that increasingly resemble those applied to systemically important financial institutions. In effect, the region is running a stress test on its crypto…

For millions of people, crypto has shifted from a speculative asset to a critical utility. It has become the rail for sending money home, a hedge against fragile local currencies, and a bypass for legacy financial systems that are slow, expensive, or out of reach. This shift in behaviour is showing up clearly in the data: global retail transactions surged by more than 125% in between January to September 2024 and during the same period in 2025, signalling that individuals, not just institutions, are driving the next phase of growth. TRM Labs’ 2025 Crypto Adoption and Stablecoin Usage report indicates…

As 2025 draws to a close, one thing is clear: the world of financial services is compounding. Every shift in financial technology, regulation, and consumer behaviour accelerates the next, creating a landscape where progress feels constant yet uneven. Asia Pacific illustrates this vividly. In the Philippines, the payments race intensified with Manny Pacquiao’s fully integrated Manny Pay app launch and Google Pay’s arrival. Malaysia, on the other hand, advanced ASEAN’s first 24/7 Real-Time Gross Settlement system while preparing for open finance. Hong Kong unveiled its Fintech 2030 strategy as two digital banks reached profitability, while Singapore now has better oversight for…

There’s a fundamental shift slowly taking place in the asset management space. While global money market funds hold close to US$10 trillion in assets, tokenised funds’ AUM sits at a few billion dollars, according to the CFA Institute. But that gap is precisely what makes this moment interesting. The question is less about whether tokenisation will scale, but more about how the infrastructure, legal frameworks, and operational playbooks will need to evolve to make it happen. The Guardian Asset & Wealth Management Industry Group’s recent report, “Operationalising Tokenised Funds”, cuts through to examine what actually needs to work. It shares insights…

10 years ago, Southeast Asia’s digital economy felt like a wave just beginning to crest: a swirl of marketplaces, wallets, and superapps chasing the promise of a connected region. Fast-forward to 2025, and that wave has matured into a tide that moves with purpose. The e-Conomy SEA 2025 report captures this turning point with a milestone: a digital economy now closer to being valued at US$300 billion, more than 1.5 times its 2016 projection. Revenues are also poised to reach US$135 billion as profitability gains momentum across the region. And as the Singapore Fintech Festival celebrates its own ten-year journey,…

For years, funding rounds have been the currency of success in ASEAN’s fintech ecosystem. Pitch decks, valuations, and investor insights often shaped a startup’s momentum more than its underlying fundamentals. But that story is changing. As the ecosystem matures and capital becomes more selective, the Fintech in ASEAN 2025 report by the Singapore Fintech Association, UOB, and PwC Singapore examined a decade of ASEAN fintech exits to reveal what truly drives long-term outcomes. Now, what does the data tell us? A Ten-Year View of ASEAN’s Fintech Exit Trajectory According to the report, 195 ASEAN fintech startups have been acquired since…

The future of finance is unfolding in powerful waves, shaped by the convergence of technology, talent, and imagination. AI and other technologies drive decisions at scale, digital ecosystems blur the lines between industries, and innovation increasingly moves without borders. Yet for all this acceleration, one reality endures: human capability is what turns technology into real impact. Nowhere is this more evident than in Singapore, where talent has long been treated as strategic infrastructure. The nation’s skill-first mindset recognises that human capital fuels everything else: innovation, competitiveness, and the ability to build world-class fintech products that scale. The latest SFA Fintech…

One theme has been persistently dominating most fintech conversations this year, and it involves AI and its growing influence over how finance operates, regulates, and evolves. What began as automation in back offices has become the invisible engine of credit, compliance, and capital flow. Yet as AI accelerates, a new challenge also emerges: how do we govern technology this widespread across borders and different systems? As AI is embedded across almost every layer of finance, regulators worldwide are shifting gears quickly to establish their guardrails. Yet, as the GFTN AI in Finance report shows, what has emerged is a mix…

Across Asia and beyond, privacy-preserving cryptography, AI-driven compliance, and cross-chain infrastructure are converging to solve the industry’s oldest problems: transparency without exposure, oversight without friction, and interoperability without compromise. Technologies such as zero-knowledge proofs, multi-party computation, and self-sovereign identity are now being built into production systems, quickly moving away from being mere digital asset trends. Yet as the GFTN Global Digital Assets Report reveals, progress remains uneven. 40% of its respondents cite infrastructure gaps like liquidity, scalability, and regulatory compliance are the biggest barriers to adoption. 19% point to the technology itself causing the limitation, including matters like complex user…

When it comes to fintech, there’s no doubt that Singapore plays a significant role in the big leagues. The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) recently released its latest annual report, and within its pages are fintech and digital finance initiatives that will shape the country’s (and in certain moves, the region’s) financial future. From testing quantum-grade security to managing crypto exposure, the report outlines developments across every layer of Singapore’s financial and fintech system. Whether you’re a fintech founder, compliance lead, or just a curious observer, here are notable fintech developments from the MAS Annual Report for 2024/2025. #1 Robust…

The Wild West days of crypto were decentralised, unregulated, and outside the boundaries of traditional finance. Although the industry experienced breakneck growth, it also opened the floodgates to scams, volatility, and criminal misuse. Today, it’s a sigh of relief as we see that era coming to a decisive end. Regulatory compliance is swiftly becoming a core requirement, forcing crypto businesses to overhaul their business models and ensure that their models are legitimate and stable. From recent crackdowns in Thailand to swift reforms in Singapore, the message is clear: compliance is the new currency of credibility in crypto. Why Regulators Are…

Just in the first six months of 2025, the crypto industry has lost over US$2.1 billion across at least 75 separate incidents, due to hacks and exploits. What’s startling to note is that the amount is nearly equal to the total losses recorded for 2024, according to data from TRM Lab’s latest report. Far from being the usual crimes of opportunity, the recent scale and sophistication of the attacks reveal how crypto is becoming a battleground for geopolitical cyber conflict. State-sponsored actors are now testing their skills against critical financial infrastructure, pushing the boundaries of international finance and exploiting the…

Coenraad (Coen) Jonker, Founder and CEO of Tyme Group, radiates quiet confidence, driven by his staunch belief that banking can always be rebuilt for the better. This is the mind behind Tyme Group, the digital banking business that began in South Africa with a simple mission: to bring the unbanked into the fold, profitably and at a population scale. In a sector famous for promising inclusion, Tyme has successfully delivered real impact to millions of customers without concern for borders, referring to itself as a multi-country digital bank. Today, Tyme calls Singapore home, with 15+ million customers across South Africa,…

Southeast Asia’s e-wallet landscape is a vibrant yet chaotic arena, shaped by rapid digital adoption, fierce competition, and an unrelenting push for financial inclusion. Digital-first players are racing to reshape customer expectations, while a broader transformation is underway to evolve from “super apps” into truly integrated “life apps.” At the heart of this transformation lies a decisive enabler: automation. From seamless onboarding to hyper-personalised financial recommendations, automation is quickly becoming the essential backbone that allows e-wallets to scale, differentiate, and remain competitive in a region where user expectations are rising fast. Nikkei Asia projects that the ASEAN digital payments market…

Singapore’s motor insurance market could be on the verge of a major change. Grab, the Southeast Asian super app giant known for its ride-hailing, payments, and financial services, is quietly making decisive moves to enter the insurance space. GrabInsure, which secured its MAS license and GIA membership back in May 2025, is gearing up to launch motor insurance products. These would reportedly be tailored for its large network of private-hire drivers, according to a company spokesperson. For an insurance segment historically dominated by players like Income Insurance, MS First Capital, and AIG, Grab’s entry could mark the beginning of a…