Author: Annette Rowena

Synthetic identity fraud is one of the fastest-growing fraud types globally, where fraudsters fabricate a person who never existed. They typically stitch together a blend of real, stolen, manipulated and invented attributes until the composite is convincing enough to enter through the front door. This shift moves away from years of defensive fraud management thinking. Fraud prevention has almost always focused on stolen credentials. Now, attackers no longer need to steal an identity, as they can manufacture one. Research from LexisNexis Risk Solutions backs this, indicating that more than one in ten frauds (11%) now involve a synthetic identity, representing…

GXS Bank launched its latest cashback credit card, and that got me thinking: how many credit cards do Singapore digital banks offer? Singapore’s digital banks collectively have six consumer credit cards: the GXS Credit Card and GXS FlexiCard from GXS Bank, the Link and Freedom credit cards from Trust Bank, and MariBank’s Mari Credit Card. Now, given that each bank is distinctly unique, how different could each credit card be? Last updated: 27 August 2026 How do Singapore’s Digital Bank Credit Cards Compare? MariBank Credit Card MariBank’s credit card offers 1.5% unlimited cashback on eligible local spending, with no minimum…

The Singapore digital bank profit story is beginning to separate into three profitability camps, based on their performances for FY2025. GXS Bank recorded the largest loss in FY2025 at S$132 million, more than double that of any other loss-making digital bank. MariBank came next in line at S$55.6 million, then Trust Bank at S$53.5 million, and finally ANEXT Bank at S$49.8 million for FY2025. GLDB, meanwhile, successfully proved its mettle as the only digital bank in Singapore to swing in a profit at S$16.1 million. Looking deeper into the data from our latest 2026 Singapore Digital Banking Report, there’s more…

Digital banks, possibly everywhere else in the world, unlocked their markets by being better at technology than the others in the market, but this is not the case for Singapore. The 2026 Singapore Digital Banking Report reveals that Singapore’s five digital banks compete on one big factor: the clients they’re serving. From borrowers with little to no credit file to providing financial solutions within e-commerce ecosystems like Shopee and FairPrice, the five banks have proven that they’re making a mark over the years. But where does each bank stand? The 2026 Singapore Digital Banking Report examines the FY2025 financial statements…

AI has outgrown the role of an assistant, now moving money, approving transactions, and carrying out multi-step tasks with little to no human input in every loop. These agents now behave more like participants in the business. Now, when a person makes a decision, accountability is obvious. But when an AI agent makes thousands of decisions a day on your behalf, your organisation has to answer three things. What did the AI do, why did it do it, and who is answerable for the outcome? Today, especially for compliance, risk, and fraud leaders who ultimately answer to a regulator when…

Somewhere in Asia right now, a payment is clearing every security check a bank has in place. The login is legitimate, the device is the one the customer uses, and the person tapping “confirm” is the genuine account holder, doing what a scammer on the other end of the line told them to do. That scenario framed a recent webinar on fintech fraud prevention in Asia, where four leaders traced how the threat has shifted and what fintechs and financial institutions alike can do about it. The numbers behind it are large and worrying. LexisNexis Risk Solutions analysed 116.1 billion…

Buying Bitcoin in Singapore takes minutes. Doing it without handing your money to the wrong platform? Now that takes a little more care. The safest route for everyday investors is through a licensed Digital Payment Token provider, as these providers fall under the purview of the Monetary Authority of Singapore and hold a Major Payment Institution licence. With these providers, your money is placed inside a rigorous regulatory framework. Licensed platforms have to follow strict anti-money laundering rules, defend their systems against attack, and keep customer funds separate. Now, how do you buy your Bitcoin and keep it securely? Last…

The 2026 FIFA World Cup is barely underway, and crypto scammers have already built the infrastructure to steal from fans in relation to World Cup crypto scams. Blockchain intelligence firm TRM Labs has identified four cryptocurrency addresses tied to three live scam operations targeting football supporters. These include two fake-ticketing sites as well as one fixed-match betting pitch, all of which are reported to Chainabuse. Ari Redbord, Global Head of Policy at TRM Labs, explained that criminals have a tendency to exploit major events and cultural moments, and don’t wait for kickoffs. He added, “Scammers build and position their infrastructure…

Australia’s virtual asset sector is running out of time to meet incoming compliance requirements. From 1 July 2026, the AUSTRAC Tranche 2 reforms extend Australia’s anti-money laundering and counter-terrorism financing compliance requirements to a wider range of virtual asset services. This includes replacing the concept of “digital currency” with a broader “virtual asset” definition, defined under the AML/CTF Amendment Act 2024. The reforms will very soon apply to crypto-to-crypto exchanges, custodial wallet services, virtual asset transfers, and related financial services. Affected virtual asset service providers, therefore, have weeks to meet the obligations that come with the change, if they haven’t…

Behind the glow of a Telegram chat window, a victim lured by a fake job offer and trafficked into a Southeast Asian scam compound is coerced under violence, running romance scams against strangers half a world away. The wallet collecting the proceeds lies on a public blockchain, and this is just one of the many Southeast Asia crypto scams happening today. This is also one of the uncomfortable intersections Chainalysis maps out in its 2026 Crypto Crime Report. Its data indicates that cryptocurrency flows to suspected human trafficking services reached hundreds of millions of dollars in 2025, an 85% YoY…

Payment processes have always operated according to rules set in advance, with someone accountable when things go wrong, and the same instruction producing the same outcome every time. This was precisely the promise that kept trillions of dollars moving across card networks, real-time settlement systems and every other rail. It is also what autonomous AI agents are now starting to test. Agentic AI payment systems, rather than executing instructions a human has already approved, reason, plan, and initiate transactions on their own at machine speed, possibly even with limited human intervention at each step. Technology giants and fintech startups alike…

Tazapay is putting US$36 million behind agentic payments and cross-border stablecoin rails, betting that AI agents will soon be paying for software by transaction. The Singapore-based payments company closed a Series B extension led by Circle Ventures, with Coinbase Ventures and CMT Digital joining as new backers, taking its total Series B to US$36 million. The fresh capital is earmarked for licensing, corridor expansion across Asia, Latin America, the Americas, and the Middle East, and infrastructure for AI-driven payments. In an interview with Fintech News Network’s Chief Editor Vincent Fong, Chief Product Officer Aayush Singhania unpacks how Tazapay onboards customers…

Would you let a piece of software shop for you? From browsing for options, weighing the price, and clicking buy without checking with you first? In Singapore, a sizeable share of consumers are open to the idea of agentic commerce, recent research shows. But where does the principle of trust stand in all of this? AI Agents May Have an Easier Sell in Singapore Than Elsewhere Nearly half of Singapore’s consumers would allow an AI agent to browse and buy on their behalf, according to agentic commerce research from Worldpay, now Global Payments. A further 41% say they are open…

Back in 2019, GoTyme (or TymeBank as it was known then) was a single South African digital bank trying to prove that a self-service kiosk could open accounts faster than a branch. Fast forward to today, and it has now expanded to serve 20+ million customers across South Africa and the Philippines. The digital bank has also earned the kind of validation most digital banks still chase after. Now, Tyme Group’s scorecard is impressive. A US$250 million Series D funding round led by Nubank in December 2024 minted Tyme as a unicorn. A year later, TIME magazine named the group…

What does the digital assets market look like to someone who’s seen money move from within some of the world’s largest traditional financial institutions and from one of crypto’s most recognised infrastructure companies? For Kirit Bhatia, Chief Digital Assets Officer at Banking Circle, this is the unique vantage point he brings into his role. Before joining Banking Circle in late 2025, Bhatia spent years across JPMorgan Chase, RBS, and Ripple, moving between the old and new worlds of financial infrastructure. He’s now applying that experience at Banking Circle, a fully licensed bank with central bank clearing rails that processes EUR1+…

For decades, the world’s financial system has been running on a robust yet highly intricate infrastructure. Payment rails, settlement systems, regulatory and governance frameworks, and trading infrastructure are all moving parts of the same grid. Together, they enable financial value to move, be held, and be settled across borders, institutions and asset classes. A new layer is now being integrated into that grid by banks and non-banks alike for digital assets. Crucially, as McKinsey notes in its A New Era of Fintech report, “the (digital) assets gaining most attention are those that behave, monetise, and integrate like financial infrastructure.” Against…

Grab Q1 2026 results showed accelerating momentum across its lending business, as the company’s financial services arm disbursed more than $1 billion in loans in a single quarter for the first time. Alex Hungate, Grab’s President and COO, shared on LinkedIn that this has been a strong quarter financially in an otherwise “usually seasonally quieter period.” Grab now has 52 million monthly transacting users, up both YoY and QoQ. He explained more about Grab’s financial services performance, saying, “The power of AI is reshaping Financial Services. AI underwriting is unlocking formal credit to more driver- and merchant-partners, responsibly. We were…

When Dwaipayan Sadhu spoke to Fintech News Singapore last year, the Trust Bank CEO shared that the bank was actively working towards profitability. That target has now materialised. Trust Bank hit profitability in Singapore for the first time in March 2026, just over three years after its launch in September 2022, becoming the first of Singapore’s five digital banks to announce the milestone. But the more important story is how it got there. Backed by Standard Chartered and FairPrice Group, Trust Bank credits the milestone to three drivers: stronger customer engagement, a broader product suite, and greater operating efficiency through…

Stablecoin is having its moment, or as described by some, a “stablecoin summer”. On-chain transactions have climbed from US$27.6 trillion to US$33 trillion. In Singapore alone, US$150 million flowed into four stablecoin startups in a single month. And on 10 April 2026, the Hong Kong Monetary Authority handed its first two stablecoin issuer licences to HSBC and a Standard Chartered-led joint venture, Anchorpoint Financial. With so many developments happening in tandem, there’s a lot to discuss about what these developments mean to the industry. This set the tone for “Why Stablecoins May Become The Backbone of 24/7 Global Trade”, a…

Over the past few years, Pakistan’s digital banking sector has been developing slowly but surely. Back in 2023, the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) approved five digital retail banks, issuing no-objection certificates to HugoBank, KT Bank Pakistan (now Buraq Bank), Mashreq Bank Pakistan, Raqqami Islamic Digital Bank, and Telenor Microfinance Bank. Since then, based on the list of SBP-regulated entities, three digital banks in Pakistan are now in operation: Easypaisa Bank Limited, Mashreq Bank Pakistan Limited, and Raqami Islamic Digital Bank Limited. For consumers searching for the best digital bank in Pakistan, their pick depends on whether they prioritise breadth…