Author: Fintech News Singapore

For the first time, more than half of TNG Digital’s revenue comes from outside payments. So what is Malaysia’s largest e-wallet actually turning into? Alan Ni joined FNN to answer that. He was employee number three at TNG Digital and now runs it as CEO, growing the business from a toll-and-parking wallet into a platform with more than 26 million verified users. In 2025 the company delivered its first full year of profit and became Malaysia’s first fintech unicorn. We got into how the business changed, where the growth is really coming from, and a few things that surprised us.…

Grab’s lending and digital banking businesses drove a 59% rise in financial services revenue in the second quarter of 2026. Revenue from the segment reached US$134 million, while total loans disbursed across GrabFin and its digital banks climbed 72% to a record US$1.2 billion during the quarter. Grab’s gross loan portfolio nearly tripled from a year earlier to US$2.3 billion from US$781 million. Excluding Superbank, which Grab began consolidating in June, the loan portfolio doubled year-on-year. The financial services segment narrowed its adjusted EBITDA loss to US$15 million from US$26 million a year earlier. Customer deposits across GXS Bank in…

Ripple has invested in ZILO and Licuido to expand its infrastructure for tokenised capital markets. Financial terms were not disclosed. The investments build on existing partnerships with both companies and add regulated transfer agency, asset issuance and collateral mobility capabilities to Ripple’s infrastructure on the XRP Ledger, or XRPL. ZILO provides transfer agency and fund administration technology that supports digital record-keeping and tokenised share classes. Licuido operates a tokenisation and trading platform for issuing, distributing and trading traditional financial assets in digital form. Its platform also enables assets such as fund shares to be used as digital collateral. Ripple’s institutional infrastructure…

The bank of 2030 will not be built around branches, fragmented services or siloed channels. It will need to fit into how people actually live, spend, save and make financial decisions. The decisions leaders make today will shape whether their banks stay relevant by the end of the decade. This session looks at what leading banks are building now, and what needs to change. This webinar will bring together thought leaders to explore: What will customers expect by 2030, and where do banks still fall short? Where can AI make banking more personal and responsive when customers need it most?…

Visa has struck a US$2.4 billion deal to acquire behavioural fraud intelligence provider BioCatch. The payments company will buy BioCatch from funds advised by Permira and other shareholders under a definitive agreement. BioCatch uses AI and machine learning to analyse application, behavioural, device and network signals in real time. Its technology helps detect account takeovers, scams, money mule activity and application fraud. The company protects 1.8 billion devices and 760 million users globally. It serves more than 350 banks across 21 countries, including over 100 of the world’s largest banks. The acquisition will add BioCatch’s technology to Visa’s existing cyber,…

Australian payment assurance company Eftsure has expanded its network into Singapore, bringing its continuous payment verification controls to the city-state. The launch allows multinational organisations, particularly those with centralised finance teams using Singapore as a regional hub, to monitor and verify cross-border payments. The expansion comes against a backdrop of rising B2B payment fraud. Reported losses from business email compromise (BEC) approached US$3.5 billion globally in 2025, while companies worldwide lost an estimated 7.7% of top-line revenue to fraud, according to a TransUnion report. Eftsure’s technology provides a continuously verified source of payment data, matching payment details against verified vendor…

DBS has appointed former Citigroup and Ping An executive Jonathan Larsen to the boards of its holding company and banking arm. The appointment took effect on 3 August 2026. Larsen was most recently Chief Innovation Officer at Ping An Group. He also served as Chairman and CEO and Managing Director of the Ping An Global Voyager Fund from May 2017 until his retirement in February 2026. At Ping An, he worked on new technologies, platforms and business models to support the group’s operations in China and overseas. Prior to joining Ping An, Larsen spent 18 years at Citigroup. His last…

Reto Marx has taken over as CEO of Sygnum Singapore while co-founder Gerald Goh moves into an executive chairman role. Effective 1 August 2026, the leadership changes come as Sygnum expands its digital wealth business in Asia. Marx joins from VP Bank Singapore, where he most recently served as CEO, Co-Head Singapore and Chief Risk Officer for Asia. He brings more than 25 years of wealth management experience across UBS, Credit Suisse, Bank Sarasin and VP Bank. Marx’s previous roles covered private banking, financial intermediaries, product development and risk management across Singapore and Hong Kong. He also held several senior…

Singapore’s payments industry has introduced a voluntary code covering pricing, fraud protection and consumer safeguards. The Payments Industry Code of Conduct was launched by the Singapore Fintech Association (SFA) with industry participants. It sets common standards that payment service providers can choose to adopt. The framework covers major payment institutions, standard payment institutions, money-changing licensees and exempt payment service providers for regulated payment services under the Payment Services Act 2019. Digital payment token and crypto-related services are excluded. Adherence is based on self-assessment. Providers that determine they meet the standards can publicly declare themselves a “Code Adherent”, although this does…

More than 40 financial institutions and eight central banks have tested a shared platform for tokenised cross-border payments under Project Agorá. The initiative, led by the Bank for International Settlements (BIS) and the Institute of International Finance (IIF), is exploring whether tokenisation can improve wholesale cross-border payments. Its prototype combines tokenised central bank reserves and commercial bank deposits on a single programmable platform. This allows multi-currency transactions to settle atomically, meaning the payment and related transaction are completed at the same time. The platform could also support around-the-clock settlement if implemented. The eight participating central banks are the Bank of…

Mastercard has appointed six senior executives across Asia Pacific, including new leaders for core payments and Southeast Asia. Joyce Bo joined Mastercard on 3 August as Executive Vice President of Core Payments for Asia Pacific. She will oversee consumer products, digital platforms, acceptance, payment networks, account-to-account capabilities and digital assets across the region. Bo previously served as General Manager at Ant International, where she led payment innovation and the policy centre for Alipay+. She also spent nearly a decade in investment banking and private equity with Morgan Stanley and HSBC in Hong Kong. Abhinav Bhatt took over as General Counsel…

A fraudulent training course is using the names of the Institute of Banking & Finance (IBF) and the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) to target members of the public. The scam material advertises a three-day Capital Markets and Financial Advisory Services (CMFAS) course from 3 to 5 August 2026 for S$490. It lists the IBF Assessment Centre as the training venue. It also includes MAS-related contact information and a purported case reference number, giving the registration form the appearance of an official course. IBF said neither organisation conducts or is responsible for the course. The institute urged the public to…

NTT Data has launched its Adaptis payment service in India. The Japanese technology group is expanding its payments footprint following its acquisition of Malaysian payment processing company GHL Systems, as reported by Nikkei Asia. Adaptis is already operational in Japan, Malaysia, Thailand, and the Philippines. Takeo Ueno, CEO of NTT Data’s Indian subsidiary, said the service in India will match the quality provided in Japan. NTT Data initially entered the Indian payments sector in 2019 through the acquisition of Atom Technologies. That entity now operates as NTT Data Payment Services India and serves several million merchants. The company plans to…

A café owner takes orders on a smartphone, tracks inventory through an app and manages deliveries from the same device. When it’s time for a customer to pay, however, a separate payment terminal still comes out from behind the counter. For many banks, that gap represents one of the biggest opportunities in merchant acquiring. As merchants continue to embrace digital tools, payment acceptance is following the same path. According to the GSMA Mobile Economy Asia Pacific 2025 report, mobile technologies and services contributed US$950 billion to the region’s economy in 2024 and are expected to reach US$1.4 trillion by 2030.…

Chocolate Finance has appointed Shiv Sharma as its new Chief Business Officer as it targets further growth beyond Singapore. Sharma joined the company in June 2026 and reports to founder and CEO Walter de Oude. He will lead its growth and finance functions, including customer acquisition, strategic partnerships and corporate development. Sharma was previously President and Chief Operating Officer of Stocktwits. He has also held roles at Amazon Web Services (AWS) and Cisco. Shiv Sharma, Chief Business Officer of Chocolate Finance, said, “Chocolate has already built a strong foundation with clear customer demand and a brand that has earned trust…

Okta has agreed to acquire Permiso Security as enterprises face growing threats from human, machine and AI identities. Financial terms were not disclosed. The deal will add Permiso’s identity threat detection and response technology to the Okta Platform. It will help organisations identify suspicious behaviour, excessive permissions and other risks across cloud and AI environments. Permiso analyses more than 2,500 security signals across over 70 identity technology partners. These include unusual account activity, unused permissions, policy violations and risky AI agent behaviour. Once integrated, the technology will combine authentication data with behavioural analytics. This will help detect attacks after a…

Trust Bank is set to take on more of Standard Chartered’s everyday lending business in Singapore from September, The Business Times reported. Selected credit card and personal loan customers will move to the digital bank under the arrangement. The transfer will not affect their Standard Chartered deposit accounts, wealth products or insurance policies. The number of customers included in the move was not disclosed. The report also did not provide details on the next steps or how customers could determine whether they were affected. The move expands Trust Bank’s role in everyday banking while Standard Chartered increases its focus on…

Bhutan’s Gelephu Mindfulness City has appointed 3iQ to manage a portion of its Bitcoin treasury. The mandate will be backed by part of GMC’s Bitcoin holdings and forms part of its plans to build an institutional digital asset fund ecosystem in southern Bhutan. In December 2025, plans were announced to allocate up to 10,000 Bitcoin from Bhutan’s national holdings to support the development of the special administrative region. Under the partnership, the Canadian digital asset manager will establish a long-term presence in GMC and support knowledge transfer and the development of local expertise. GMC Board Director Jigdrel Singay said, “Beyond…

OpenAssets and Partior have tested the settlement of digital assets and stablecoins using tokenised commercial bank deposits. The proof of concept demonstrated atomic delivery-versus-payment, where an asset and its corresponding payment move simultaneously to reduce settlement risk. It connected OpenAssets’ digital asset infrastructure with Partior’s settlement network to demonstrate settlement across digital assets, regulated stablecoins and tokenised deposits. The test also covered round-the-clock settlement, automated ledger reconciliation and the option to settle or redeem stablecoin obligations individually or in batches. Partior CEO Humphrey Valenbreder said, “We are excited to partner with OpenAssets to demonstrate a truly scalable path for stablecoins…

Crypto exchange Luno is laying off about 20% of its global workforce as it cuts costs. Chief Executive Officer James Lanigan confirmed the move to Bloomberg but did not disclose how many employees would be affected. He said investments in automation and operational improvements had changed the resources required to run the business. Luno plans to maintain investment in its consumer platform, infrastructure and regulatory compliance. Local-currency stablecoins are another area of focus for the exchange. Luno is a founding participant in ZARU, a South African stablecoin backed by rand-denominated assets. The initiative also involves Sanlam, EasyEquities and Lesaka Technologies.…