Author: Fintech News Singapore

Atome Financial grew its 2025 revenue by 80% to a record US$470 million and achieved a second consecutive year of pre-tax profitability. The Singapore-based digital financial services company also reported a 52% increase in total operating income to US$360 million. Gross merchandise volume rose more than 60% to over US$4 billion. Atome attributed the growth to an expanding loan book, broader merchant partnerships, new product launches and AI-driven operational efficiencies. The company offers buy now, pay later (BNPL), card, lending and insurance products across Southeast Asia. Growth continued into 2026. As of June, annualised net revenue had reached US$800 million,…

Visa has introduced new tools for AI-led payments, tokenised credentials and stablecoin settlement. Announced at Visa Payments Forum 2026, the updates aim to prepare its network for transactions increasingly handled by AI agents and blockchain-based systems. Jack Forestell, Visa’s Chief Product and Strategy Officer, said, “AI is transforming the front end of commerce. Stablecoins are reshaping the back end. Visa’s role is to enable it to work securely, reliably and at global scale, for every participant in the ecosystem.” It is expanding the Visa Intelligent Commerce platform to let AI agents make payments on behalf of consumers and businesses within…

Temenos has appointed new product and technology chiefs to steer its next phase of banking software development. Cormac Flanagan will become Chief Product Officer, while Tony Coleman will rejoin the company as Chief Technology Officer. Both appointments take effect on 3 August 2026. Flanagan has more than 30 years of experience in core banking across product, services and sales. He has previously held senior product leadership roles at Temenos and Finastra. Coleman spent more than 20 years at Temenos and previously served as its Chief Technology Officer. During his earlier tenure, he helped modernise the company’s core banking architecture and…

Artificial intelligence (AI) has become the defining technology conversation in banking. Across lending, deposits, fraud prevention, customer service and operations, financial institutions are investing heavily in AI to improve efficiency and create better customer experiences. Yet despite the excitement, relatively few institutions have successfully moved AI into production at scale. The reason is often misunderstood. Most discussions focus on choosing the right model, hiring data scientists or experimenting with new AI tools. Those are important decisions, but they are rarely what determines success. The real constraint is infrastructure. An AI system is only as capable as the platform underneath it.…

HashKey is seeking to acquire APEX to expand its institutional trading and clearing operations in Singapore. Its wholly owned subsidiary, HKDAG (Singapore), has signed a non-binding framework agreement with Asia Pacific Exchange and its major shareholder for the potential purchase of the entire company. APEX holds an Approved Exchange licence from the Monetary Authority of Singapore, while its group company, Asia Pacific Clear, holds an Approved Clearing House licence. Together, the licences allow the group to operate trading, clearing and settlement infrastructure in Singapore. The acquisition would strengthen HashKey’s institutional capabilities across trading, custody, payments, clearing and settlement while expanding…

OCBC is using agentic AI to cut private banking account opening times to 15 business days. Its HELIOS platform collects, verifies and assesses customer information before a relationship manager engages a prospective client, allowing much of the KYC due diligence process to be completed earlier. The system flags missing information and reduces repeated exchanges between clients, relationship managers and compliance teams. Loretta Yuen, OCBC’s Head of Group Legal and Compliance, said, “We need to identify potential concerns earlier and assess financial crime risks more holistically. By combining agentic AI with the expertise of our compliance professionals, HELIOS enables us to…

Visa processed US$3.7 billion through stablecoin-linked cards across more than 200 markets over the past year. The volume came from 1.9 million stablecoin-denominated cards, with the strongest growth recorded in Colombia, Argentina and Brazil. Visa has also settled nearly US$800 million in assets such as USDC since introducing the capability in 2023. Monthly activity has since passed a US$2.5 billion annualised run rate. The service allows issuers and acquirers to transfer funds seven days a week, helping reduce collateral needs and improve access to liquidity. Visa Expands Stablecoin Use in Cross-Border Payments Visa has also introduced stablecoin prefunding for Visa…

Standard Chartered has appointed Kavita Kulkarni as Chief Technology and Operations Officer for India and South Asia. Based in Mumbai, Kulkarni will join the bank’s India Country Management Team and oversee its technology and operations strategy while supporting its priorities across the region. She has more than 25 years of experience in banking, wealth management and technology. Kulkarni has held senior roles at multinational financial institutions in India, the United Kingdom and the United States. Prior to joining Standard Chartered, Kulkarni was Managing Director and Chief Information Officer for Private Banking and Wealth Management at Barclays. She led global technology…

Visa is cutting about 2,600 jobs as it reshapes its workforce and shifts resources towards areas with stronger growth potential. The planned reduction amounts to around 7% of the company’s employees, Reuters reported, citing a Visa spokesperson. Technology and product teams will bear most of the cuts. Visa reported approximately 34,100 employees at the end of fiscal 2025, an increase of 8% from the previous year. Chief Executive Ryan McInerney told employees that the changes would improve efficiency and free up resources for higher-potential opportunities. McInerney also pointed to artificial intelligence as a tool that is accelerating changes in how…

The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) and the Association of Banks in Singapore (ABS) are bringing financial institutions and payment infrastructure providers together to address cyber risks linked to frontier AI. The AI-Driven Cyber and Technology Risk Taskforce, known as ACT, has brought together members since May 2026. Its members include MAS, ABS, DBS, OCBC, UOB, Singapore Exchange (SGX), Network for Electronic Transfers (NETS) and Banking Computer Services (BCS). The multidisciplinary taskforce brings together leaders in cybersecurity, technology resilience and AI. It was formed as frontier AI models make it easier for attackers to rapidly identify and exploit vulnerabilities and…

Fenergo is bringing governed agentic AI into KYC with a new platform built for regulated financial institutions. The company has launched Fen-AI, an orchestration platform designed to automate client lifecycle and compliance work while maintaining human oversight, policy controls and a complete audit trail. Fen-AI powers KYRA, Fenergo’s family of AI agents for onboarding, periodic reviews, ongoing monitoring and material client changes. Built on Fenergo’s Fen-X Legal Entity System of Record, the platform records the actions, sources, decisions and reasoning behind each task. It also governs how AI agents access client data, apply regulatory policies and carry out work. “Risk…

More than 10 million DBS customers use virtual assistants that are being upgraded to answer queries and support selected banking requests. DBS is expanding generative AI and agentic AI capabilities across DBS Joy for corporate users and DBS digibot for individuals, with the upgrades being introduced in phases across Singapore, Hong Kong and Taiwan. DBS Joy became fully agentic in Singapore earlier this week, allowing corporate and SME customers to complete simple banking tasks within a single conversation. Around 350,000 corporate users can now ask whether a payment went through, review transfers to a specific recipient or check fees paid.…

eToro has added more than 50 exchange-traded funds (ETFs) to expand investment choices for retail investors in Singapore. The funds provide exposure to markets including China, South Korea, Taiwan and Japan, as well as areas such as clean energy, healthcare, biotechnology, autonomous vehicles and other emerging technologies. The selection focuses on Asian markets and thematic investment areas that have drawn interest from local users. Yaki Razmovich, Managing Director of Singapore and Asia at eToro, said, ” This new batch of ETFs reflects our close engagement with our community and their interests, whether it’s targeted exposure to China’s clean energy, healthcare…

Microsoft has launched an agentic AI system that uses teams of specialised agents to find and fix cyber risks. Project Perception brings together AI agents that simulate attacks, investigate threats and address security weaknesses. The system will enter public preview on 3 August. The platform divides these tasks among three groups. Red team agents identify possible attack paths before they are exploited, while blue team agents investigate activity and determine which risks require attention. Green team agents then take corrective action and strengthen defences. Microsoft designed the agents to work together in a continuous cycle that tests, evaluates and improves…

Circle has acquired nearly 1,000 blockchain patents from IBM, expanding its intellectual property holdings across financial services and enterprise technology. Financial terms were not disclosed. The deal covers more than 680 patent families spanning banking, insurance, supply chain verification, secure cloud operations and core blockchain infrastructure. Circle said the transaction makes it the largest holder of blockchain patents in the United States. The intellectual property will support its onchain financial infrastructure, including USDC, Circle Payments Network, Arc and its broader range of financial products and agent-based tools. Circle and IBM also plan to explore further commercial opportunities. “Intellectual property is…

OpenRouter may command about US$10 billion in a sale as Stripe considers acquiring the AI platform. The companies are discussing a potential deal, according to people familiar with the matter cited by The Wall Street Journal. Several technology companies have also examined OpenRouter as an acquisition target, while Stripe’s talks may not result in an agreement. OpenRouter gives developers access to AI models from multiple providers through one platform. Its catalogue spans more than 400 models supplied by over 70 providers, covering both proprietary and open-weight systems. The companies already have a commercial relationship because Stripe handles payments for OpenRouter.…

Triple-A, a Singapore-based crypto payments company, confirmed in an official statement that it identified unauthorised access to certain wallets holding the company’s own digital assets on 25 July. Client funds were not affected, the company said, since Triple-A does not custody client digital assets and client funds are held separately in trust accounts with safeguarding institutions that were not exposed. As a precaution, Triple-A placed certain services into maintenance mode for about three hours while it secured the affected infrastructure. Triple-A has since restored all services, with transactions and settlements processing normally across all markets. The company said it remains…

HSBC is expanding its Singapore operations with a new global AI hub and a larger wealth management team. According to The Business Times, the bank will recruit more than 100 AI specialists and add 100 wealth relationship managers over the next two years. The AI hires will form the core team at HSBC’s first global AI centre of excellence, which is due to open in Singapore later in 2026. The centre will develop technology for the bank’s wealth management and global payments operations. Projects will include digital wealth journeys, AI portfolio tools, treasury applications and agent-led e-commerce payments. The Singapore…

KPay has received In-Principle Approval (IPA) from the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) for a Major Payments Institution (MPI) licence under the Payment Services Act 2019. The approval applies to KPay’s Singapore subsidiary, KPay Merchant Service (Singapore) Pte. Ltd. An IPA is not itself a licence. It reflects MAS’s assessment that a licence may be issued once the applicant meets specified conditions, provided no material adverse developments arise in the meantime, and MAS reserves the right to rescind it. Subject to fulfilling those conditions, the MPI licence would let KPay offer a broader range of regulated payment services in Singapore,…

World Foundation has raised US$52.5 million to expand its World ID infrastructure as demand grows for online identity verification. Pantera Capital led the initial close, with participation from Bain Capital Crypto, Eightco Holdings, Selini Capital, Susquehanna Crypto and other investors. The funding came through a WLD token sale, with all tokens locked for 12 months. The capital will support wider adoption of World ID among businesses, consumers and AI agents. World ID allows users to prove they are unique humans online without revealing their identities. The digital credential is issued after a one-time Orb verification and stored on the user’s…