Author: Fintech News Singapore

Finmo has appointed Josh D’Ambrosio as Chief Commercial Officer after securing new licences in Dubai, the United Kingdom and Hong Kong SAR. D’Ambrosio will oversee Finmo’s global go-to-market strategy, commercial growth, customer acquisition and strategic partnerships as the company expands across regulated markets. The new licences extend Finmo’s regulatory footprint to eight active jurisdictions. The company is looking to grow adoption of its Treasury Operating System and payment infrastructure across its key markets. D’Ambrosio has a decade of experience in regulated fintech, payments and digital assets. He was most recently Chief Commercial Officer at Banxa, where he helped shift the…

Financial services provider QI Tech has teamed up with Ant International’s Bettr to offer working capital and instalment payment options in Brazil’s online retail sector. The partnership will focus first on working capital loans for small and medium-sized online sellers, helping them fund inventory and support business growth. It will also introduce a Buy Now, Pay Later (BNPL) option for shoppers on AliExpress, allowing consumers to pay for purchases in instalments at checkout. The credit services will use transactional data, automated analysis and real-time decision-making to assess repayment capacity and manage risk. Pedro Mac Dowell, CEO and founder of QI…

Artificial intelligence (AI) has increased the sophistication of fraud, with criminals now increasingly deploying autonomous agents to launch attacks at scale, and improve their odds of success, according to a new report by BioCatch released in June 2026. The report, based on a survey of 1,440 professionals in fraud management, financial crime prevention, and risk and compliance professionals at financial institutions across 25 countries, reveals that 80% of the organizations polled had experienced an attack carried out by an AI agent. These findings are corroborated by other research. The 2026 Interpol Global Financial Fraud Threat Assessment, released in March, warns…

The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) is setting up a Future of Finance Institute to help financial firms move AI and tokenisation projects beyond pilots. The institute will initially focus on AI and tokenisation, bringing together financial institutions, technology firms, researchers and fintech players to support wider adoption across the sector. The Future of Finance Institute will build on existing MAS-led initiatives in AI and tokenisation, including the MindForge AI Risk Management Toolkit, PathFin.ai, Project Guardian and Project Orchid. MAS said the institute will act as a coordinating body for the next phase of Singapore’s financial innovation efforts. While MAS…

Singapore banks are moving to cut the friction families face when ageing, cognitive decline or bereavement turns banking into paperwork. The Association of Banks in Singapore (ABS) has published a senior banking playbook as the country becomes a “super-aged” society, with one in five citizens now aged 65 and above. Banking a Longevity Society sets out 20 initiatives covering scam protection, banking access, financial resilience, estate matters and community support for seniors. A key focus is legacy planning and bereavement support, where families often face unclear processes during difficult transitions. By the first quarter of 2027, banks will align procedures…

Asia Pacific companies are not just receiving global investment. Increasingly, they are deploying it. As the World Economic Forum has documented, APAC’s share of global greenfield FDI has grown from 24% to 31% over the past decade, with India and Japan transitioning from inward FDI recipients to significant outward investment players. Singapore-headquartered companies, Australian firms, and Indian tech companies are building out US, UK, and European operations — and employment compliance in destination markets is consistently underestimated. This is not an HR-only challenge. As FinTech News Singapore has reported, cross-border payroll is becoming core fintech infrastructure — sitting at the…

Jumio has expanded its digital identity acceptance network to more than 60 countries through a new integration with gateway provider Trinsic. The expansion allows businesses to verify users using government-issued digital credentials, such as Singapore’s Singpass and European eIDs, without managing country-specific accreditations. The integration targets financial institutions and fintechs looking to streamline customer onboarding and meet local KYC requirements. As digital credentials increasingly coexist with physical documents, the partnership removes the need for cross-border companies to build separate verification systems. This applies across different jurisdictions. The updated platform enriches basic credential checks with biometric authentication and liveness detection. Jumio…

Singapore’s three local banks and NETS plan to expand ATM and cash access points as part of a wider industry effort to keep physical banking services available for seniors. The move is outlined in the Association of Banks in Singapore’s Banking a Longevity Society playbook, which sets out measures to make banking more accessible for older customers as Singapore becomes a super-aged society. DBS, OCBC, UOB and NETS have committed to ensuring 100% coverage by the end of 2027, with at least one ATM, branch or cashpoint within 500 metres of every HDB block. The distance is based on straight-line…

PayNow could soon move beyond basic transfers as Singapore studies new features for consumers, merchants, businesses and government payments. The work is being led by the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) and the Association of Banks in Singapore (ABS) under the PayNow Gen2 study. The study will focus on four possible areas of upgrade across Singapore’s instant payments infrastructure. These include QR payment interoperability, online checkout improvements, larger-value payments to government agencies and expanded capabilities for business use. The areas were identified through consultations with 37 organisations and benchmarking against 11 jurisdictions. Making PayNow Work Across More Payment Use Cases…

Airwallex has brought back former executive Pranav Sood as CFO as the company strengthens its finance leadership after its recent fundraise. Sood joins from Bain Capital’s growth equity fund, where he worked with technology companies across the UK and Europe. The appointment marks a return to Airwallex. Sood previously helped build the company’s EMEA operations and led its global marketing function. He brings investment experience and knowledge of the company’s commercial operations to the role. Sood will be based in London, which remains one of Airwallex’s key hubs for international expansion. Pranav Sood, incoming Chief Financial Officer, said, “Airwallex is…

Airwallex has raised US$320 million in Series H funding. The investment increases the global payments firm’s valuation to US$11 billion and will fund its expansion into AI-driven financial software. Returning investor Addition led the funding round, with participation from Baillie Gifford, Hummingbird, QED Investors, T. Rowe Price, Hedosophia, Haun Ventures, Washington University in St. Louis, and Amex Ventures. Airwallex stated the fresh capital will accelerate product development across autonomous finance. The company plans to expand its infrastructure and regulatory presence in new markets. “We believe this is the most consequential moment in the history of global finance, and we are…

DBS is providing a US$210 million senior financing facility to ETAFCo, the investment vehicle for an energy transition partnership managed by Clifford Capital. The transaction makes DBS the only commercial bank to support two partnerships within the Monetary Authority of Singapore’s (MAS) FAST-P initiative. The financing marks the first loan extended to ETAFCo. The funds will support debt investments in energy transition infrastructure. This includes renewable energy, grid modernisation, and energy storage. It also covers other clean energy solutions designed to reduce reliance on coal-fired power generation. The Energy Transition Acceleration Finance (ETAF) partnership aims to mobilise concessional and private…

NTT Data is deploying AI coding platform Cursor across its global software engineering operations. The technology services company aims to speed up the modernisation of legacy enterprise systems by embedding AI directly into its development environments. The partnership integrates Cursor’s multi-model AI agents into the engineering layer NTT Data uses to design, build, and refactor code. The deployment includes enterprise-grade governance controls such as organisation-wide privacy modes, centralised administration, and policy enforcement to manage how AI is applied during software development. “Through our partnership with Cursor, we will use AI in the core of our engineering and delivery model, enabling…

JPMorgan has promoted Kelvin Goh and Alfons Halim to jointly lead its investment banking operations across Southeast Asia. The leadership changes take effect immediately, according to an announcement reported by The Business Times. Both executives will continue to operate from their current base in Singapore while managing their expanded regional responsibilities. Goh currently serves as the head of the financial institutions group for the Asia Pacific region. Halim holds the position of head of Asia Pacific real estate for the corporate division. The new appointments allow both executives to retain their existing roles while guiding the strategic direction of the…

Thredd has brought Visa Cloud Connect live in Asia Pacific to strengthen its cloud-based issuing infrastructure. The setup is centralised in Singapore, Thredd’s regional cloud hub for Asia Pacific. It is designed to help clients launch card programmes faster, shorten release cycles and improve platform reliability. Visa Cloud Connect gives organisations access to VisaNet, Visa’s global payments network, through cloud-based infrastructure. For Thredd, the rollout is part of a wider move away from traditional data centre hardware toward cloud-native infrastructure with direct network connectivity. The company expects the shift to reduce reliance on third-party intermediaries and give it more control…

Xweave, a Singapore-based non-custodial payments infrastructure platform, announced that it is deploying Solana to bring stablecoin-powered settlement to institutional treasury operations across the Asia Pacific. The Xweave stablecoin settlement solution will integrate Solana’s settlement infrastructure directly into its payments platform. This would allow corporate treasurers, banks, and financial institutions to move capital across borders. Notably, Xweave is a participant in BLOOM*, an initiative by the Monetary Authority of Singapore. Announced at Point Zero Forum in Zurich, the move aims to address real-time treasury liquidity across borders, with Xweave and Solana working together. Milind Sanghavi,  the Co-Founder and  CEO of Xweave,…

UOB is creating a board-level technology committee to oversee its digital strategy, technology risk and operational resilience. The Board Technology Committee will take effect on 1 July 2026. It will support the board in guiding the bank’s technology and digital strategy, while overseeing technology risk management, operational resilience and governance. The move is part of a wider set of UOB board changes taking effect in July. Wong Kan Seng will be redesignated as a Non-Executive and Non-Independent Director from 27 July 2026. He will also assume the role of Non-Independent Chairman from the same date. Steven Phan Swee Kim will…

Singapore’s FAST-P energy transition fund has raised US$250 million at first close to support infrastructure projects across Asia. The Energy Transition Acceleration Finance partnership, or ETAF, is a blended finance fund under Singapore’s Financing Asia’s Transition Partnership initiative. It is backed by the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS), Clifford Capital and the Private Infrastructure Development Group. The first close is for ETAF’s displacement strategy, which will fund grid modernisation and other infrastructure projects that can help reduce reliance on fossil fuel-based power generation. ETAF also has a replacement strategy focused on replacing coal-fired power generation with lower-emissions power sources. Blended…

The insurance industry stands at an inflection point as uninsured losses and liability claims continue to rise. Through 2030, these risks are expected to surge further, with cybersecurity poised to become the top business insurance risk, surpassing natural disasters, mortality, and healthcare, according to a new report by Japanese information technology firm NTT Data. This shifts indicate that emerging, technology-driven threats are expanding faster than traditional underwriting and risk management models can adapt. In 2023, the protection gap for cybersecurity stood at US$171 billion. That figure is projected to grow more than fourfold, reaching US$743.75 billion by 2030, positioning cybersecurity…

StashAway’s latest filings point to tighter cost control at the digital wealth platform, with revenue growth outpacing expenses in 2024, according to DealStreetAsia. Revenue for the year ended 31 December 2024 rose 44.1% to US$10.45 million from US$7.25 million in 2023, driven entirely by asset management fees. Net loss narrowed to US$8.43 million from US$10.91 million, while operating costs rose just 2.1% to US$19.38 million. Expenses Stay Largely Flat CEO and co-founder Michele Ferrario attributed the revenue growth to clients investing more through StashAway, supported by its broader investment suite. Personnel remained the largest cost item at US$12.49 million, including…