Author: Fintech News Singapore

Invest Hong Kong (InvestHK) announced that applications are now open for the ninth edition of the Global Fast Track (GFT) 2026 until September 25. For the first time, the flagship initiative will cover eight major verticals and introduce a new Online Market Readiness Programme, alongside an upgraded pitching competition. These enhancements provide a platform for innovative technology companies to showcase their solutions, while offering more diverse and flexible pathways to leverage Hong Kong as a launchpad for expansion into Asian and international markets. Anchored around Hong Kong Fintech Week x StartmeupHK 2026, the programme offers participating companies tailored business matching,…

Coda has secured a full Major Payment Institution licence from the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) as it strengthens its regulated payments operations. The licence allows Coda Payments to provide payment services including merchant acquisition as well as domestic and cross-border money transfers. The approval follows Coda’s earlier in-principle approval from MAS in November 2024. Coda supports digital content monetisation and distribution for publishers such as Activision, Electronic Arts, HoYoverse and Moonton. Its platform supports more than 400 payment methods in over 70 markets. Shane Happach, CEO of Coda, said Singapore would continue to play a central role in the…

CLICX is set to test Thailand’s virtual banking market by targeting consumers who struggle to access credit through conventional banks. The Nation reported that the bank will open account number reservations on 2 June, followed by its mobile app launch on 19 June. It received its virtual bank licence from the Bank of Thailand on 14 May 2026. Backed by Krungthai Bank, Advanced Info Service and PTT Oil and Retail Business, CLICX brings together banking infrastructure, telecoms data and a large retail ecosystem. The three partners have a combined customer base of more than 50 million. CLICX plans to assess…

PingPong has partnered with Visa to let businesses pay supplier invoices by commercial card even when suppliers do not accept card payments. The new Card to Account Payment Solution is part of Visa’s Business Payment Solution Provider programme and gives corporate buyers another way to manage supplier payments. Suppliers receive funds as a standard bank transfer, while buyers can defer cash outflow by up to 45 days without taking on additional debt. The solution is live in the UK, the EU and Hong Kong, with rollout to the US and Singapore planned for 2026. It supports supplier payments across more…

DBS Group CEO Tan Su Shan has ranked sixth on Fortune’s 2026 Most Powerful Women in Business list, making her the only banker from Asia in the top 10. Tan was also the only Singaporean in the top 10 and one of two Singaporeans in the full list of 100 business leaders. Tan’s Rise at DBS She took over as CEO and Director of DBS Group on 28 March 2025, succeeding Piyush Gupta after his retirement. Her appointment made her DBS’ first female CEO and its first homegrown CEO. Fortune noted that Tan inherited a high bar from Gupta, who…

Airwallex has rolled out a billing platform for businesses managing subscriptions, usage-based pricing and cross-border invoicing. Airwallex Billing is now available to all customers and is built on the company’s global financial infrastructure. The platform helps businesses manage different revenue models as they expand across markets, including recurring subscriptions, invoice-based payments and usage-based pricing. It supports real-time metering for companies that charge based on usage, such as AI, infrastructure and API-driven businesses. This includes pricing models based on tokens, API calls, tasks and outcomes. Airwallex Billing also includes subscription management tools for recurring billing and automated renewals, which could support…

YouTrip has launched a family travel card in Singapore that lets children aged 7 to 18 spend under parental supervision. The new YouTrip Family feature gives children their own physical card and optional app access, while allowing parents to manage spending limits, alerts and card security from their YouTrip app. The feature is aimed at helping children build money habits through everyday spending, overseas payments and exposure to foreign currencies while travelling. Parents can create and manage up to 10 child accounts at no additional fee. Each account is set up using the parent’s Singpass verification, with the physical card…

Standard Chartered has appointed Shebani Baweja as Group Chief Data Officer, effective immediately. Based in Singapore, Shebani will report to Alvaro Garrido, Chief Operating Officer for Technology & Operations and Chief Information Officer for Information Security & Data. She will lead the Group Data Office and oversee how data is governed, managed and used across the bank. Her role will also cover the execution of Standard Chartered’s data strategy, including stronger data foundations, more consistent practices and wider use of analytics across the organisation. Shebani has more than 20 years of experience in data-led digital transformation. She joined Standard Chartered…

Alipay+ is rolling out cross-border mobile payment services in Latin America through a partnership with regional fintech company PVS. The integration allows users of Alipay+ partner applications, which include 50 e-wallets, banking apps, and over 10 national QR schemes, to make QR payments at participating PVS merchants. The service will initially cover Chile and Argentina before expanding to other markets. Through a single integration, merchants can accept payments in their local currency while gaining access to cross-border digital marketing tools. For tourists, the service reduces the need for manual currency exchange. “At PVS, we are proud to partner with Alipay+…

Snowflake has committed US$6 billion to AWS over five years as part of a wider agreement focused on enterprise AI workloads. The multi-year Snowflake AWS collaboration covers product integrations, workload migrations, customer support and go-to-market activity through AWS Marketplace. The agreement is aimed at helping customers build AI applications on governed enterprise data, reducing the need to move sensitive information between systems. Sridhar Ramaswamy, CEO of Snowflake, said, “We are moving into the era of the agentic enterprise, where AI systems don’t just answer questions, but help organisations reason over trusted data, coordinate workflows, and drive real business outcomes. With…

Aayush Singhania is Chief Product Officer at Tazapay, a Singapore-based cross-border payments platform that onboards customers across 70-plus countries and recently raised $36M to expand its stablecoin and agentic payments infrastructure. He joins Vincent Fong to explain why the SaaS subscription model breaks the moment AI agents become the customers, what replaces it, and how stablecoins connect two of fintech’s biggest open questions: how money moves across borders, and how software gets paid for in a world where AI agents are the buyers. In this episode: Why $30 trillion sits frozen in correspondent banking accounts How stablecoins disappear into the…

Nium has joined Circle Payments Network to connect USDC settlement with local payouts across more than 190 countries. The move makes Nium a global payout partner for CPN, giving participating financial institutions access to its infrastructure across 100 currencies. Through the integration, institutions can route payments from CPN to Nium’s local rails through a single connection. The setup includes FX optimisation and smart routing, allowing payments to be converted and delivered without institutions having to manage multiple providers across different markets. Circle provides USDC-powered settlement through an institutional payments network, while Nium supports delivery in local currencies to bank accounts,…

Alibaba Cloud has launched new AI models, infrastructure upgrades, an AI-native platform and agent products for global customers. The announcements were made at Alibaba Cloud’s first international Qwen Conference in Singapore, where Qwen3.7-Max was made available in the Singapore region through Model Studio. Qwen3.7-Max is Alibaba’s latest large language model for building AI agents. According to Artificial Analysis’ latest global large language model Intelligence Index, it ranked fifth globally and first among Chinese models. Alibaba Cloud also launched a Skills portal that converts cloud capabilities across more than 60 products into skill-based and MCP-compatible formats. The portal allows AI agents…

KPMG has launched a Trusted AI Centre of Excellence in Singapore to help companies close governance gaps as AI adoption moves beyond experimentation. The centre is supported by the Singapore Economic Development Board and will focus on AI strategy, governance, workforce readiness, data infrastructure and regulatory preparedness. KPMG also introduced its Trusted AI Assurance offering, which assesses both an organisation’s AI governance and the trustworthiness of the AI systems it has built or adopted. The offering is intended to support wider deployment, including in overseas markets with different regulatory requirements. The assessment reviews areas such as governance, risk controls, system…

The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) Managing Director Chia Der Jiun has flagged the risk that global growth could become too narrowly driven by AI if gains remain concentrated among a small group of companies and sectors. Speaking at the UBS Asian Investment Conference, Singapore Wealth Edition, Chia pointed to AI as one of the main forces supporting investment, market optimism and global growth this year. He noted that AI-related investment contributed most of US investment growth and half of US GDP growth, while AI-related stocks drove most of the market’s gains. Asia has also benefited from the AI boom.…

HSBC CEO Georges Elhedery has told employees to embrace artificial intelligence (AI) as the bank considers how the technology could change the way some roles are performed, according to Reuters. The remarks come as banks examine how generative AI could automate tasks linked to information processing and routine workflows. Elhedery encouraged HSBC staff to approach the transition constructively, rather than view AI as a threat to be resisted. He acknowledged that generative AI would remove some jobs while creating others, and presented the technology as a way to improve productivity across the bank. The remarks show HSBC is preparing employees…

Google Cloud has launched an AI accelerator for startups in Southeast Asia, with a focus on developing enterprise tools for sectors including fintech and smart logistics. The three-month, equity-free initiative, named Google for Startups Accelerator: Southeast Asia, will commence in August 2026. The programme is a collaboration with Enterprise Singapore (EnterpriseSG), Indonesia’s Ministry of Communication and Digital Affairs, and Vietnam’s National Innovation Center and Startup and Innovation Hub of Ho Chi Minh City. A cohort of 25 startups will receive up to US$350,000 in cloud credits to build their products using Google Cloud’s AI infrastructure. The initiative includes a residency…

The Private Banking Industry Group (PBIG) has committed to reducing private banking client onboarding times in Singapore to under one month by the end of 2026. The move aims to streamline an account opening process that currently takes a median of five to six weeks. To support this target, the PBIG released a set of process enhancement tips. The tips are designed to help banks address common onboarding bottlenecks. The initiative is part of a broader effort to use technology to accelerate client approvals without weakening regulatory safeguards. The PBIG established the Account Opening Working Group in mid-2025 to improve…

The Banking and Financial Services Union has called for early support for Standard Chartered employees who may be affected by the bank’s AI-linked job cuts, Channel News Asia reported. Standard Chartered plans to reduce more than 15 percent of its corporate function roles by 2030. The move is expected to affect more than 7,000 roles. The bank has more than 52,000 employees in corporate function roles and nearly 82,000 staff worldwide. BFSU Executive Secretary Catherine Cho urged Standard Chartered to keep investing in workers as banking roles change. She called for early transition support, including training and upskilling. Standard Chartered…

Mayapada Group fintech company adopts Oradian’s digital-native core banking and loan management system to support expansion, faster product innovation, and scalable growth. Indonesia’s digital lending sector is entering a new stage of maturity. For fast-growing lenders, the challenge is no longer simply acquiring customers or increasing loan volumes. It is building the operational infrastructure needed to scale sustainably while maintaining flexibility, visibility, and regulatory readiness. This shift is driving growing demand for modern lending infrastructure across the Indonesian market, particularly among institutions looking to accelerate growth without compromising operational control or auditability. Against this backdrop, Pohon Dana, a Mayapada Group…