Author: Fintech News Singapore

HSBC Singapore has added priority medical access, health screening and longevity services to its Premier proposition. The new privileges are available to HSBC Premier clients through partnerships with IHH Healthcare Singapore, IHH’s regional network and Raffles Medical Group. The move reflects growing demand among affluent clients in Singapore for proactive health, wellness and longevity support. HSBC said it has seen a 35% increase over the past five years in the number of customers making health-related transactions on its credit cards. The privileges include a 24/7 IHH health concierge service for medical enquiries, initial assessments, specialist referrals, appointment bookings, hospital admissions,…

Aspire has refreshed its startup programme with new fundraising support, AI testing tools and incentives to help early-stage founders stretch their runway. The updated Aspire for Startups programme is available to founders in Singapore, Hong Kong and the United States. The programme includes priority onboarding within three to five days, dedicated startup specialists and Aspire Ignite, which supports startups raising Seed and Series A funding. Aspire is also introducing an AI sandbox to help founders test and refine products in a live environment, along with support for startups looking to scale in the United States. Eligible founders can also access…

Circle raised US$222 million through an ARC token presale for Arc, its new institutional Layer 1 blockchain, giving the network a US$3 billion fully diluted valuation. The presale drew backing from investors including a16z crypto, BlackRock, ARK Invest, Apollo Funds and Standard Chartered Ventures. Circle also published the ARC Token whitepaper, which outlines how the token could support governance, security and network operations on Arc. USDC Growth Lifts Revenue Circle reported total revenue and reserve income of US$694 million in the first quarter of 2026, up 20% year-on-year. Revenue less distribution costs rose 24% to US$287 million, while adjusted EBITDA…

Wise has started trading on Nasdaq as the payments company looks to deepen its presence in the US market. The company will maintain its secondary listing on the London Stock Exchange, where its shares trade on the Main Market. For the financial year ended 31 March 2026, Wise reported cross-border volume of US$243 billion, up 31% year-on-year. Customer holdings rose 40% to US$39 billion, including US$9 billion in Wise Assets holdings. Transaction revenue increased 22% to US$1.9 billion. This included US$1.3 billion in cross-border revenue and US$600 million from card and other revenue, which rose 34% year-on-year. Card spend reached…

Digital wealth platform Syfe is rolling out a new feature allowing users to co-manage investment portfolios and build shared wealth. The product is currently live for an early-access group, with a full public launch expected in the coming weeks. The launch of Syfe joint accounts in Singapore targets what the platform describes as a “coordination gap” in retail wealth management. According to a recent company survey, more than 40% of respondents currently invest separately and struggle to coordinate their finances manually. Furthermore, the survey revealed that a single person manages all investments in 30% of households. This setup often leads…

Vietnamese merchant management platform SoBanHang has raised at least US$3.8 million in a pre-Series A round to expand its digital services for micro-enterprises across the region, according to regulatory filings and a report by DealStreetAsia. The round was anchored by Malaysia’s Hong Leong Bank, which invested US$2 million, while OSK-SBI Venture Partners contributed US$1.5 million. Existing backers FEBE Ventures and Antler also participated, filings with Singapore’s Accounting and Corporate Regulatory Authority showed. Sources told DealStreetAsia that the fundraising is still ongoing. The latest financing comes three years after SoBanHang raised US$4 million in seed funding in 2021 across two tranches.…

Yuno has partnered with digital payment institution Triple-A to enable stablecoin payment acceptance for its global merchant network. Through a single API integration, Yuno allows businesses to process stablecoin transactions alongside traditional fiat payment methods. The setup uses Triple-A’s regulated infrastructure, meaning merchants can receive digital currency payments without holding or managing the assets themselves. Triple-A holds a Major Payment Institution license from the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS), as well as regulatory approvals in the USand Europe. The company currently supports more than 1,000 enterprise customers to process digital payments. “Across industries like SaaS, gaming, e-commerce, travel, and the…

Asia Pacific investment platform Syfe has reported a threefold increase in trading growth activity year on year. According to a recent company announcement, an increasing number of investors are moving beyond a strictly US focus to gain exposure to Singapore and other global markets. The share of users trading in non-US markets doubled from the first quarter of 2025 to the first quarter of 2026. The adoption of UCITS and equities listed on the Singapore Exchange drove the trading growth that Syfe is experiencing. To support this shift, the company expanded its suite of tools to empower users to build…

Singapore is advancing legislative amendments to establish an SGX Nasdaq dual listing framework aimed at improving the competitiveness of its domestic equities market. The Securities and Futures (Amendment) Bill was introduced at its Second Reading on Thursday (May 7), according to a speech published by the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) delivered by Chee Hong Tat, Minister for National Development and Deputy Chairman of MAS. The Bill sets up a regulatory framework to support dual listing arrangements, including the new Global Listing Board. The framework allows issuers to access capital across both markets through a single prospectus and harmonised regulatory…

CIMB Group has appointed Mak Joon Nien as CEO of Growth Markets and CEO of CIMB Singapore, subject to regulatory approval. Mak will be based in Singapore and will join the CIMB Group Executive Committee. In his role as CEO of Growth Markets, he will lead CIMB Singapore and oversee CIMB Thailand and CIMB Cambodia. His focus will be on accelerating business growth, strengthening cross-border connectivity and advancing regional opportunities. Novan Amirudin, Group CEO of CIMB Group, said, “Growth Markets is a key pillar of CIMB’s ASEAN strategy, and Mak’s deep regional experience, strong execution track record and client relationships…

Crypto.com has launched Crypto.com Travel, an in-app booking service powered by Bookit that gives eligible users another way to earn crypto rewards. The service is available through the Crypto.com App for Level Up subscribers in eligible jurisdictions, expanding the company’s benefits programme into travel and entertainment bookings. Crypto.com Travel gives users access to more than one million global travel listings, including hotels, flights, cruises, car rentals and experiences, as well as 20 million tickets. Level Up subscribers can earn up to 35% back in Crypto.com’s native CRO token on eligible bookings, depending on their tier, booking type and applicable terms.…

Temenos has launched two composable solutions that allow banks to modernise retail deposits and lending without replacing their full core systems. Temenos Composable Retail Deposits and Temenos Composable Retail Lending are cloud-native, standalone capabilities that connect to existing banking systems through APIs and event-driven integrations. The solutions are aimed at banks still running on legacy platforms that are costly to upgrade and difficult to integrate with newer technologies. Temenos said each capability has clear functional boundaries and its own deployment and upgrade cycle, helping banks make changes without affecting other systems. Barb Morgan, Chief Product and Technology Officer at Temenos,…

Anchorage Digital has launched Agentic Banking to help institutions control how AI agents access and move money. The company is also expanding its partnership with Google Cloud, combining Google’s AI and MPC key management infrastructure with Anchorage Digital’s regulated financial rails. The companies said Google’s Gemini models will support reasoning for agentic commerce decisions, while Anchorage Digital provides the regulated settlement layer. Agentic Banking lets institutions set spending policies, Know Your Agent identity standards and compliance checks before an AI agent completes a transaction. The platform supports settlement through stablecoins, fiat rails or tokenised credentials. Nathan McCauley, Co-Founder and CEO…

Singapore has received a strong assessment from the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) for its financial crime controls, even as the watchdog flagged areas to strengthen in foreign legal structures and some proliferation financing risks. The FATF published its latest mutual evaluation report on Singapore on 6 May 2026. The review assessed Singapore’s compliance with FATF standards and the effectiveness of its measures to counter money laundering, terrorism financing and proliferation financing. Singapore was placed on Regular Follow-up, the monitoring process for FATF members that have performed well. The latest assessment also marks an improvement from Singapore’s previous evaluation in…

Singapore is outperforming traditional economic powerhouses like the US and European nations in AI adoption, underscoring that implementing specific strategies is essential to boost AI usage and implementation, according to the Stanford University’s Human-Centered Artificial Intelligence (HAI) 2026 AI Index report. In H2 2025, AI adoption in Singapore stood at 61%, making the country the biggest adopter of AI in Asia-Pacific and the second-largest in the world after the United Arab Emirates (UAE) at 64%. In comparison, European and North American averages reached approximately 27% and 22%, respectively, with most high-income economies clustered between 25% and 45% adoption. This disproportionately…

Advance Intelligence Group has made a fresh US$149 million capital injection into its subsidiary Atome Financial, months after the consumer finance business secured an upsized debt facility. The capital was injected through a share subscription, DealStreetAsia reported, citing regulatory filings with Singapore’s Accounting and Corporate Regulatory Authority. Advance Intelligence subscribed to about 38 million ordinary shares in Atome Financial at US$3.90 per share, according to the filings. Atome Financial operates the group’s consumer finance business, including the buy now, pay later (BNPL) platform Atome. The capital injection follows Atome’s renewed and upsized US$345 million syndicated debt facility announced in January.…

KAST has launched USD stablecoin cashback, allowing users to earn up to 3% cashback on card spending. The feature sits alongside KAST’s existing points-based rewards and comes as stablecoins are being used beyond crypto trading. Cashback rates vary by membership tier. Standard users can earn 1.5% cashback on the first US$2,000 of monthly card spend. Premium members can earn 2% cashback on up to US$10,000 in monthly spend, along with 1% in KAST Points on eligible transactions. Private members can earn 3% cashback on monthly spend of up to US$40,000. They also receive 2% in KAST Points on eligible card…

Chocolate Finance is wrapping up The Chocolate Games today with more than 7 million HeyMax Miles unlocked by players. More than 8,000 participants have taken part, completing over 88,000 games. The total is equivalent to more than 10 round trips to Tokyo, along with flights to Hong Kong and Bali, and travel and hotel vouchers. For the final 24 hours, Chocolate Finance has doubled referral rewards to 400 miles when a referred friend signs up and plays their first game. Walter de Oude, Founder of Chocolate Finance, said, “This experience grew bigger than we expected, not just in scale but…

Coinbase layoffs will cut about 14% of the crypto exchange’s workforce as the company lowers costs in a down market and reorganises around AI. The cuts were announced in a blog post by CEO Brian Armstrong, who linked the move to market volatility and changes in how teams work with AI. Armstrong noted that Coinbase remains well-capitalised, but its business is still exposed to quarter-to-quarter swings. The company is now adjusting its cost base as it navigates a down market. Coinbase also plans to flatten its organisation to a maximum of five layers below the CEO and COO. Leaders will…

Temenos is expanding its SaaS offering on AWS beyond core banking to include digital banking and payments. Banks can now deploy Temenos’ core banking, digital banking and payments capabilities as a SaaS offering on AWS. The offering is designed for retail, business and corporate banking. Banks can adopt individual components, use an end-to-end service, combine both approaches, or integrate Temenos with their existing systems. Temenos can also provide a pre-configured and pre-integrated deployment. The company said the SaaS model can help banks launch products faster and reduce the need to manage underlying technology infrastructure. AWS infrastructure supports regulated and sensitive…