Author: Fintech News Singapore

Independent Reserve has expanded its services in Singapore to allow businesses to make cross-border payments using fiat currencies or stablecoins. Integrated into the digital asset platform’s existing infrastructure, the service allows companies to pay overseas suppliers, process international payroll and transfer funds between corporate entities. Businesses can fund their Independent Reserve accounts in Singapore dollars or US dollars before sending payments in local currencies. The service supports more than 20 currencies, including most G10 currencies and several ASEAN currencies. Funds can be sent in real time to bank accounts, e-wallets or cards. Companies can also accept customer payments in stablecoins…

Pine Labs has launched a unified platform for merchants in Singapore, combining payment acceptance, acquiring, instalment payments and customer engagement capabilities. Businesses can use the platform to accept cards and alternative payment methods through a single technology layer. Pine Labs also works with bank and brand partners to offer instalment payment plans at the point of sale, giving consumers greater flexibility for higher-value purchases. The offering also incorporates Fave, Pine Labs’ consumer payments and engagement app. Merchants can use Fave to run cashback programmes and merchant-funded offers aimed at attracting customers and encouraging repeat purchases. “Singapore’s merchants are increasingly looking…

Launching a new financial product has often meant waiting for a core vendor to fulfil change requests, building workarounds, or committing to a core banking replacement. A product engine offers another route, and what follows covers what one is, how it sits alongside a legacy core, and which products it can support. Why Product Launches Take So Long Digital banks, regulated financial institutions and scaled consumer finance operators have traditionally faced three options when launching a growth product. They could wait months for an incumbent core vendor to fulfil custom change tickets, build workarounds that create engineering debt, or commit…

Airwallex has upgraded its Agentic Business Accounts to support AI agents in carrying out corporate finance tasks within rules, permissions and approval controls set by businesses. The accounts can connect with Airwallex’s AI assistant, Kai, or another preferred AI agent. These agents can support tasks such as moving money, managing foreign exchange exposure, rebalancing liquidity and putting idle cash to work. Businesses can also manage multiple entities, accounts and currencies through a single organisation account experience. They can create dedicated accounts for different purposes and move funds between accounts or externally. Airwallex said the offering is designed to support businesses…

Four in five businesses in Singapore now use a fintech provider for at least some of their financial needs, according to a YouGov survey commissioned by Aspire. However, most continue to use fintech alongside traditional banks. The survey found that 80% of respondents had adopted a fintech provider in some capacity. Of these, 30% had switched fully, while 50% continued to use a traditional bank alongside a fintech provider. Another 17% had not switched but were interested in doing so. Among businesses that had not fully switched, 36% were very confident that a fintech provider could fully replace a traditional…

Wise has expanded QR payments and added customisable eSIM plans to its app, with customers in Singapore and Malaysia among the first globally to access both features from today. The QR payment service covers more than 50 destinations. Customers can already use PayNow QR in Singapore and DuitNow QR in Malaysia. The app also connects directly to QR Ph in the Philippines, Swiss QR-bill in Switzerland and Qvik in Hungary. A partnership with Ant International’s Alipay+ also lets eligible customers scan supported merchant QR codes in markets including mainland China, Hong Kong, South Korea and Cambodia. In mainland China, eligible travellers…

Singapore’s private banking industry is making progress towards faster account opening as banks simplify onboarding and tailor checks to client risk. Nearly half of new accounts at Private Banking Industry Group (PBIG) member banks were opened within a month between June and August 2026, according to the group. Most member banks have reduced their account opening times since the end of 2025. PBIG aims to bring the median account opening time to within one month by the end of 2026. It will continue working with the industry to achieve the target and improve customers’ experience of Singapore’s wealth management services.…

DBS Digital Exchange has appointed David Hui as CEO, extending his leadership role within the bank’s digital asset business. Hui announced the appointment in a LinkedIn post. His profile lists his new role as Managing Director and CEO starting in October 2026. He became Deputy CEO in July 2026 after serving as the exchange’s Chief Commercial Officer since January 2023. Hui said, “DDEx was established on the belief that the future of digital assets will be built on trust, security and strong institutional foundations. As digital assets evolve from experimentation to mainstream adoption, the team at DDEx remains committed towards…

Sri Lanka’s Union Bank has adopted BPC SmartVista to reduce reliance on third parties and introduce new credit card services faster. The platform replaces a legacy system hosted outside the country as part of the bank’s digital transformation plans. It gives Union Bank greater control over product development, integrations and data. Malinda Perera, Vice President – Head of Cards & Retail Products, Union Bank said “For Union Bank, the project offers greater operational control, reduced third party dependency and more flexibility to respond to market demand. With the new platform now operational, Union Bank expects its credit card portfolio to…

Sygnum has opened access to Fidelity International’s tokenised US dollar liquidity solution for accredited and institutional investors in Singapore. The offering is Fidelity International’s first tokenised liquidity solution and is issued on Sygnum’s Desygnate tokenisation platform. It is available through Sygnum Pte. Ltd., its Monetary Authority of Singapore-licensed entity. Managed by Fidelity International, the solution is issued and administered on-chain and publishes its net asset value (NAV) on-chain. It first launched in Zurich in May 2026 and has attracted participation from asset managers, digital asset exchanges, stablecoin issuers and decentralised finance protocols. Emma Pecenicic, Head of Digital Assets Distribution at…

FOMO Pay is adding Sumsub’s verification tools to its existing infrastructure to support compliance across its international operations. The Singapore-headquartered payment institution operates across Southeast Asia, the Greater Bay Area, and the Middle East and North Africa, where regulatory requirements vary between markets. Sumsub’s platform supports identity and business verification, ownership checks and anti-money laundering screening within FOMO Pay’s onboarding and compliance workflows. FOMO Pay also uses Sumsub’s transaction monitoring tools to review customer transactions and account activity for potential risks. Leona Gan, Director of Business Development at FOMO Pay, said, “At FOMO Pay, we continuously develop our processes and…

Fiserv has partnered with Trulioo to simplify identity and business checks for clients operating across global markets. Trulioo will provide verification capabilities to support onboarding and underwriting, with the aim of reducing manual work and helping clients make more consistent decisions. These processes can require multiple data sources, documents and review steps to confirm applicants’ identities and establish whether businesses are legitimate. The checks can become more complex as companies expand into new markets. Trulioo’s identity verification tools combine identity data, document checks and fraud signals in configurable workflows. Its business verification tools use global and local data sources to…

OCBC will offer 6% cashback on dining, groceries, transport and petrol to 365 Credit Card holders who spend at least S$800 a month from 1 November 2026. Monthly cashback will be capped at S$160 under a revised structure that replaces the card’s two spending tiers with a single minimum spend requirement. Previously, cardholders had to spend at least S$1,600 a month to qualify for the S$160 cashback cap. Those spending at least S$800 but below S$1,600 had a cap of S$80. Grocery and transport cashback will double from 3% to 6%, while dining cashback will rise from 5% to 6%…

Vietnam’s MB Bank has signed a MoU with OceanBase to modernise its database infrastructure and strengthen system resilience. The partnership will use OceanBase’s database technology to improve the scalability and performance of the bank’s IT infrastructure. MB Bank will retain full control over data management and daily business operations. The collaboration aims to support the bank’s digital banking services and wider business transformation. Nguyen Xuan Hoc, Deputy CEO of MB Bank, said, “At MB Bank, we continuously invest in strengthening the resilience and modernisation of our technology infrastructure to support sustainable growth and deliver reliable services to our customers. Through…

Business and commercial card programmes accounted for approximately 17% of Visa’s stablecoin-linked card volume in fiscal 2026 to date. Visa released the figures as businesses, financial institutions and payment providers explore stablecoins for moving and managing money. The network supports more than 160 stablecoin-linked card programmes across consumer, business and commercial activity. Payment volume across these programmes has grown nearly 200% year on year. “Businesses aren’t looking for new payment technologies for the sake of innovation. They’re looking for trusted, reliable ways to move money. What’s changing is that stablecoins are increasingly becoming part of the conversation around real business…

Thales has launched cybersecurity tools to help organisations secure AI operations and prepare for quantum computing threats. The company announced the developments at its Cyber Summit in Paris, where it also unveiled a partnership with Google Cloud to help organisations secure agentic AI operations. The partnership will use Thales’ AI Security Fabric, which is designed to protect AI agents, data and interactions throughout the AI lifecycle. Other launches focus on protecting data and software. CipherTrust Data Security Posture Management (DSPM) uses AI to help organisations identify and protect sensitive data and provide immediate, automated mitigation. Sentinel Envelope+ provides software protection…

Jacqueline Loh will take on a new advisory role at the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) while continuing to chair the Singapore Payments Network Board. She will step down as Deputy Managing Director (Corporate Development) to become Principal Advisor in the Managing Director’s office on 1 November 2026. Her responsibilities will include supporting the Managing Director on risk oversight, governance and leadership development. The move forms part of wider MAS leadership changes taking effect on the same date. Loo Siew Yee, currently Assistant Managing Director (Policy, Payments & Financial Crime), will succeed Loh. She will oversee MAS’ corporate functions,…

Backbase has appointed Tikkie founder Roland Booijen as its new Chief Product Officer for Agentic Banking. He will lead product strategy across Conversational Banking, Relationship Intelligence and Customer Operations. The appointment comes five months after Backbase launched its AI-native Banking OS and follows its recent acquisition of Kasisto, which develops conversational and agentic AI for banking. Booijen will set the roadmap for AI agents designed to resolve everyday banking requests from start to finish, giving relationship managers more time to focus on clients. Backbase’s AI-native Banking OS supports banks’ frontline operations across the customer lifecycle, from front-office to back-office. He…

Kazakhstan’s first wave of fintech innovation was driven by banks and incumbents, which now lead consumer fintech through broad super-apps and digital ecosystems. This sector is now moving towards infrastructure, especially banking-as-a-service (BaaS), artificial intelligence (AI), and digital assets, according to a new report by RISE Research and Advisory in partnership with Tarlan Payments, BCC Hub, and Fintech Center, supported by the National Bank of Kazakhstan. Incumbent financial institutions now dominate the digital consumer finance market, with five banks accounting for 69% of banking-sector assets. Banks also cover nearly the entire small and medium-sized enterprise (SME) journey, allowing firms open…

Finastra has launched an AI feature to help banks investigate payment errors and resolve them faster. The company announced Repair Recommendations, a new capability within AI OperatorAssist, at Sibos 2026 in Miami. It provides repair guidance within banks’ existing payment workflows. The cloud-native feature identifies payment discrepancies, analyses their causes and recommends corrections validated against payment scheme and network rules, including Swift, Fedwire, SEPA, UPI and Nexus. Repair Recommendations will complement Global PAYplus and Payments To Go, extending AI OperatorAssist’s existing investigative and analytical capabilities. Barry Rodrigues, EVP, Payments at Finastra, said, “With Repair Recommendations, we’re empowering banks to upgrade…