Thunes has promoted Chloé Mayenobe to Deputy CEO as it sharpens its leadership structure to support global expansion. Mayenobe was previously President and Chief Operating Officer. In her expanded role, she will partner with the board and CEO to define the company’s long-term strategy. She will also oversee execution across its enterprise roadmap, including network expansion, mergers and acquisitions, technology, product, marketing, sales operations and global operations. Mayenobe will continue to report to Thunes co-founder Peter De Caluwe, who is CEO and Deputy Chairman of the company. Thunes said the leadership structure is designed to leverage Mayenobe’s experience in scaling…
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Stripe has launched the Agentic Commerce Suite to help businesses sell through AI agents as online shopping evolves. The suite is designed to reduce the complexity of integrating with multiple AI agents, each of which typically has its own technical and onboarding requirements. Stripe said businesses can sell across supported agents through a single, low-code integration instead of building separate connections for each one. The launch builds on Stripe’s earlier introduction of the Agentic Commerce Protocol, an open standard for transactions between AI agents and businesses. Stripe said adoption of the protocol has been fragmented, leading it to introduce the…
Vietnam has set up a dedicated regulatory unit to oversee crypto asset trading, marking a further step toward formalising supervision of digital assets as market activity continues to grow. The development, reported by The Investor Vietnam, was announced by the State Securities Commission after the Ministry of Finance approved the formation of a crypto asset trading market management board under the regulator. The new board will operate within the State Securities Commission’s framework and oversee crypto asset trading activities in Vietnam’s capital markets. Bui Hoang Hai, vice chairman of the commission, has been appointed to lead the unit. At the…
Though AI is now nearly ubiquitous across the financial, technology, and fintech sectors, many firms are still struggling to achieve full integration, highlighting a persistent “implementation gap”, according to a study by Cloudera. The survey report, released in November 2025, polled 155 finance, tech and fintech executives worldwide in August 2025, and found that 97% of respondents had deployed at least one AI or machine learning (ML) use case. This signals that AI has moved from an emerging innovation to a strategic business necessity. However, widespread deployment has not translated into deep adoption. Nearly half (48%) of the surveyed firms…
Mastercard has teamed up with TerraPay to enable contactless payments for digital wallets across its global acceptance network. Under the partnership, TerraPay will connect wallet providers, including mobile money operators, fintechs and banks, to Mastercard’s acceptance infrastructure. This will allow users to make near-field communication (NFC) payments at more than 150 million Mastercard acceptance locations worldwide. Wallet providers will also gain access to advanced infrastructure and technology jointly delivered by both companies. TerraPay said the integration will support faster go-to-market while simplifying the launch process through Xend, its global payment interoperability platform. “At TerraPay, our mission is to make every…
With a large unbanked population, increasing mobile Internet connectivity, and fast-growing economies, Asia-Pacific (APAC) has emerged into one of the world’s most dynamic fintech markets. Digital wallets have become the leading payment method, accounting for approximately 75% of the e-commerce transaction value and 50% of the point-of-sale (POS) transaction value. Local platforms such as Alipay in China, PhonePe in India, and DANA in Indonesia have achieved mass adoption. Governments have supported this progress by modernizing payment infrastructure through real-time payment systems and introducing more conducive regulations for digital banking. This has spurred the rise of leading digital banking brands like…
Standard Chartered and Coinbase are expanding their partnership to explore new digital asset services for institutional clients. The two companies said the collaboration will explore the development of trading, prime services, custody, staking and lending solutions for institutions. They said the partnership aims to develop a comprehensive digital asset solution for institutional clients globally. The collaboration will combine Standard Chartered’s cross-border banking and digital asset innovation capabilities, supported by a rigorous risk management framework, with Coinbase’s institutional digital asset platform. The goal is to provide institutions with a seamless and secure way to trade and manage digital assets. The expanded…
Ant International, HSBC, and Swift have completed a Proof of Concept (POC) demonstrating the cross-border transfer of tokenised deposits using ISO 20022 standards. The initiative connects Swift’s global messaging network with HSBC’s Tokenised Deposit Service and Ant International’s blockchain infrastructure. The POC represents a step forward in testing how tokenisation can support liquidity management, programmable finance, and round-the-clock settlement. As part of the trial, Ant International and HSBC linked Ant International’s proprietary blockchain system with Swift’s network. This enabled real-time treasury movements between HSBC Singapore and HSBC Hong Kong via the Tokenised Deposit Service. A common protocol was developed jointly…
A New York judge has sentenced a former crypto entrepreneur to 15 years in prison after he caused two digital currencies to collapse, wiping out an estimated US$40bn, and described the case as an “epic” fraud. Do Kwon, a South Korean national, co-founded the Singapore-based Terraform Labs, the company behind the TerraUSD and Luna digital coins. He admitted misleading investors about TerraUSD, a so-called stablecoin designed to maintain parity with the US dollar. According to the BBC, Kwon was among several crypto executives charged in the US after digital tokens plunged in 2022, triggering the collapse of multiple firms. US…
Instarem, a digital payments platform under Nium, now lets SMEs apply for non dilutive funding directly inside its business platform after integrating Choco Up’s growth financing service. The feature has been live since 1 September 2025 in Singapore and Australia. It launches as Southeast Asia’s cross border commerce expands, with IDC projecting intra regional trade to reach US$14.6 billion by 2028, about 2.8 times the 2023 level. Eligible Instarem Business users can apply for up to US$1 million in revenue linked financing. Underwriting draws on business performance data, and Choco Up typically disburses approved funds within two business days to…
Trust Bank has rolled out its 2025 Year-End Rewind, a feature in the Trust App that gives customers a personalised look at how they lived, saved and spent this year. The recap works like a financial highlight reel and assigns users one of 16 animal characters based on their spending style. A customer who used their Trust card for savings and travel may be tagged as a Smart Nomad, shown as an otter. Customers with strong savings and FairPrice Group spending patterns may instead appear as Deal Hunters, represented by a lion. The characters open into insights on overseas spending,…
A DBS Bank employee helped an elderly woman avoid losing more than S$200,000 in a suspected scam, according to The Straits Times. The incident occurred on 24 December 2024, when a woman in her 70s arrived at the bank’s Century Square branch asking to withdraw S$190,000 in cash. Staff noticed she appeared highly unsettled and became defensive when questioned about the large withdrawal. She kept her phone to her ear throughout the exchange and avoided eye contact, which heightened concerns that someone was directing her on what to say. Assistant service manager Fionice Teoh, who was 38 weeks pregnant and…
A Malaysian man has been sentenced to five and a half years in jail for helping an overseas syndicate spread Android malware that enabled scammers to take control of victims’ phones. Channel News Asia reported that the malware allowed unauthorised access to banking and other applications, resulting in losses of about S$3.2 million. How the Malware Tutorials Fueled the Scams Cheoh Hai Beng, 49, became involved after reconnecting with a Taiwanese acquaintance he first met in a South Korean prison. The acquaintance, Lee Rong Teng, invited him to the Dominican Republic in 2022 and later introduced him to Spymax, a…
IBM and Confluent have signed a definitive agreement for IBM to acquire all issued and outstanding Confluent common shares for US$31 per share. This values the company at US$11 billion. Confluent provides an open-source enterprise data-streaming platform designed to connect, process and govern real-time data. This capability is increasingly essential for deploying AI systems. IDC estimates that more than one billion new logical applications will emerge by 2028, reshaping technology architectures across industries. These applications, along with AI agents, require trusted, real-time data to operate effectively. IBM and Confluent aim to integrate applications, analytics, data systems and AI agents to…
HSBC’s drive to become a leaner institution began with dismantling co-management roles that CEO Georges Elhedery said had muddied accountability, an early step in a wider restructuring effort he described to Bloomberg Television. Elhedery, who took charge 15 months ago, has nearly cut the lender’s operating committee in half as part of a restructuring intended to streamline decision making and give executives clearer ownership of their businesses. He said the bank had operated with layers of dual or multiple reporting lines that limited transparency around performance, although a majority of revenue is now overseen under single leadership. The CEO, a…
Syfe reported more than US$2 billion in client returns in 2025 and said it reached group profitability in the fourth quarter across Singapore, Hong Kong and Australia. The results came amid volatile global markets. Assets under management rose past US$10 billion. The year also saw Syfe acquire and take private ASX-listed Selfwealth, which now operates as Selfwealth by Syfe. It also closed a US$80 million Series C round and launched new products, including a private credit partnership with BlackRock in Singapore. Hong Kong recorded the strongest growth, with assets under management rising nearly six times from the previous year. Syfe…
Fibe has raised 35 million US dollars from International Finance Corporation (IFC) in its Series F funding round. The company will use the capital to strengthen its lending capacity and expand affordable credit for underserved middle income households in India. Fibe provides cash loans for urgent personal expenses and impact linked financing for medical and education needs. It has disbursed more than nine million loans and says it is scaling through disciplined credit governance and a focus on financial inclusion for young and tech savvy individuals. Akshay Mehrotra, MD & Group CEO, Fibe, said, “IFC’s investment is a meaningful milestone…
Validus has raised US$30 million in a Series D funding round led by Khazanah Nasional, Malaysia’s sovereign wealth fund. The funding will support its expansion in Indonesia and Thailand. The move follows the divestment of its Singapore business to GXS Bank, Grab’s digital bank, in April. Founded in 2015, Validus provides alternative lending solutions to small and medium enterprises in Southeast Asia. The company says it has disbursed more than US$5 billion in loans and has built a vertically integrated lending model that combines supply chain financing, proprietary credit analytics and institutional participation. Validus works with regional and international banks…
Razorpay Singapore has launched a checkout feature that applies instant, payment specific discounts to help merchants cut costs and improve conversions. Razorpay Offers lets merchants present discounts when customers select certain payment methods such as PayNow or credit cards. The feature integrates into existing checkout flows without additional engineering work and is aimed at helping businesses manage high payment acceptance costs and reduce cart abandonment. The tool supports high visibility prompts that highlight eligible discounts and guide customers toward preferred payment methods at the moment they decide how to pay. This is intended to counter common drop off points, particularly…
Despite growing demand for product personalization, most banking customers are underwhelmed by the personalization they receive, underscoring a gap between between customer expectations and what banks are delivering in experience, according to a new study by Hong Kong-based strategy consultancy Quinlan and Associates in partnership with management consulting company Synpulse. The study, which polled nearly 150 consumers in 2025, found that nearly three quarters (74%) of banking customers consider personalization critical to their banking experience. Yet 71% of those who value personalization say they have either not experienced it or are dissatisfied with what they are receiving. This suggests that,…