Tanami, a Bahrain-based private markets investment platform, has introduced SmartMatch, described as the world’s first private markets robo-advisor, at the Singapore Fintech Festival 2025. SmartMatch allows investors to build portfolios across private equity, private credit, real estate, and infrastructure, tailored to their objectives, investment horizon, and risk profile. The platform uses proprietary algorithms to create personalised private market portfolios managed by established institutions, targeting investors who have traditionally had limited access to these markets. “We believe private markets should be an integral part of every investment portfolio,” said Faisal Aljalahma, Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Tanami. “SmartMatch empowers every…
Author: Fintech News Singapore
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Liquid Group and TerraPay have begun exploring a shared framework that could enable QR payments to flow between their global networks, including key corridors in Africa and Asia. The companies signed an MoU at the Singapore Fintech Festival 2025 to examine how Liquid Group’s RoamQR network can connect with TerraPay’s global payment infrastructure. The agreement will explore whether real-time QR acceptance and settlement can be supported across borders in a unified, open and inclusive way. RoamQR is an industry-led QR interoperability network developed under MAS’s SGQR Plus initiative. It was designed to simplify and scale QR acceptance by connecting local and…
The Bank of England, the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS), and the Bank of Thailand have announced a collaboration to explore the technical and policy implications of settling foreign exchange (FX) transactions using synchronised settlement mechanisms. Building on insights from Project Meridian FX, the collaboration will test synchronised FX settlement across a range of technical and institutional environments. Initial experiments will use simulated versions of participating central banks’ Real Time Gross Settlement systems and Distributed Ledger Technology-based settlement environments to examine interoperability between the central banks’ systems and complex, multilateral scenarios involving different settlement infrastructures. The experiments aim to enable…
Singapore and Germany have agreed to work on tokenised cross-border settlement under a new MoU between the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) and the Deutsche Bundesbank. The cooperation aims to improve international financial transactions, including flows between both countries. The agreement covers joint development of settlement solutions that can reduce the cost and processing time of cross-border transfers. The two central banks will also promote common standards for payments, foreign exchange and securities flows involving tokenised assets to support interoperability across digital asset platforms. The partnership builds on MAS’ Project Guardian, launched in 2022 to explore how asset tokenisation can…
ASEAN fintech funding dropped 36 percent to around US$835 million in the first nine months of 2025, but Singapore continued to draw the lion’s share of capital and strengthened its role as the region’s hub. Funding drops to nine-year low as investors turn cautious The Fintech in ASEAN 2025: Navigating the New Realities report, released by UOB, PwC Singapore and the Singapore Fintech Association, shows that the region recorded its lowest funding level since 2016 and the fewest deals in a decade. Investors remained cautious amid market volatility and shifted their focus toward companies that could demonstrate clearer progress on…
AI models still misinterpret Singlish so the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) and A*STAR will build a voice-to-text system that can handle the mix of languages and dialects used in local conversations. MAS Managing Director Chia Der Jiun said existing tools struggle with the code-switching common in local speech, creating accuracy gaps in financial interactions that rely on transcription. The project is the first major workstream under BuildFin.ai, MAS’ new initiative bringing financial institutions, research groups and technology providers together to tackle shared AI challenges. Chia said pooling data and expertise can improve accuracy and cut duplicated effort as AI…
The Global Finance & Technology Network (GFTN) has entered a strategic partnership with Qatar Development Bank (QDB), represented by Qatar Fintech Hub (QFTH), to establish a Global Centre of Excellence (CoE) for finance and technology in Doha. The initiative aims to promote regional collaboration, strengthen links with Asian markets, and deepen connections with Singapore’s fintech ecosystem. Under the partnership, QDB and GFTN will pursue two main initiatives. The first is the Qatar Forum, an annual fintech event in Doha integrated with GFTN’s global platforms, including the Singapore Fintech Festival 2025. The forum will bring together policymakers, regulators, financial institutions, investors,…
The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) has finalised the key features of its stablecoin regulatory regime and will prepare draft legislation to give issuers clearer operating requirements, Managing Director Chia Der Jiun said at the Singapore Fintech Festival. The framework places emphasis on strong reserve backing and reliable redemption rights to ensure value stability for users and market participants. Chia warned that unregulated stablecoins have a patchy record of maintaining their peg, with repeated episodes of de-pegging raising broader confidence risks. He drew a parallel to the 2008 money market fund crisis, noting that instability in one issuer can spill…
The Singapore Fintech Festival has expanded from 11,000 participants in its first year in 2016 to more than 65,000 in 2025. Exhibitor numbers rose from 70 to 600 over the same period, according to remarks by Monetary Authority of Singapore’s Managing Director Chia Der Jiun at this year’s event. Chia said the development of the festival mirrors the growth of Singapore’s fintech ecosystem, which now counts more than 1,800 firms across a range of domains. He noted that this expansion sits alongside broader changes in the market, including wider digital payments adoption, cross-border QR payment links and growing use of…
MetaComp rolled out a hybrid settlement network that links banking rails with regulated digital asset routes to speed up cross-border transfers. The StableX Network, launched at the Singapore Fintech Festival, combines traditional payment systems with selected blockchain pathways under MetaComp’s Web2.5 model. MetaComp, the digital payment arm of Alpha Ladder Group, positions the network as a regulated bridge between traditional finance and Web3, supported by two engines for real-time settlement and compliance. StableX Engine supports T+0 settlement across fiat to fiat, fiat to stablecoin and stablecoin to stablecoin conversions. It acts as the system’s Web2.5 bridge by selecting the most…
The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) has issued a consultation paper proposing a set of Guidelines on AI Risk Management to provide financial institutions (FIs) with guidance on the responsible use of AI in the financial sector. The proposed Guidelines are intended to apply to all FIs and outline MAS’ supervisory expectations regarding oversight of AI risk management, key risk management systems, policies and procedures, lifecycle controls, and the capabilities and capacity required for AI use. MAS notes that AI can be applied across a wide range of use cases, and that risks may vary depending on the scale, scope…
The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) has completed Singapore’s first live settlement of interbank overnight lending using wholesale CBDC on the SGD Testnet. DBS, OCBC and UOB participated in the trial, which included the first live issuance of Singapore dollar wholesale CBDC. The transactions were recorded in the banks’ official books and regulatory filings. The SGD Testnet is a shared ledger infrastructure designed to let financial institutions test the settlement of tokenised financial assets using wholesale CBDC. It supports a common settlement asset through the issuance, transfer and redemption of wholesale CBDC for tokenised transactions, a setup aimed at reducing…
Nium, a global infrastructure provider for real-time cross-border payments, has expanded its partnership with Abu Dhabi payments firm Digit9 to accelerate payouts in key markets. The collaboration allows Digit9 to use Nium’s network to execute real-time USD payouts with full value delivery and no hidden fees, improving settlement cycles and cashflow predictability. There are plans to extend the partnership to additional payout routes. “Digit9 is evolving what digital payments look like, and we’re proud to power that growth,” said Anupam Pahuja, Chief Revenue Officer at Nium. “Our network gives Digit9 the ability to make cross-border payouts fast, compliant, and real-time,…
Southeast Asia could unlock a US$2 trillion digital economy by 2030 as AI, instant payments and embedded finance accelerate growth, according to a new report from HSBC and Google Cloud. The study, developed with Payments and Commerce Market Intelligence, outlines how new financial infrastructure and digital platforms are reshaping how the region creates and exchanges value. Digital entrepreneurship becomes a major economic force The report highlights the rise of ASEAN’s 75 million digital entrepreneurs, who already contribute about 58 percent of the region’s digital economy. Their combined gross transaction volume is estimated at US$175 billion in 2025 and is expected…
At the Singapore Fintech Festival 2025, Singapore-based cross-border payment cloud platform EurewaX introduced its Full-Stack Solution for Financial Institutions. The platform, built on a modular architecture, is designed to allow partners to access the cross-border payments market efficiently. EurewaX recently completed a first-round financing led by KAIROUS, RUIFENG and iPayLinks. The company integrates global payment networks and compliance resources through its cloud-native, modular infrastructure, providing end-to-end cross-border capabilities for traditional financial institutions. Joseph Lee, Founding Partner at KAIROUS, commented: “EurewaX has accurately targeted the core pain points of financial digitalisation along Belt-and-Road markets. Its modular platform materially lowers the barrier…
The Social Security System (SSS) and Rizal Commercial Banking Corporation (RCBC) are expanding their public-private partnership to enhance financial inclusion and social protection through digital services. The partnership was announced at the Singapore Fintech Festival 2025. Following the initial rollout of the MySSS Card powered by RCBC DiskarTech, the two institutions will introduce the SSS x RCBC Digital Micro Loan, which will be accessible via the DiskarTech app. This initiative allows SSS members to apply for microloans and receive funds directly in their DiskarTech account, representing a step forward in the government’s digital transformation efforts aimed at providing faster and…
DBS and Ant International are expanding their partnership to accelerate cross-border payments and advance new fintech solutions across the region. A Memorandum of Understanding was signed at the Singapore Fintech Festival 2025, bringing together Ant International’s key businesses, including Alipay+, Antom, WorldFirst and Bettr Platform Tech. It outlines plans to strengthen connectivity, scale digital payment use and support more inclusive financial services for businesses and consumers. As part of the partnership, DBS PayLah! will join the Alipay+ ecosystem, allowing more than three million users to scan Alipay+ QR codes and pay at over 150 million merchants in more than 100…
XTransfer and Maybank have signed a MoU to expand cross-border payment and Shariah-compliant solutions. The signing took place at the Singapore Fintech Festival 2025. The partnership aims to provide one-stop cross-border financial solutions, including domestic and cross-border payments and FX conversion, across ASEAN markets, Hong Kong, the UK, and the US. Both parties plan to use technologies such as APIs, digital platforms, collection solutions, and virtual accounts to enable automated, real-time FX conversion and transaction processing. XTransfer and Maybank will also explore Shariah-compliant FX and payment services to meet the growing demand for Islamic finance in the region. Bill Deng,…
Ant International CEO Peng Yang outlined the firm’s next-stage AI priorities at the Singapore Fintech Festival, naming the Falcon TST and SHIELD models as its focus for the next 18 months. The company has now open-sourced its Falcon TST time-series transformer model to broaden access to advanced forecasting tools. Falcon TST is a Mixture of Experts model with multiple patch tokenisers and up to 2.5 billion parameters. It has delivered state-of-the-art zero-shot performance on recognised long-term forecasting benchmarks. Ant International uses the model to forecast cashflow and foreign exchange exposure on an hourly, daily and weekly basis, achieving accuracy rates…
Thunes is enabling Mashreq to send instant mobile wallet transfers to millions of customers across major remittance corridors. The partnership connects Mashreq to Thunes’ Direct Global Network, giving the bank direct access to mobile wallets in Asia, Africa and Europe. The service is designed to offer faster, more affordable, transparent and efficient cross-border transfers across key growth markets. The rollout will begin with Mashreq’s top 30 payment corridors and expand to more destinations over time. The UAE, the world’s second-largest remittance hub, is expected to process about US$47 billion in outward flows in 2025, growing at 4.7 percent annually. Both…