Author: Fintech News Singapore

Stripe is expanding its stablecoin payment feature to cover subscriptions, giving businesses a new way to accept recurring payments in digital currency. The update is designed to support the 30% of businesses on Stripe with recurring revenue models, including the majority of AI companies. Customers can now pay for subscriptions using crypto wallets, with settlements made directly in fiat. Businesses can manage both fiat and stablecoin subscriptions through the Stripe Dashboard and integrate them with Stripe Billing and the Optimized Checkout Suite. The move builds on Stripe’s stablecoin payment launch a year ago, which has been adopted by global companies…

Mastercard has launched Merchant Cloud, a next-generation platform that unifies its and its partners’ services to simplify global commerce and support business expansion. The platform offers a single access point to manage and optimise payment acceptance worldwide. Merchant Cloud includes scheme-agnostic tools for credential tokenisation, guest checkout, fraud protection, identity verification, and approval rate optimisation. It also provides gateway functions for omnichannel transactions, smart routing, and data-driven insights to enhance payment performance. The platform supports secure agentic payments through Mastercard Agent Pay, applying the latest agentic payment protocols to offer a seamless and trusted shopping experience. Artificial intelligence is integrated…

Visa has partnered with Siam Commercial Bank (SCB) and Malaysian fintech firm Soft Space to extend its Tap to Pay initiative to Chatuchak Weekend Market and Pratunam Market, two of Bangkok’s busiest retail areas. The move aims to make it easier for local merchants to accept digital payments while offering tourists a faster and more convenient checkout experience. The solution allows merchants to accept card payments directly through their smartphones without extra hardware, complementing existing payment terminals. By supporting cashless transactions, the initiative helps reduce reliance on cash and supports Thailand’s shift toward a digital economy. Since its launch a…

Coinbase has expanded its commitment to the burgeoning crypto markets in India and the Middle East with a new investment in CoinDCX, a leading regional exchange. The move builds on earlier backing through Coinbase Ventures and reflects confidence in the region’s growing role in the global on-chain economy. Coinbase said CoinDCX has built trust with users and regulators while extending its footprint across the Middle East. As of July 2025, CoinDCX reported annualised group revenue of ₹1,179 crore (about US$141 million), annualised transaction volumes across products of ₹13.7 lakh crore (about US$165 billion), and assets under custody above ₹10,000 crore…

The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) will delay the rollout of new cryptoasset capital rules for banks to at least 2027, following industry feedback calling for more time and global coordination. The decision comes after MAS sought comments earlier this year on amendments to the capital and liquidity frameworks for Singapore-incorporated banks to align with Basel Committee standards on the treatment and disclosure of cryptoasset exposures. Respondents supported the framework but warned that implementing it ahead of other jurisdictions could lead to regulatory arbitrage. Several also called for flexibility in treating assets on permissionless blockchains, which would otherwise fall under…

Reap Group has been granted a Major Payment Institution (MPI) license by the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS). The fintech offers digital and blockchain-based solutions that help businesses manage accounts, spending, and payments across Asia. The license allows its Singapore entity to provide account issuance, domestic money transfer, and cross-border money transfer services under the Payment Services Act 2019. The milestone strengthens Reap’s regional expansion as it deepens its presence in Singapore to serve SMEs and enterprises seeking secure and efficient payment management. Reap Singapore has expanded its headcount over the past year across finance, risk and compliance, product, customer…

Bybit has announced a partnership with DigiFT to support UBS’s USD Money Market Investment Fund Token (UBS uMINT), the first tokenised investment fund launched by UBS Asset Management. Through this partnership, Bybit will allow shares of UBS’s tokenised money market fund, distributed via DigiFT, to be used as collateral for trading on its platform. The move marks a step forward in Bybit’s efforts to link traditional finance (TradFi) with the digital asset market. The UBS uMINT, issued by UBS Asset Management, is a money market fund built on the Ethereum blockchain. Opened to external investors in November 2024, the fund…

Mastercard has rolled out the Payment Optimisation Platform (POP), a data-led service designed to help merchants lift approval rates and streamline payments. The platform uses real-time network insights to analyse transactions and identify opportunities to increase successful payments. Early pilot results have shown a 9% to 15% increase in conversions. Mastercard has developed POP with artificial intelligence capabilities that will be integrated following the pilot phase to further enhance decision-making and performance. Adyen, NEOPAY, Tap Payments, and Worldpay are among the first partners working with Mastercard to roll out the service. They will use the platform to enhance payment continuity,…

For more than a decade, banks have been busy “going digital”. They built apps, digitised forms, and automated obvious tasks. It worked. Mobile banking became expected, more processes went paperless, and many core systems were moved to the cloud (or at least parts of them). Yet even with all that, many banks still haven’t completed that journey. Globally, over 80% of banks have not fully migrated both their core banking and customer-facing digital channels to the cloud. A recent study also showed that while 91% of banks and insurers have initiated cloud transformation, more than half have moved only minimal…

Singlife is putting an AI agent at the heart of its customer service operations through a new partnership with Salesforce. The AI agent is designed to help Singlife’s customer service executives provide faster and more accurate responses to customer queries while ensuring trusted and consistent support. The initiative is part of Singlife’s broader efforts to enhance service quality and response times as it works to improve overall customer experience. The insurer is the first in Singapore to adopt Agentforce, the agentic layer of Salesforce’s AI Customer Relationship Management platform. By integrating Salesforce’s Data Cloud, Singlife can draw on its internal…

HitPay has partnered with Triple-A to enable more than 20,000 Singapore merchants to accept stablecoin payments with instant fiat settlements. The initiative focuses on SMEs, offering a straightforward way to accept digital currency while staying protected from price volatility. The partnership integrates HitPay’s merchant and settlement tools with Triple-A’s licensed conversion infrastructure, delivering a compliant and seamless payment experience. Stablecoin transactions are rate-locked and instantly converted to fiat through Triple-A, while HitPay manages settlement and reconciliation. Merchants can activate the feature within minutes across e-commerce and in-store checkouts. HitPay is licensed by the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) as a…

Razorpay has partnered with the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) and OpenAI to launch India’s first AI-powered payment feature on ChatGPT. Thsi allows users to discover and pay for products in a single conversation. The private beta, called Agentic Payments, integrates NPCI’s Unified Payments Interface (UPI) with ChatGPT to enable users to authorise the AI assistant to make purchases within preset spending limits. The feature reduces repeated manual authentication such as PINs or one-time passwords, while maintaining security through NPCI’s UPI Circle and UPI Reserve Pay frameworks, which allow secure pre-authorisation for trusted transactions. The collaboration combines NPCI’s payment…

Standard Chartered is channeling over S$4.5 million into Gen AI and data training to future-proof its workforce and sharpen its competitive edge across ASEAN. The investment is part of the bank’s aim to harness technology to drive innovation, improve efficiencies and build a skills-based organisation that equips employees to navigate rapid technological change. In Singapore, the bank launched an AI Learning Hub in November 2024 featuring a foundational AI literacy course aligned with IBF’s Future-Enabled Skills framework and accredited by the Institute of Banking and Finance (IBF). Employees can also pursue further upskilling through SkillsFuture@SC, a learning initiative funded by…

The Kingdom of Bhutan is using the Ethereum blockchain to power its national digital identity platform, strengthening transparency and citizen control. The integration marks a major step in Bhutan’s plan to build a secure, decentralised digital ecosystem. By anchoring its National Digital Identity (NDI) system to Ethereum’s globally distributed network, Bhutan aims to enhance data integrity, resilience, and privacy while reducing reliance on centralised databases. The government plans to complete the full migration of the NDI platform to an Ethereum-based infrastructure by early 2026. With this integration, the NDI platform can issue verifiable credentials and enable digital signatures directly on…

The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) has launched the PathFin.ai knowledge hub to accelerate the use of artificial intelligence (AI) in the financial sector. The hub builds on the existing PathFin.ai programme, which brings together more than 80 financial institutions to share their AI implementation experiences. It serves as a central repository of successful use cases and insights to promote peer learning and shorten the time financial institutions take to deploy AI solutions. Chee said the initiative will help deepen understanding of AI applications and reduce implementation time, allowing institutions to learn from one another and shorten the learning curve.…

Wise is gearing up to launch its multi-currency travel card in India, marking a major step in its efforts to make cross-border spending simpler and more transparent for local travellers. The card will allow users to hold over 40 currencies and spend in more than 170 countries at real mid-market exchange rates, without hidden foreign exchange markups. The upcoming launch was highlighted during the Global Fintech Festival in Mumbai, which was attended by Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer. Wise’s Head of Expansion for APAC, Shrawan Saraogi, said the card builds on the company’s growing…

Singapore-based fintech FlexM has announced that it has secured a strategic investment from China’s Torkey Times Technology. The financial terms of the deal were not disclosed. The investment is expected to accelerate FlexM’s global expansion and strengthen its position in payments, cross-border remittance, and compliance technology. Following the transaction, Torkey Times Technology and its founders, Yang Hanping and Xu Kaiqiang, are now among FlexM’s top three shareholders, alongside founder and chairman Rune Nilsson and co-founder and CEO Naveed Weldon. The partnership aims to create synergies across cross-border payments, gateway solutions, and licensed fintech operations. With annual revenues exceeding US$2.5 billion…

FWD has inaugurated the FWD AI Lab in Singapore, a strategic initiative to advance the use of AI and data science in insurance. Supported by the Singapore Economic Development Board (EDB), the lab aligns with the country’s National AI Strategy (NAIS 2.0). By 2027, it aims to develop hundreds of AI models and build PhD-level agentic AI systems in collaboration with the National University of Singapore and other research institutions. Dr Yao Yu Hui, Group Chief Data Officer of FWD Group, said, “At FWD, we believe in the transformative power of digital innovation, AI, and responsible technology leadership to redefine…

Amazon Pay has announced two new features at the Global Fintech Festival. One is UPI Circle, a family payment solution, and secondly, an expansion of its payment system to smart devices. The UPI Circle feature allows a primary account holder to add family members to a payment group. It is now enabling them to make UPI payments without needing their own bank account. With UPI Circle, added members receive their own UPI ID or QR code and can make payments from a fund with pre-set spending limits controlled by the primary user. The primary user can choose between a one-time…

London-based digital finance firm Revolut has announced it will launch its payment platform in India, marking its first entry into one of the world’s largest digital payments markets. The company planned this move as part of its global expansion, which also involves exploring a U.S. bank purchase and a credit card launch in the UK. The new service will allow Indian users to make both domestic and international payments through the company’s partnerships with the Unified Payments Interface (UPI) and Visa. According to Paroma Chatterjee, CEO of Revolut India, the company will offer a prepaid card and a digital wallet.…