Author: Fintech News Singapore

Global financial platform Airwallex is fast-tracking its expansion in the Middle East, securing key licences, setting up new operations and striking regional partnerships. In the United Arab Emirates, the company has received in-principle approval from the Central Bank of the UAE for Stored Value Facilities and Retail Payment Services (Category II) licences. This includes approval for a Stored Value Facilities wallet that will support all businesses, including small and medium-sized firms. The licences will enable Airwallex to offer multi-currency accounts, global transfers, payment acceptance and corporate cards in the UAE. The company said it is increasing its office presence and…

Singapore has issued a directive under the Online Criminal Harms Act (OCHA), giving Meta until 30 September to curb Facebook impersonation scams targeting key government office holders. The directive was issued by the Ministry of Home Affairs through the Singapore Police Force’s OCHA Competent Authority. The implementation directive requires Meta to introduce enhanced facial recognition measures in Singapore and prioritise review of end-user reports from the country. Authorities said scammers have increasingly used Facebook between June 2024 and June 2025 to create fake advertisements, accounts, profiles and business pages using videos or images of key government office holders. The Singapore…

Stablecoins have crossed a historic threshold. In 2024, its total transfer volumes hit US$27.6 trillion, outpacing Visa and Mastercard combined. Once a niche crypto use case, stablecoins have swiftly matured into a core financial infrastructure in their own right, and nowhere is this shift more visible than in the stablecoin adoption in APAC. Research from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) backs this up. An IMF study showed that APAC and North America lead with the largest gross stablecoin flows. The study mapped roughly US$2 trillion in stablecoin flows across 2024. Additionally, regulators in Hong Kong, Singapore, the Philippines and South…

Ant International has launched AI SHIELD, a toolkit designed to address risks and vulnerabilities in AI systems used in financial services. The initiative reflects the company’s focus on security and compliance as AI adoption increases across global finance. AI is already integrated across Ant International’s payment operations, which processed over US$1 trillion in global transactions in 2024. The company said AI SHIELD will help financial institutions reduce risks such as bias, security flaws, and misuse of AI agents. Research cited by Ant International estimates that AI-related incidents could lead to annual costs of up to US$57 billion, while only 5%…

Cloudflare has announced plans to introduce NET Dollar, a US dollar-backed stablecoin designed to support instant, secure transactions for an AI-driven Internet. The company says NET Dollar will provide the financial infrastructure necessary for autonomous AI agents, developers, and creators to transact automatically and reliably. Matthew Prince, Co-founder and CEO of Cloudflare, commented: “For decades, the business model of the Internet ran on ad platforms and bank transfers. The Internet’s next business model will be powered by pay-per-use, fractional payments, and microtransactions, tools that shift incentives toward original, creative content that actually adds value. By using our global network, we…

Singapore’s fintech sector saw a notable rebound in the first half of 2025, attracting nearly US$1.04 billion across 90 deals, according to KPMG’s Pulse of Fintech H1 2025 report. This is the highest investment level since the first half of 2023, when investments reached US$1.59 billion across 125 deals. Compared to H1 2024, deal values increased by approximately 87 percent year-on-year and 28 percent from H2 2024. Investment activity was concentrated in payments, cryptocurrency, and AI and machine learning, which together accounted for the majority of deal value in Singapore. Payment deals were distributed between early and late-stage rounds, while…

Yuno, a global payment orchestration platform, announced its expansion in the Asia-Pacific (APAC) region with the opening of regional headquarters in Singapore and new operations in China. The dual-office setup aims to support merchants in scaling across borders with a unified payment infrastructure. Earlier this year, Yuno also established regional headquarters in Qatar and London to serve the MENA and European markets. Founded by Juan Pablo Ortega and Julián Núñez, the entrepreneurs behind Latin American tech company Rappi, Yuno was created to simplify global payments after they experienced the challenges firsthand. The platform provides a single API that connects to…

The Asia-Pacific region is approaching a milestone in cross-border payments: though fully achieving instant, efficient international money movement remains a goal. Domestic payment systems have progressed with real-time rails, QR codes and digital wallets. However, cross-border transactions still face high costs, long settlement times, inconsistent experiences and increased fraud risks. Amid sustained trade growth and digital economic expansion, establishing seamless cross-border payment infrastructure is now imperative. To address these challenges, LexisNexis Risk Solutions and the Singapore FinTech Association (SFA) published a white paper, The Journey Towards Frictionless Cross-Border Payments in APAC. The report leverages industry insight to identify persistent barriers…

SC Ventures and Fujitsu are betting big on quantum’s future with Project Quanta, a new platform aimed at turning complex research into business-ready solutions. The joint venture brings together SC Ventures’ venture-building expertise and industry insights with Fujitsu’s quantum hardware, software and algorithm development to integrate multiple technologies on a single platform. This approach is designed to accelerate the shift from research to commercial use and develop new quantum use cases, intellectual property, resources and value. Based on its collaboration with RIKEN, Fujitsu is developing a 1,000-qubit superconducting quantum computer due to begin operation in 2026 and is planning a…

HSBC has opened its second Quantum Centre of Excellence in Singapore, deepening work on quantum-safe security and applied quantum computing, according to Yahoo News. The hub will begin with post-quantum cryptography, quantum key distribution and hybrid cryptographic frameworks to protect critical financial infrastructure. The centre will collaborate with regulators, researchers and fintech firms, including the Monetary Authority of Singapore’s quantum key distribution sandbox for secure financial communications. That project also involves DBS, OCBC, UOB, SPTel and SpeQtral, highlighting the initiative’s collaborative scope. Beyond cybersecurity, the centre will explore how quantum computing could improve financial modelling, optimisation and machine learning. HSBC…

The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) is tightening its approach to financial content online, moving to curb misleading money tips and introducing new safeguards for digital financial ads. MAS issued its Guidelines on Standards of Conduct for Digital Advertising Activities. The guidelines take effect on 25 March 2026 and outline how financial institutions and their appointed third parties, including influencers, affiliate marketers and advertising agencies, should conduct digital marketing responsibly. They call for stronger governance over online campaigns, proportionate safeguards for different digital platforms, clearer and more prominent disclosures of key product risks, and tighter oversight of digital marketers to…

Australia will impose penalties of up to 10% of annual turnover on digital asset platform operators that breach proposed rules, under draft legislation released on Thursday (September 25). According to Bloomberg, crypto exchanges and other platform operators will be required to hold an Australian Financial Services License. Under the license framework, firms that fail to act “honestly and fairly” or engage in “misleading and deceptive conduct and unfair contract terms” could face the greater of either an A$16.5 million penalty, three times the benefit obtained, or 10% of annual turnover. The draft legislation, open for industry feedback until October 24,…

Alibaba Cloud is rolling out eight new data centers across Europe, Asia and the Americas as it accelerates the global build-out of infrastructure to support next-generation AI. The first three facilities will open in Brazil, France and the Netherlands, with additional sites planned for Mexico, Japan, South Korea, Malaysia and Dubai in the coming year. New regional service hubs in Indonesia and Germany will provide round-the-clock, multi-language customer support. The plans were unveiled at the Apsara Conference 2025 in Hangzhou, where Alibaba Cloud said it currently operates 91 availability zones across 29 regions. The company also launched the AI Catalyst…

SEON has launched an expanded suite of artificial intelligence (AI) tools to cut manual review times by up to 50% and help fraud and anti-money laundering (AML) teams act on risks faster. New features include similarity ranking to link and prioritise users across shared devices, behaviours, IPs and contacts, colour-coded risk indicators, and an AML screening agent that filters false positives to keep investigations within the SEON ecosystem. Developed with input from fraud and compliance teams worldwide, the update focuses on transparency rather than “black box” outputs. SEON’s “see-through” AI shows analysts what triggered an alert, highlights key risk signals…

OCBC has appointed Carina Lee Pei Queng as its next group chief risk officer and a member of the management committee, effective 1 January 2026. According to The Edge, the move coincides with the retirement of Noel Gerald DCruz, who will step down on 31 December after 36 years with the bank. DCruz has been the group chief risk officer since January 2023. Before that, he led risk portfolio management and introduced data-driven approaches to risk quantification and emerging risk identification across the bank. Lee, currently the group chief credit officer for OCBC’s wholesale banking arm, joined the bank in…

Microsoft has named Chia Wee Luen as its new Managing Director for Singapore to drive the company’s digital transformation efforts in the country. He succeeds Lee Hui Li, who the company said helped lay a strong foundation for its continued growth in the country. Wee Luen has over 20 years of experience in enterprise technology and has held senior roles at Red Hat, Qlik and Oracle. Most recently, he was Managing Director for Asia at ServiceNow. He began his career in Singapore’s public sector and also serves on the Digital & Technology Committee of the Children’s Cancer Foundation and chairs…

Westpac is set to cut 200 bank teller positions but will not reduce overall headcount across the business. According to News.com.au, staff were informed via email on Tuesday (September 23) about the job losses, as Westpac plans to hire 200 bankers for its home lending and small business divisions. Despite committing to keep branches open, Westpac says the reduction in teller roles is necessary to support its “digital-first strategy”. However, the finance union has criticised the move as “callous”, arguing that telling staff to encourage customers onto digital platforms is effectively putting them out of work. Some, but not all,…

In APAC, online payments are dominated by digital cashless payments. 87% of payments on Southeast Asia’s e-commerce platforms are done using digital payments, as of 2024. When it comes to digital payments, banks and financial institutions face growing pressure to deliver both frictionless user experiences and robust security. Technologies like Click to Pay, Passkeys, and tokenized transactions are emerging as key enablers of trust, convenience, and compliance. In this webinar, we’ll explore: Regional trends in Asia shaping the future of digital payments and E-commerce How Click to Pay is transforming the online checkout experience across digital channels The role of…

Mastercard has launched the Global Reach Partner Program, a new initiative designed to help its customers expand into international markets more easily. The program is available to qualifying Mastercard issuing partners, including banks, fintechs, crypto players, merchants, marketplaces and digital platforms. As more companies look to operate across multiple countries, Mastercard says the program offers a tailored and scalable framework to streamline the rollout of international card programs. It is designed to reduce the complexities and delays often associated with entering new markets and to support partners in delivering card services more efficiently. Through the Global Reach Partner Program, participating…

DBS Private Bank’s multi-family office arm has attracted S$1 billion (about US$780 million) just two years after its launch, and the Singapore lender expects assets to double by 2026, according to Reuters. The unit, known as DBS Multi Family Office Foundry VCC, offers wealthy families a ready-made platform for managing investments in Singapore instead of building bespoke single-family offices. The bank takes care of administration while clients direct their own portfolios. Fresh funds have come from families in Europe, India, Greater China and other parts of Asia, reflecting Singapore’s status as a growing centre for private wealth. DBS says it…