Author: Fintech News Singapore

Banking and technology leaders from across Asia and the Middle East convened in Shanghai on 17 September for the Global Banking Summit 2025. Co-hosted by Sunline, a provider of core banking solutions, and Huawei, the event explored the critical role of technology in the next phase of banking modernisation. The summit drew attendees from Singapore, Hong Kong, Thailand, Indonesia, the Philippines, the Middle East and beyond, fostering a platform for cross-regional dialogue on the future of finance. Speakers emphasised the growing need for strategic partnerships between technology providers and financial institutions to accelerate large-scale digital transformation. A key highlight was the presentation…

United Overseas Bank (UOB) and UnionPay International have launched the SplendorPlus Campaign, giving UOB UnionPay cardholders up to 5% cashback on purchases made in mainland China until December 31. The initiative comes as travel between Singapore and China continues to expand. Changi Airport reported a 15.8% year-on-year increase in Singapore, China passenger traffic in the second quarter of 2025, nearly three times higher than the airport’s overall growth of 5.9% during the same period. The campaign is positioned against this backdrop of growing demand, with Singaporeans continuing to regard China as one of their most visited destinations. Under the scheme,…

Mastercard has introduced an embedded virtual card payment capability in Australia, with Westpac becoming the first commercial issuer in the country to activate the solution for clients using Oracle Fusion Cloud Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP). The system integrates Mastercard’s virtual card technology with Oracle’s business-to-business platform, embedding payments directly within Oracle Cloud ERP. This gives businesses real-time visibility, greater control, improved working capital management, and streamlined supplier onboarding within their existing systems. “Manual commercial payments are the silent drag on growth, slowing operations, increasing exposure, and tying up capital that should be fuelling innovation,” said Anouska Ladds, Executive Vice President,…

Global venture capital firm Antler has appointed fintech veteran Hiro Kiga as partner for Southeast Asia and Japan to strengthen its early-stage investment presence across both markets. Based in Singapore, Kiga will lead Antler’s strategy in Japan while coordinating with the Southeast Asia team to accelerate day-zero investing, increase founder mobility and drive cross-border collaboration. Kiga co-founded Wallex, a B2B foreign exchange and cross-border payments platform that became a regional fintech player before its acquisition by Singapore-based M-DAQ in 2022. He previously spent four years in venture capital at Strive VC (formerly GREE) and Yello Mobile after beginning his career…

A private dinner with DBS CEO Tan Su Shan drew a winning bid of S$18,900 (about US$14,800) at National Gallery Singapore’s gala. The auctioned experience became one of the standout lots at the gallery’s 10th-anniversary fundraiser, which Bloomberg reported raised a record S$2.8 million to support new exhibitions, research and education programs. Sotheby’s handled the auction of nearly 90 artworks and luxury experiences. The winning bidder secured a six-person private dinner with Tan at chef Damian D’Silva’s venue, preceded by a champagne reception at the Singapore Courtyard and followed by a private tour of the Gallery. Organisers said the strong…

Luxury shoppers at LVMH stores worldwide are now tapping, swiping, and paying under one unified system as the group deepens its global partnership with Adyen. LVMH (Louis Vuitton Moët Hennessy) is the French multinational conglomerate behind Louis Vuitton, Christian Dior, Fendi, Bulgari, Sephora and TAG Heuer. Adyen has been LVMH’s global payments partner since 2020 and its solutions now support nearly 50 of the group’s fashion, hospitality, beauty and retail Maisons. The rollout spans more than 1,000 stores across Europe, Asia Pacific and the Americas, bringing mobile terminals, Tap to Pay, automated reconciliation and end-of-day processes to reduce manual entry…

Razorpay enables Apple Pay for cross-border sales, giving Indian merchants a one-tap checkout experience for overseas shoppers Razorpay has become the first Indian payment aggregator to support Apple Pay for international transactions. The service gives merchants access to hundreds of millions of iPhone, iPad, Mac and Apple Watch users worldwide, offering one-tap payments authenticated with Face ID or Touch ID. Industry data shows Apple Pay can lift conversions by up to 58 percent, while Razorpay said early adopters on its platform are already seeing success rates above 90 percent for international payments. Apple Pay is rolling out alongside Razorpay’s existing…

Stablecoins are quickly evolving from crypto-native assets to credible instruments for mainstream finance. In 2024 alone, stablecoin transaction volumes hit 27.6 trillion, surpassing the combined volume of Visa and Mastercard, according to the World Economic Forum. Signaling significant real-world interest from major players. But are stablecoins here to change finance forever? Join us to find out first-hand this and more at our webinar: What’s behind the rise of stablecoins? What are the potential success factors leading towards its adoption? How stablecoins are being used to make payment rails faster, cheaper, and programmable What banks and fintechs need to consider before…

OCBC is stepping up its push to finance women-led businesses, aiming to back 10,000 entrepreneurs across Singapore, Malaysia, Hong Kong and Indonesia by 2030. The bank revealed the expanded goal at a briefing covered by The Business Times, noting that more than 2,000 women-owned SMEs had already received close to S$600 million in social loans by mid-2025. The Women Unlimited programme started in Singapore in April 2024, offering up to S$100,000 in financing for early-stage businesses run by women. It targets companies in their first two years of operation and waives processing fees to lower entry barriers. OCBC later brought…

Singapore authorities are launching a crackdown to cut scam mules off from banks, mobile lines and digital IDs. The joint move by the Singapore Police Force (SPF), Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS), Infocomm Media Development Authority (IMDA) and Government Technology Agency of Singapore (GovTech) targets individuals who supply syndicates with local facilities. Scam losses reached S$456.4 million in the first half of 2025 across 19,665 cases. Authorities say scammers depend on bank accounts, phone lines and digital services bought from “mules,” and are increasingly exploiting cryptocurrency’s anonymity to move funds. The new framework will curb digital banking services including Internet…

Singapore-based insurtech firm CXA Group, which secured about US$58 million in funding over nearly 12 years of operations, is preparing to liquidate its assets and wind down operations. Founder Rosaline Chow Koo confirmed this in a LinkedIn post, saying, “Happy to see that the CXA solution lives on throughout Asia through the deals completed with Pacific Prime in Singapore, HSBC Life in Hong Kong and a third party in China. While this is the right way to transition CXA, I would love to share my learnings with investors and founders later after I return from an extended trip to the…

The Commonwealth Bank’s venture-scaling arm, x15ventures, and fintech-focused fund Triple Bubble have formed a strategic partnership aimed at supporting innovation in Australia’s financial technology sector. The collaboration involves an investment, the exploration of new fintech opportunities using x15’s bank-compliant venture framework, and the establishment of a mentorship and talent exchange programme. This will enable startups to gain enterprise-level insight while providing Commonwealth Bank staff with experience in high-growth ventures. “We’ve built a model that’s proven effective in helping startups scale while deepening the CommBank proposition, but there’s always room to improve, especially in how we identify future ventures and talent,”…

DBS and Franklin Templeton are joining forces with Ripple to offer accredited and institutional investors trading and lending services using tokenised money market funds and Ripple’s RLUSD stablecoin. Under the plan, eligible DBS clients will be able to trade Franklin Templeton’s sgBENJI token on DBS Digital Exchange (DDEx) using RLUSD. The sgBENJI token represents Franklin Templeton’s Franklin Onchain U.S. Dollar Short-Term Money Market Fund and will be added to the XRP Ledger, a public and enterprise-grade blockchain. Franklin Templeton said using the XRP Ledger strengthens interoperability across networks and offers speed, efficiency and low transaction costs for a high-volume, low-latency…

A new tie-up between SBI Shinsei Bank, Partior and DeCurret DCP could reshape how yen and other currencies move across borders, using blockchain-backed tokenised deposits. The three companies have signed a memorandum of understanding to study multi-currency clearing and settlement through tokenised deposits and distributed ledger technology. SBI Shinsei, which has a large corporate client base, is considering introducing DCJPY, a yen-denominated tokenised deposit provided by DeCurret DCP, for both corporate and retail customers while also exploring tokenised deposits in other currencies. Partior’s digital money settlement platform is already used by banks including DBS, J.P. Morgan, Standard Chartered and Deutsche…

DBS Bank India has been authorised by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) as an Agency Bank to collect Goods and Services Tax (GST) payments, making it the only wholly owned subsidiary in India to receive this approval. Businesses can now make GST payments through its enterprise banking platform DBS IDEAL, via NEFT or RTGS, or over the counter at the bank’s branches. Customers can instantly download payment advice, track transactions in real time and access dedicated client service support to resolve queries. The approval is expected to help businesses streamline GST compliance. Since the introduction of GST in 2017,…

The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) and the Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to strengthen cooperation on banking supervision. The agreement builds on years of collaboration between the two regulators and will support the exchange of information and mutual assistance for supervisory purposes. The arrangement is aimed at improving oversight of banks with operations in both Singapore and Hong Kong, where lenders from each market have a significant presence. Chia Der Jiun, Managing Director, MAS, said, “This MOU reaffirms the strong partnership between MAS and the HKMA and paves the way for deeper…

Poni Financial Advisory, the international arm of Nasdaq-listed Huize Holding, has received approval from Singapore’s central bank to operate as a licensed financial adviser and exempt insurance broker, Dow Jones Newswires reported. The Monetary Authority of Singapore granted the license effective 10 July 2025, expanding the reach of Huize’s insurtech brand, Poni Insurtech. The move marks a key step in Huize’s push to diversify beyond China and Hong Kong. Poni Insurtech, which already operates in Singapore, Hong Kong and Vietnam, is building a regional digital platform to distribute insurance and wealth products. The company has signalled plans to extend its…

HSBC has unveiled Wealth Intelligence, a generative AI-powered ecosystem designed to help its private banking teams deliver faster, more tailored investment advice. Developed in-house and powered by OpenAI’s large language model, Wealth Intelligence reviews and summarises HSBC’s research alongside external news from more than 10,000 data sources. It gives investment counsellors and product specialists quicker access to reports from the bank’s award-winning Chief Investment Office, while an open product platform will progressively integrate a growing volume of third-party product information. The platform has been rolled out in Hong Kong and Singapore and will expand to other markets to serve HSBC’s…

SC Ventures, Standard Chartered’s venture arm, plans to raise a US$250 million fund for digital assets in 2026, Bloomberg reported. Operating partner Gautam Jain announced the plan at the Money 20/20 conference in Riyadh, saying the vehicle will target global financial services opportunities with backing from Middle Eastern investors. The fund will focus on early-stage companies developing digital custody infrastructure, compliance tools and hybrid platforms that connect fiat and crypto ecosystems. SC Ventures is also preparing a US$100 million Africa fund and exploring its first venture debt vehicle, though it has not confirmed whether these will include digital assets. The…

Ant International has teamed up with Google to help shape a new way for AI agents to make payments safely, a step that could speed up the growth of autonomous commerce. The Agent Payments Protocol (AP2) is an open system that sets out how AI agents can carry out transactions with a user’s approval. It is designed to check user intent, make transactions easier to track, improve privacy and make it clear who is responsible for each step. The protocol works with different payment types including cards, real-time bank transfers and stablecoins. It also connects with Google’s Agent2Agent and Model…