Author: Izzat Najmi Abdullah

We are currently living in a time where digital finance conversations are dominated by wallets, apps, and these so-called “invisible transactions”. Something that is so seamless, we hardly see or feel it. But these immaculate processes made it so easy for us to forget that most payments still end the same way, most of the time. A customer stands in front of a merchant. A screen is turned. A card, phone, or QR code comes out. Then only will the process be completed. The interaction lasts just seconds, but little did we know that it often defines how the entire…

Five years ago, digital banking was one of the most talked-about developments, especially within the financial sector across Asia. New licences were being issued across Singapore, Malaysia, the Philippines, Hong Kong, and beyond. Regulators spoke about innovation and inclusion. Founders spoke about disruption. Investors spoke about scale. To sum up as a whole, the picture looks far more nuanced. Some digital banks have found their footing and are scaling steadily. Others are facing struggles, with some unlucky ones having pivoted and even quietly faded from the spotlight. Looking at this current state of what’s happening around these digital banks, it…

Thailand is marching toward a cashless society. With mobile wallet adoption expected to reach 63% in 2025 and the prepaid card and e-wallet market projected to grow, the country stands as a digital payments leader in Southeast Asia. Backed by government stimulus, booming e-commerce, and a digitally savvy population, Thailand’s e-wallet ecosystem is maturing rapidly. From bank-backed apps to fintech-led super apps, the market is being shaped by innovation, integration, and rising user expectations. Here’s a closer look at the current landscape and the five best e-wallet platforms dominating the Thai market in 2025. Between 2020 and 2024, Thailand’s prepaid…

Efforts to modernise cross-border payments have accelerated over the past decade, yet retail transactions remain slower, more expensive, and less transparent than domestic instant payments. While many jurisdictions have rolled out real-time payment systems, sending money across borders continues to rely on fragmented foreign exchange processes, prefunding arrangements, and sequential settlement mechanisms that introduce cost and risk. Project Rialto, a collaborative experiment led by the BIS Innovation Hub together with the Bank of France, the Bank of Italy, Bank Negara Malaysia, and the Monetary Authority of Singapore, explores how these frictions could be addressed without dismantling existing payment infrastructures. The…

When you meet Vince Iswara, the CEO and Co-Founder of DANA, you quickly realise he is not the type of founder who builds a company for the spotlight. He speaks softly, thinks carefully, and smiles easily when talking about his team. If you didn’t already know that DANA serves more than 200 million users, you probably wouldn’t guess it from the way he carries himself. He talks like someone who is still in the trenches, still solving problems one by one, and still treating every day as if the company could disappear if they missed a step. That mindset that…

Singapore’s fintech scene never really has a slow season, but 2025 has been unusually packed. Some stories shook consumer confidence, others sparked long debates about trust and regulation, and a few reminded the region that Singapore is still pushing big ideas on the global stage. Here’s a look at five of the biggest stories that shaped the conversation this year, in no particular order. Tokenize Xchange Collapses And Leaves A S$266 Million Hole The year began with a jolt when Tokenize Xchange, once a familiar name among local crypto users, collapsed and left more than S$266 million owed to customers.…

The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) has been watching closely as artificial intelligence reshapes the country’s financial sector. What began as simple automation tools has grown into generative models, multi-agent systems and increasingly autonomous decision making. That shift forced the regulator to rethink how AI should sit within the broader financial system. MAS has issued ethical frameworks before, including FEAT and Veritas, but the latest wave of AI is different. It moves faster, learns faster and embeds itself deeper into the everyday operations of banks, insurers and capital markets players. By the time the Singapore Fintech Festival 2025 arrived, MAS…

In finance, the sexiest thing is for AI to be boring. Not many people would say that out loud, but David Hardoon might agree with the sentiment. As Global Head of AI Enablement at Standard Chartered, David has built his career on showing that the most powerful form of artificial intelligence in banking is the kind that blends quietly into the background. While the rest of the world obsesses over generative breakthroughs and futuristic trading bots, he is more interested in the everyday, the unglamorous, carefully governed AI that keeps banks resilient. During a recent conversation, he quipped that we…

From 15 October 2025, Singapore’s banks will be required to hold or even reject digital transfers when they cross a new regulatory threshold. If a customer with at least S$50,000 in their account tries to move more than half of that balance within a 24-hour period, the bank will automatically stop the transaction. The money either sits on hold for a full day, or the transfer is blocked outright. For those who rely on speed, this, I remind you, is not a minor change. The safeguard has been described by regulators as a way to insert a “cognitive break” into…

“Travel is the only thing you buy that makes you richer.” The phrase has been repeated so often it borders on cliché, yet in Singapore it still rings true. For a country where hopping on a plane to Bangkok, Tokyo, or Sydney is as routine as a long weekend, travel is not just a luxury, it is part of life. That explains why the miles credit card market here has become one of the most competitive arenas in banking. In 2025, the fight for your wallet has grown sharper. Banks are no longer content with offering the standard 1.2 miles…

Fintech funding in Asia-Pacific has slumped to levels not seen in over a decade, with only US$4.3 billion invested across 363 deals in H1 2025, a sharp drop from US$7.3 billion in the previous half. For a region that has long prided itself on being a cradle of digital financial innovation, the slowdown feels like a pause, even a reality check, in an industry that was once awash with capital and lofty valuations. The malaise isn’t confined to Asia. Globally, fintech investment reached US$44.7 billion across 2,216 deals in the first half of the year, according to KPMG’s Pulse of…

“AI has fully defeated most of the ways that people authenticate currently.” A warning that Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI said at a Federal Reserve conference this July. He didn’t say it at a tech event in Silicon Valley, but in front of regulators who oversee the stability of the financial system. For centuries, fraud relied on human gullibility. In 2025, it’s powered by machines that can fake your voice, your face, and even your identity with unsettling precision. Fraudsters have now industrialised what once depended on a forged signature or a convincing lie. With only a few seconds of…

Nobel Prize-winning scientist, Albert Szent-Györgyi, once said that innovation is seeing what everybody has seen and thinking what nobody thought. His words feel fitting when I was scanning through Forbes Asia’s latest 100 To Watch list. Because if you look closely, some of the most exciting shifts in finance aren’t happening in the glass towers of New York or London, but in co-working spaces and startup hubs from Jakarta to Karachi. Now in its fifth year, the 100 To Watch celebrates the small but fast-growing companies of Asia-Pacific that are finding creative ways to solve problems and reimagine industries. It’s…

The idea of a “last mover advantage” may sound counterintuitive, but it explains how latecomers can sometimes move faster and smarter than early pioneers. In fintech, it is often called the leapfrog effect. Instead of taking the slow road through decades of legacy systems, Southeast Asia skipped ahead directly into the digital age. With little legacy infrastructure holding it back, the region went mobile-first. High smartphone use and a large unbanked population created a once-in-a-generation opening for fintech founders. E-wallets and QR code payments were just the start, followed by super apps, lending platforms, insurtechs, and wealthtech reaching hundreds of…

When Singapore gained independence on 9 August 1965, it was a nation forced to start from scratch. With no natural resources, little foreign currency reserves, and an uncertain future, survival was the immediate goal. But behind the pragmatism of its founding leaders was something else. A long-term vision. That same forward-looking ethos of resilience, precision, and state-backed planning would decades later shape one of the world’s most sophisticated fintech ecosystems. As the nation turns 60 this year, the story of Singapore’s fintech journey mirrors the broader arc of its national development. Just like Rome, it wasn’t built overnight, and it…

Every industry has its share of award shows, and fintech is no different. But every so often, one comes along that manages to feel grounded and relevant. It doesn’t chase headlines or reward the loudest voice in the room. Instead, it puts the spotlight on the people building quietly, often without the attention they deserve. That was the premise behind the Fintech Frontiers 50 Awards, held on 5 August 2025 at The Estate on Federal Hill in Kuala Lumpur. Timed to coincide with Malaysia’s MyFintech Week, the event drew founders, regulators, investors, and ecosystem builders from across the region. This…

Ever messaged a support bot on your fintech app and thought, “Is this even a real person?” I surely have. Now imagine that person you’re talking to is locked inside a guarded building, working 14-hour shifts under threat of violence. Sounds a bit far-fetched, but that’s the reality for tens of thousands trapped in Cambodia’s scam compounds. More than 100,000 people are believed to be caught up in this. They’re not just scamming for fun, but almost all of them are being forced to. These “modern-day slaves” are pretending to be customer service reps, building fake e-wallet platforms, and sweet-talking…

Circle’s IPO earlier last month turned more than a few heads on Wall Street. The digital payments firm behind USD Coin raised over a billion dollars and saw its stock more than triple on debut. For a product that was once seen as a niche crypto tool, this was a watershed moment. But ask most people (even some in finance) what a stablecoin actually is, and the answers get a little fuzzy. Isn’t it just another crypto token? Is it backed by anything real? Is it safe? The short answer is yes, sort of, and that depends. The long answer…

“A compliance policy is only as strong as the infrastructure that delivers it”   That’s how Baran Ozkan, Co-Founder and CEO of Flagright, summed up the latest anti-money laundering (AML) storm that hit Singapore. Nine financial institutions, including UOB, Credit Suisse, and UBS, were collectively fined SGD $27.45 million by the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) for serious lapses in AML and counter-terrorism financing controls.   It’s a hefty figure, but the real cost might be what it reveals about how banks are still struggling to keep up with the speed and sophistication of financial crime.   The penalties followed MAS reviews…

“From onboarding to a working credit or debit card in under three minutes.” That line from Dwaipayan Sadhu, CEO of Trust Bank, stuck with me. Yes, getting a banking account set up in under three minutes is fast, no doubt. But in 2025, that kind of speed is more of a baseline expectation than a mind-blowing achievement. However still, it’s still a compelling example of how Trust Bank used that start to win trust, and more importantly, daily engagement, winning over a million Singaporeans. Plus, the bank launched in 2022, a time when many people were sceptical that Singapore even…