October 19, 2025 @ 10:07 pm By Michael Wong  |  

HitPay, a Singapore-based payments platform, said it partnered with licensed crypto payments firm Triple-A to enable more than 20,000 merchants to accept stablecoin payments at online and in-store checkouts while receiving instant settlements in fiat currency. The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS)-regulated arrangement targets small… Read More

October 19, 2025 @ 9:59 pm By Michael Wong  |  

Abu Dhabi’s International Holding Company (IHC) said it has acquired a majority stake in state-owned First Women Bank Ltd (FWBL) after Pakistan completed a government-to-government privatisation under its Inter-Governmental Commercial Transactions Act of 2022. The announcement, at a ceremony attended by Sheikh Zayed bin Hamdan… Read More

October 19, 2025 @ 4:13 pm By Michael Wong  |  

Canada has committed more than C$3 million ($2.1 million) over five years to an Industrial Research Chair in Tokenization at École de technologie supérieure (ÉTS), backing work on advanced tokenization and decentralized federated learning led by Professor Kaiwen Zhang and industry partner T-RIZE Group. The… Read More

October 19, 2025 @ 4:10 pm By Michael Wong  |  

The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) launched BLOOM, short for Borderless, Liquid, Open, Online, Multi-currency, a new industry initiative to extend settlement options for financial institutions using tokenised bank liabilities and well-regulated stablecoins while applying standardised risk controls. MAS said BLOOM will work with banks… Read More

October 19, 2025 @ 10:10 am By Michael Wong  |  

KLIQ, a Saudi-built influencer marketing platform powered by proprietary AI, said it raised $2.25 million in seed funding led by Sanabil Venture Studio, a subsidiary of Sanabil Investments, in partnership with corporate venture builder Stryber. The company said the funding will help it address common… Read More

October 18, 2025 @ 10:10 am By Michael Wong  |  

The U.K.’s tax agency is turning up the heat on crypto traders, more than doubling the number of warning notices it sent to suspected underpayers in the latest tax year as digital-asset ownership swells. HM Revenue & Customs dispatched almost 65,000 so-called “nudge letters” in… Read More

October 13, 2025 @ 10:13 am By Michael Wong  |  

Berlin-based automation and AI orchestration startup n8n has raised $180 million in a Series C funding round, bringing its total funding to $240 million and valuing the company at $2.5 billion, according to a company announcement. The round was led by Accel with participation from… Read More

October 13, 2025 @ 6:38 am By Michael Wong  |  

Qantas said data belonging to 5.7 million customers stolen in a major cyberattack has been shared online, widening the fallout from a campaign tied to a third-party platform used by dozens of global companies. The airline reiterated that the compromise originated at a provider later… Read More

October 12, 2025 @ 8:12 pm By Michael Wong  |  

Banglalink and its sole shareholder VEON have written to Bangladesh Bank expressing interest in securing a digital bank licence, the companies said in an expression-of-interest (EoI) sent to Governor Ahsan H Mansur, according to people familiar with the matter. The approach follows earlier discussions with… Read More

October 11, 2025 @ 11:06 pm By Michael Wong  |  

Hong Kong’s de facto central bank published a tentative six-month issuance schedule for institutional government bonds under its Infrastructure Bond Programme and Government Sustainable Bond Programme, outlining planned offerings in both Hong Kong dollars and offshore yuan via competitive tenders from October 2025 to March… Read More

October 11, 2025 @ 9:17 pm By Michael Wong  |  

Fireblocks said that Moomoo will integrate its Wallets-as-a-Service (WaaS) infrastructure to expand and secure the trading platform’s digital-asset offerings, in a move aimed at boosting scalability, reliability and security across Moomoo’s operations. The integration, targeted for completion by end-2025, will connect Moomoo Singapore to the… Read More

October 10, 2025 @ 11:18 am By Michael Wong  |  

Singapore-based YY Group Holding Limited said it will integrate enterprise-grade stablecoin payment infrastructure from Obita to power cross-border receivables, payables and treasury operations across its global gig-work platforms, under a memorandum of understanding. YY Group, a workforce solutions and integrated facilities management provider, said the… Read More

October 9, 2025 @ 10:54 pm By Michael Wong  |  

Gulf Bank said it signed a partnership with the Institute of Banking Studies to deliver specialised training as the lender prepares to convert into a Sharia-compliant institution, after preliminary approval from the Central Bank of Kuwait in August. The agreement was signed by Bader Al-Ali,… Read More

October 5, 2025 @ 3:40 pm By Michael Wong  |  

Thailand has the ingredients to develop into a regional centre for digital assets, according to Binance, which cited regulatory clarity, relatively high public awareness and supportive macroeconomic conditions as the key pillars for growth. S. B. Seker, the exchange’s newly appointed Asia-Pacific head, told local… Read More

October 5, 2025 @ 7:34 am By Michael Wong  |  

The United Arab Emirates’ drive to modernise its monetary system, including the rollout of a Digital Dirham and new rules for stablecoins, is improving policy transmission and supporting financial resilience, the International Monetary Fund said at the end of its 2025 Article IV mission. “Enhancements… Read More

October 4, 2025 @ 6:26 pm By Michael Wong  |  

Indonesia-based private equity firm Sriwijaya Capital has signed a memorandum of understanding with Abu Dhabi’s BlueFive Capital to form a strategic alliance aimed at channeling more Gulf capital into Southeast Asia and expanding access for ASEAN investors to Middle Eastern opportunities, the firms stated. The… Read More

October 4, 2025 @ 2:20 pm By Michael Wong  |  

Singapore strengthened its position as the world’s third-largest foreign exchange trading hub, with average daily turnover rising 60% to $1.485 trillion in April 2025 from April 2022, the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) said, citing results of the Bank for International Settlements’ 2025 Triennial Central… Read More

October 4, 2025 @ 2:12 pm By Michael Wong  |  

Acuity Knowledge Partners, a London-based provider of bespoke research, data management, analytics and AI solutions to financial institutions, has acquired Ascent, a UK company whose software supports AI-driven digital transformation. Terms of the deal were not disclosed. Acuity said the transaction will lift its global… Read More

September 29, 2025 @ 5:38 pm By Michael Wong  |  

Singapore’s financial regulator said disputes over investment-linked policies (ILPs) more than doubled in 2024, prompting new consumer protection measures as the city-state seeks to strengthen oversight of complex financial products. The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) said 211 ILP-related cases were handled by the Financial… Read More

September 29, 2025 @ 4:45 pm By Michael Wong  |  

Hong Kong-based fintech platform WeLab announced an artificial intelligence partnership with Google to accelerate digital banking across Asia Pacific, as the company targets serving 500 million users by 2032 with AI-powered financial services. The collaboration will see WeLab leverage Google’s advanced AI models and cloud… Read More