Asia

June 5, 2022 @ 10:28 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

Tarabut Gateway, which claims to be the largest Open Banking platform in the MENA region with a market presence in Bahrain, the UAE and KSA, recently announced four new key banking partnerships in KSA. As part of its expansion in Saudi Arabia, and the developments… Read More

June 4, 2022 @ 9:02 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

Green Link Digital Bank (GLDB) commences banking business. GLDB seeks to serve Micro-Small-Medium-Enterprises (MSMEs) with banking and financial services “through their supply chain financing and innovative, easy-to-use technological solutions.” GLDB seeks to leverage their experience in supply chain financing and innovative, easy-to-use technological solutions “to… Read More

June 4, 2022 @ 1:49 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

Stripe, an international financial infrastructure platform, recently announced that Stripe Terminal is currently available in Singapore, making it convenient for companies to create custom checkout experiences for accepting in-person payments, along with unifying client experience and data across online and in-person transfers. Although selling items… Read More

June 3, 2022 @ 2:07 pm By JD Alois  |  

Japan has approved legislation that provides regulation for stablecoins. According to a report in Bloomberg, a stablecoin “must be linked to the yen or another legal tender and guarantee holders the right to redeem them at face value.” The legislation became law this week. Regulating… Read More

June 3, 2022 @ 9:18 am By Omar Faridi  |  

Wirex, a crypto payments company, is expanding the suite of top-up methods on their non-custodial wallet “for Indian customers.” The addition of this popular payment option to purchase crypto “will make the digital economy more accessible for over 1 billion people in India.” The Wirex… Read More

June 3, 2022 @ 7:20 am By Omar Faridi  |  

MoneyGram International, Inc. (NASDAQ: MGI), which claims to be an international “leader” in the evolution of digital P2P payments, and Mobily Pay, a “pioneering” mobile wallet powered by Saudi-based telecommunications and digital service provider Mobily, have announced a partnership “to launch MoneyGram’s leading international money… Read More

June 2, 2022 @ 10:58 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

Liminal, a wallet operations infrastructure that secures digital assets in a simple and efficient way, has acquired $4.7 million via its seed round that was led by Elevation Capital. The investment round also saw participation from investors such as LD Capital, Woodstock, Nexus Ventures, and… Read More

June 2, 2022 @ 7:47 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

ZoodPay, the digital lending platform for e-commerce in the Middle East and Central Asia, has entered Pakistan by fully “acquiring Karachi headquartered Tez Financial Services (Tez).” Backed by investors including Planet N, Flourish Ventures and Accion, Tez reportedly became “the first Fintech in Pakistan to… Read More

June 1, 2022 @ 11:47 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

GCash, a Philippines based mobile wallet that’s operated by Mynt under Globe’s corporate venture builder 917Ventures, recently revealed that it now has more than 60 million registered users and over 5 million merchants across the country. As noted in the update, GCash stated that that… Read More

June 1, 2022 @ 7:33 pm By JD Alois  |  

  HyperPay, a payments provider located in Saudi Arabia but providing services across the MENA region, has raised $40 million (SAR 138M) in a funding round led by Mastercard (NYSE: MA) with the participation of Amwal Capital Partners and AB Ventures. Along with the investment… Read More

June 1, 2022 @ 2:22 am By Omar Faridi  |  

The use of EGov Pay, a system that supports virtual payments for government services in the Philippines, reports an increase of 467% in payment volume to more than 91,000 transactions at end of 2021 from about 16,000 transactions a year prior. This, according to the… Read More

May 31, 2022 @ 11:57 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

Indonesian digital investment app provider Bibit recently revealed that it had acquired over $80 million via a funding round that was led by GIC, along with contributions from Prosus Ventures as well as other existing investors. Bibit’s management noted that the capital secured will be… Read More

May 31, 2022 @ 11:00 am By JD Alois  |  

The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) has announced the launch of Project Guardian, an effort to reveal the value created in leveraging asset tokenization. Singapore has long been a top Asian Fintech hub and there are multiple Fintechs in the digital asset sector based in… Read More

May 30, 2022 @ 10:17 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) has imposed an additional capital requirement of around SGD 330 million on OCBC Bank. The city-state’s regulatory authority noted that this latest move was in response to the deficiencies in the banking institution’s response to a set of “spoofed”… Read More

May 30, 2022 @ 7:12 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

Data from Mastercard’s (NYSE: MA) 2022 Borderless Payments Report has revealed “two in five (44%) global small and medium sized businesses (SMEs) fear they will never achieve the same revenue levels as before the pandemic, although online business and international sales offer a real lifeline.”… Read More

May 30, 2022 @ 12:46 pm By JD Alois  |  

Estonia-based lomob Technologies OU, a blockchain-based firm that is developing a “mobility marketplace network and token” has received an investment from Cypher Capital. Cypher Capital is a VC firm based in the UAE, and active in the global crypto, blockchain, and digital asset space. The… Read More

May 29, 2022 @ 4:20 pm By JD Alois  |  

Waves, an issuer of another algorithmic stablecoin Neutrino USD (USDN) has distributed a plan to reanimate its troubled stablecoin. USDN lost its “peg” back in April tanking to around $0.66 and while it has bounced back a bit – now around $0.97 – USDN has… Read More

May 27, 2022 @ 6:41 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

Mastercard (NYSE: MA), a tech leader in the international payments sector, has announced a strategic partnership Saudi Arabia-based HyperPay, which claims to be the fastest growing e-commerce payments services provider in the MENA region, in order to drive the adoption of digital payment solutions across… Read More

May 27, 2022 @ 4:09 pm By JD Alois  |  

Nemesis Technologies, a global venture capital fund, has enlisted the assistance of Securitize to tokenize a $500 million venture fund. Nemesis is based in Japan. Securitize is both a primary issuance platform and secondary trading market powering the future of digital securities. While based in… Read More

May 27, 2022 @ 10:36 am By JD Alois  |  

A group of Republican US Senators has introduced legislation designed to knee-cap the digital yuan – a Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC) that is already in use – albeit on a limited basis. Senators Tom Cotton, Marco Rubio, and Mike Braun have revealed the “Defending… Read More