Asia

August 17, 2021 @ 8:33 am By Omar Faridi  |  

Hong Kong-based digital bank ZA Bank has introduced “Salary FastPass,” which is an interest-free early payday option in Asia that lets people access their monthly salary up to 7 days in advance. ZA Bank‘s management noted that the Salary FastPass option aims to give employees a… Read More

August 17, 2021 @ 2:44 am By Priyanka Pani  |  

FalconX, a one-stop shop for institutional cryptocurrency market participants, has raised a $210 million Series C financing round led by Altimeter Capital. The new funding round valued the platform at $3.75 billion and saw Sapphire Ventures and existing investors B Capital Group, Tiger Global Management,… Read More

August 16, 2021 @ 11:18 pm By JD Alois  |  

The National Bank of Bahrain (NBB) has launched the Digital Banking Challenge in partnership with Bahrain FinTech Bay. The Challenge is open to all Bahraini youth to develop new and creative solutions focused on NBB’s new digital banking app. In line with Bahrain’s Vision 2030 objectives,… Read More

August 16, 2021 @ 9:07 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

The team at digital asset firm Gemini has released their Singapore market report, which reveals that the COVID-19 crisis led to two-thirds of investors in the Southeast Asian country to increase their cryptocurrency holdings. As noted by Gemini: “Today (August 14, 2021), we are excited… Read More

August 16, 2021 @ 8:37 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

Vesta, the only “instant, end-to-end” transaction guarantee platform for making online purchases, recently revealed that it has been chosen by Bukalapak, which is one of Indonesia’s biggest tech firms. According to a release, Bukalapak will be leveraging Vesta’s extensive fraud prevention solution “to maximize approvals… Read More

August 15, 2021 @ 9:14 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

WorldRemit, a UK-based digital cross-border payments firm, recently introduced its money transfer services in Malaysia’s markets through its app and web-based platform. Clients are now able to send funds from Malaysia, in addition to 50 other nations including the United Kingdom and the US, to… Read More

August 15, 2021 @ 12:12 pm By Xu Gao  |  

Shenzhen to Pilot Chief Data Officer System According to a notice released on its official website on August 11th, Shenzhen municipal government, governments of Futian District, Nanshan District, Baoan District, Pingshan Districts, and eight city-level bureaus (including the public security bureau and human resources bureau)… Read More

August 15, 2021 @ 11:59 am By Omar Faridi  |  

Automobile lender Jet Finance reveals that it has launched on European peer-to-peer lending platform Mintos. As mentioned in a blog post by Mintos, the Jet Finance team says it’s pleased to confirm that it has officially gone live on Mintos. According to the update, Jet… Read More

August 13, 2021 @ 4:09 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

To serve residents in the Philippines that don’t have an established financial history, consumer lending firm SB Finance has teamed up with FinScore to enhance its credit scoring process using alternative data. By leveraging FinScore’s Telco Credit Scoring solution, SB Finance can reliably predict the… Read More

August 13, 2021 @ 3:28 pm By Tony Zerucha  |  

Cryptocurrency exchange Bitop has made several changes to its trading platform, which offers advanced trading technology for contracts for differences (CDF). A cryptocurrency contracts exchange in Singapore, Bitop provides services in more than 150 countries. It was launched in 2018, has offices in the United… Read More

August 12, 2021 @ 9:47 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

Fintech firm dopay has received a banking agent license via the Arab Banking Corporation Egypt (Bank ABC Egypt). As noted by its management: “Dopay is the Fintech innovator driving financial inclusion by making access to cashless payment solutions simple, secure, and super-fast. Today, 1.7 billion… Read More

August 12, 2021 @ 9:07 pm By Priyanka Pani  |  

GyanDhan, a Fintech facilitating education loan in India, has received an NBFC license from the banking regulator Reserve Bank of India to start disbursing credit as the country slowly recovers from the Covid-triggered crisis. Following the permit, the company aims to disburse $87 million worth… Read More

August 12, 2021 @ 8:27 pm By Priyanka Pani  |  

Even as India continues to debate the legality of crypto, CoinDCX has turned into the country’s first crypto unicorn following a $90 million funding round led by Facebook Inc. co-founder Eduardo Saverin and B Capital Group. Existing investors, Coinbase Ventures, Polychain Capital, Block.one, and Jump… Read More

August 12, 2021 @ 7:25 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

The team at aelf, a decentralized Cloud computing blockchain platform, told CI that their mainnet has proven performance and function. The team will be conducting its mainnet token swap in September 2021. Additionally, the aelf team shared updates regarding its work with the Chinese government…. Read More

August 12, 2021 @ 8:48 am By JD Alois  |  

London-based BPC banking technology is reporting that PPCBank in Cambodia has is now using its SmartVista platform. SmartVista is being utilized to centralize their payment switching activity, manage and monitor their ATM and POS networks. The bank says that it is responding to the country’s… Read More

August 11, 2021 @ 9:08 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

In what appears to be a first for the Central and Eastern European as well as the MENA region, Visa (NYSE: V) and Mashreq, a card acceptance service provider in the UAE, have teamed up to offer a “Rapid Seller Onboarding” program in the Middle… Read More

August 11, 2021 @ 11:30 am By Omar Faridi  |  

Fraxtor Private Ltd, an online real estate platform, has acquired in-principle approval for its Capital Markets Services (CMS) license by the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS). The CMS License, after it’s issued, should allow Fraxtor to issue security tokens including debentures and collective investment schemes… Read More

August 11, 2021 @ 8:46 am By Omar Faridi  |  

BBVA and Ant Group (Alibaba affiliate) have entered an agreement to work on the integration of financial services in their platform, Trusple. Based on blockchain or distributed ledger technology (DLT), this network aims “to accelerate the digital transformation and facilitate the financing of international trade… Read More

August 9, 2021 @ 10:40 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

The Pakistan Software Houses Association had recommended to the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) that IT firms should be permitted to use 20% of their export earnings to pay for foreign consultants, digital service providers, vendors (among other requirements) in order to conduct operations and… Read More

August 9, 2021 @ 9:31 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

Dubai-headquartered personal finance and investment platform Sarwa has acquired $15 million in capital through a Series B round. Abu Dhabi’s sovereign investment company Mubadala Investment Company has led Sarwa’s latest investment round. Other investors that made contributions include 500 Startups, KIPCO, Shorooq Partners, MEVP, DIFC,… Read More