Asia

January 17, 2025 @ 7:39 am By Omar Faridi  |  

The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) reported “record-breaking” enforcement actions in 2024, while the value of fines issued by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) more than tripled year-on-year, according to SteelEye’s annual fine tracker. To create its annual… Read More

January 16, 2025 @ 7:01 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

Fenergo, the provider of digital solutions for client lifecycle management (CLM), know your customer (KYC) and transaction monitoring, announced  the findings of its report on financial institution enforcement actions. Global regulatory fines in 2024 saw a decline in value from “$6.57 billion in 2023 to… Read More

January 16, 2025 @ 12:20 pm By JD Alois  |  

The Tokyo University of Science in Japan shares that a recent “breakthrough” will improve AI applications in finance, weather forecasting, and speech recognition. The innovation involves reservoir computing (RC). Researchers Dr. Masanobu Inubushi and Ms. Akane Ohkubo at the university have developed a “novel readout… Read More

January 14, 2025 @ 10:23 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

Reap, a payment technology provider, is pleased to announce today that it has received an In-Principle Approval (IPA) from the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) for its application of the Major Payment Institution (MPI) License for its Singapore entity, Reap Singapore. Obtaining the IPA marks… Read More

January 14, 2025 @ 9:22 pm By Michael Wong  |  

GCash, the leading fintech platform in the Philippines, has engaged major international banks for its upcoming initial public offering (IPO), potentially set for later this year, according to a Bloomberg report. The selected financial institutions include JPMorgan Chase & Co, Morgan Stanley, and UBS Group… Read More

January 14, 2025 @ 9:14 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

Endowus, Asia’s digital wealth advisory platform has increased its total funding to over $110 million. As noted in the announcement, an additional raise of $17.5 million follows from their $35 million raise last year to take the total for this round to $52.5M. New investors… Read More

January 13, 2025 @ 10:35 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

HyperPay, the Saudi payments services provider (PSP) operating in the MENA region, reportedly obtained a license from the Saudi Central Bank (SAMA) in order to support the diversification and development of the financial services ecosystem in KSA. In line or consistent with its strategy to… Read More

January 13, 2025 @ 8:18 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

WeLab Bank announced its achievement of first-time breakeven in Dec of 2024 – which is just over 4 years after its establishment. This milestone exemplifies WeLab Bank’s ability to achieve profitability “at a pace faster than anticipated.” As mentioned in the announcement, the accomplishment was… Read More

January 13, 2025 @ 5:40 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

The combined market cap of the top 50 companies in the Asia-Pacific (APAC) region surged to $8.1 trillion in 2024, reflecting a “20.6% year-on-year increase.” This, according to a report from GlobalData. Tech firms reportedly led the charge, with the Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company and… Read More

January 13, 2025 @ 5:10 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

Telr, the online payment gateway in the MENA, serving over 30,000 merchants across the region, announced a partnership with Apaya, the commerce automation platform. This partnership combines Telr’s comprehensive payment solutions in the UAE, KSA, Bahrain and Jordan, with Apaya’s no-code commerce automation platform, “enabling… Read More

January 13, 2025 @ 11:56 am By Omar Faridi  |  

HashKey Group, an end-to-end digital asset financial services group in Asia, announced that HashKey MENA FZE, a member of the HashKey Group, has received an In-Principle Approval (IPA) from the Dubai Virtual Assets Regulatory Authority (VARA) for its Virtual Asset Service Provider (VASP) license application…. Read More

January 13, 2025 @ 10:39 am By Omar Faridi  |  

The IMF has shared an update / analysis on how artificial intelligence will affect Asia’s economies. According to the blog post from the IMF, AI may widen inequality, but policymakers can “counteract this with more effective social safety nets, reskilling programs, and regulations to promote… Read More

January 12, 2025 @ 10:32 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

The Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) launched the Supervisory Incubator for Distributed Ledger Technology to help banks responsibly unlock the transformative potential of distributed ledger technology (DLT). The Incubator is a supervisory arrangement designed to help banks maximize the “potential benefits” of DLT adoption by… Read More

January 12, 2025 @ 7:24 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

SC Lowy has reportedly decided to accelerate its pivot towards private credit, an area “rich” with various opportunities in Asia and the Middle East, that will pave the way for the “gradual” wind down of its open-ended liquid Primary Investments Fund (PI). Initially launched as… Read More

January 12, 2025 @ 7:17 pm By Michael Wong  |  

The digital lending market in the Philippines, which includes registered non-bank digital lenders and digital banks, is projected to surpass $1 billion by the second half of 2025, according to a new analysis by Digido. The growth reflects strong consumer demand for online financial services… Read More

January 11, 2025 @ 5:52 pm By Michael Wong  |  

Following its 2024 Article IV Consultation with the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR), the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has recognized Hong Kong’s strong standing as an international financial center and endorsed its pathway towards fiscal consolidation. This affirmation came via a concluding statement released… Read More

January 11, 2025 @ 3:38 pm By Michael Wong  |  

XTransfer, a China-based business-to-business (B2B) cross-border trade payment platform, has been granted a major payment institution (MPI) license by the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS). The license, effective from January 1, 2025, enables XTransfer to offer diverse payment services in Singapore, enhancing its position in… Read More

January 10, 2025 @ 10:33 am By JD Alois  |  

Dubai-based Tectum has issued a statement claiming to be the “world’s fastest blockchain.” According to the company the ledger technology has a “theoretical peak” of 3.5 million transactions per second (TPS). Of course, this is not something that is immediately verifiable. Alexander Guseff, Founder and… Read More

January 9, 2025 @ 7:26 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

Accenture (NYSE: ACN) has acquired a digital twin technology platform for banks developed by Percipient, a Singapore-based fintech with experience in banking tech transformation. The acquisition enhances Accenture’s banking modernization capabilities, helping financial services clients in Asia Pacific “accelerate the reinvention of their core systems,… Read More

January 8, 2025 @ 11:04 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

OCBC (SGX: O39) says that it has become the first bank in Singapore to launch the sale of tokenized bonds to corporate accredited investors (corporate AIs), which are corporations that have net assets exceeding SGD 10 million. The tokenized bonds, which reference investment grade bonds,… Read More