Asia

March 14, 2023 @ 10:53 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

Zad is reportedly the “first-of-its-kind digital investment platform launched in Kuwait by Securities House, “offering end-users access to trade over 4,000 stocks and ETFs in full compliance with Islamic Shariah principles.” As noted in a blog post, Zad is “the brainchild of the fintech Securities… Read More

March 14, 2023 @ 10:49 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

Astra Tech’s PayBy, a Central Bank-UAE licensed Fintech offering a variety of financial technology services, has achieved a significant milestone in the MENA region fintech space by becoming one of the first fintech player “to obtain a Mastercard (NYSE: MA) principal membership license.” This achievement… Read More

March 14, 2023 @ 4:03 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

MVGX Holdings, a Singapore-based FinTech company, providing end-to-end Carbon Software-as-a-Service solutions, announced that it has appointed Meyer “Sandy” Frucher as its Vice Chairman. In his new role, Sandy will be “responsible for guiding the company toward establishing an interconnected global carbon infrastructure network with national… Read More

March 14, 2023 @ 12:46 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

VMware recently announced VMware Cloud on AWS is now available in Bahrain. The service, which launched on February 28 in the AWS Middle East (Bahrain) region, will help customers in Bahrain “move their workloads across VMware cloud environments with optimized access to AWS services, supporting… Read More

March 13, 2023 @ 10:10 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

Homegrown financial services company Singlife has appointed Citi and BlackRock Aladdin to “provide it with a comprehensive technology platform to unify and transform its asset management capabilities across its front, middle and back-office offering.” Citi and BlackRock Aladdin previously “entered into an alliance to leverage… Read More

March 13, 2023 @ 8:54 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

Paymob, the financial services enabler in the MENA region and Pakistan (MENAP) and Shahid, the Arabic streaming platform by MBC GROUP, announced their signing of a new partnership agreement. The partnership “enables Shahid customers in Egypt to pay for their subscriptions via electronic wallets processed… Read More

March 12, 2023 @ 11:47 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

Liquidity Group, an Israel-based fintech and asset manager, is looking to provide $500 million this year “to support startups in the UAE and across the Middle East.” The company reached unicorn status last month, “with fresh investment of $40 million from Japan’s MUFG at a… Read More

March 12, 2023 @ 6:28 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

ACI Worldwide (NASDAQ: ACIW), a global provider of real-time payments and digital payment software solutions, and Security Bank Corporation, a universal bank in Philippines, announced that the bank has chosen ACI Worldwide’s Enterprise Payments Platform solution to strengthen its real-time payment capabilities. The partnership will… Read More

March 8, 2023 @ 12:11 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

Mysten Labs, a Web3 infrastructure company and initial developer of the Sui Layer 1 blockchain, announced the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding with Alibaba Cloud, the digital technology and intelligence backbone of Alibaba Group. Under the terms of the MOU, Alibaba Cloud will aim… Read More

March 8, 2023 @ 10:02 am By Omar Faridi  |  

Global payments and financial platform Airwallex has secured a payment business license in China, following the successful acquisition of “a 100% stake in Guangzhou Shang Wu Tong Network Technology Co., Ltd., an information and online payment services company. Shang Wu Tong Network Technology has a… Read More

March 7, 2023 @ 9:29 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

FOODICS, the cloud-based restaurant management technology and payments platform in the MENA region, announces a strategic partnership with the Communications Platform as a Service (CPaaS) provider, Unifonic. Since it was founded in 2006, Unifonic has consistently “grown its product line and its markets to provide… Read More

March 7, 2023 @ 7:07 am By Omar Faridi  |  

Mastercard (NYSE: MA), a technology company in the global payments industry, has collaborated with Google in order “to launch Google Pay in Kuwait, strengthening digital payment capabilities in the country.” Cardholders can tap to pay “with their Android phones or supported Wear OS devices in… Read More

March 7, 2023 @ 5:37 am By Omar Faridi  |  

Amazon Web Services (AWS), an Amazon.com, Inc. company (NASDAQ:AMZN), announced plans to launch an AWS infrastructure Region in Malaysia. The new AWS Region will “give developers, startups, entrepreneurs, and enterprises, as well as government, education, and nonprofit organizations, greater choice for running their applications and… Read More

March 6, 2023 @ 1:17 am By Omar Faridi  |  

Liquidity Group, a pioneering financial technology firm and asset manager that uses patented machine learning and decision science to provide capital to high-growth technology companies, has announced the launch of its global ‘Twenty Chairs’ series. The series will bring together leading industry players “to network… Read More

March 2, 2023 @ 10:55 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

Open finance platform Brankas has announced a new feature enabling instant bank account opening as an “embedded finance” experience on third-party applications. The API is the “first” of its kind in the region, “launched first in Indonesia and the Philippines.” As a bundle with Brankas’… Read More

March 2, 2023 @ 7:17 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

Tazapay, a Singapore-based cross-border payments provider, has partnered with leading global real-time payments gateway Volt “to add open banking to its growing stack of payment offerings, as it accelerates its international growth plans across the UK and Europe. The partnership will enable Tazapay’s customers “to… Read More

March 1, 2023 @ 8:43 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

Dubai International Financial Centre (DIFC), the global financial centre in the MENA and South Asia region, has chosen anti-financial crime compliance specialist Napier in order to upgrade the screening services they employ with Napier Client Screening. With the next-generation solution, the DIFC Authority will “benefit… Read More

February 28, 2023 @ 10:33 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

Cashfree Payments, India’s payments and API banking company, announced its strategic acquisition of Zecpe, a one-click checkout company. Zecpe enables e-commerce businesses “to improve checkout conversion by making the process quick and seamless for customers.” Zecpe will now “operate as a wholly-owned subsidiary of Cashfree… Read More

February 28, 2023 @ 8:15 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

Maybank, Southeast Asia’s fourth largest bank by assets, reported “a net profit of RM8.23 billion for the financial year ended 31 December 2022 (FY22).” Profit before tax (PBT) meanwhile, “was 11.6% higher at RM12.15 billion from RM10.89 billion a year earlier.” The better results were… Read More

February 28, 2023 @ 9:27 am By Omar Faridi  |  

The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) recently issued a Notice imposing mandatory baseline standards of due diligence and conduct requirements “for corporate finance (CF) advisers.” These requirements aim to “raise the standards of conduct of CF advisers, improve the quality of disclosures and allow investors… Read More