Asia

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

February 27, 2023 @ 9:42 am By JD Alois  |  

Hong Kong-based Shanghai Commercial Bank (ShaComBank) has enlisted Salt Edge to help power its open banking services, including PSD2 options, according to a blog post. ShaComBank currently has more than 50 branches in both Hong Kong and mainland China, as well as the United States… Read More

February 26, 2023 @ 9:20 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

Ava Labs announced it has entered into a partnership with Tencent Cloud to support projects and developers across the Avalanche ecosystem. In addition to providing developers with rapid node deployment, both parties will also “explore Avalanche Subnets for enterprises to help accelerate adoption of Web3… Read More

February 26, 2023 @ 9:15 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

HashKey DX Co., Ltd. (Headquartered in Chiyoda, Tokyo, CEO: Andy Dan) has signed an exclusive domestic distribution agreement with CertiK (Headquartered in New York, USA,Co-Founder: Prof. Ronghui Gu and Prof. Zhong Shao) in order “to bring blockchain-specific security solutions to the Japanese market.” Blockchain technology… Read More

February 26, 2023 @ 6:46 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

FOODICS, the cloud-based restaurant management technology and payments platform in the MENA region, has announced that it “signed a strategic agreement with the pioneering virtual drive-through startup n.go.” n.go, which entered the food and beverage sector in 2021, “provides a unique experience to customers on… Read More

February 26, 2023 @ 4:43 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

The Saudi Central Bank (SAMA) announced the licensing of Mani, a finance debt collection company to provide debt collection service for finance institutions. The license was granted to the company after completing all requirements stipulated in the “Rules of Licensing Finance Support Activities” issued by… Read More

February 26, 2023 @ 4:40 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

FalconX, which claims to be the “most reliable” digital assets prime brokerage for the world’s leading institutions, announced expansion of its services into Singapore. Matt Long has “joined FalconX as General Manager and Ave King as Chief Compliance Officer, both based in Singapore.” Alongside these… Read More

February 25, 2023 @ 6:35 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

Pine Labs, a merchant commerce omnichannel platform and Thomas Cook (India) Limited, India’s foreign exchange service provider, have partnered with National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI), in “a pioneering initiative to ensure safe, seamless, convenient merchant payments via UPI for foreign nationals from G20 countries.”… Read More

February 23, 2023 @ 6:03 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

B2B B2B2C blockchain based luxury platform GUHADA recently announced that it has completed attracting an 8 billion KRW Series B investment. Leading domestic venture capital firms such as Korea Investment Partners, Woori Bank,  DTNI Investment (DTNI), BM Ventures participated in the Series B investment round…. Read More

February 22, 2023 @ 9:34 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

UAE-based Fintech firm InvestSky has launched a social investing platform with assistance from Alpaca. InvestSky is a social investing platform that “offers a new generation of investors the opportunity to embark on trading stocks in a more inclusive, intuitive, and informed way.” InvestSky was established… Read More

February 22, 2023 @ 9:30 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

Vietnam’s Fintech start-up GIMO has announced the first close of its Series A funding with a US$5.1 million investment “led by TNB Aura.” Other investment firms joining the investment round “are returning investors including Integra Partners, Resolution Ventures, Blauwpark Partners, ThinkZone Ventures, and Y Combinator.”… Read More

February 22, 2023 @ 5:31 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) and the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) launched the linkage between Singapore’s PayNow and India’s Unified Payments Interface (UPI). This will “enable customers of participating financial institutions in Singapore and India [1] to send and receive funds between bank… Read More

February 22, 2023 @ 10:22 am By Omar Faridi  |  

The Crypto Incident Response Center (CIRC) of Uppsala Security, a South Korean blockchain virtual asset regulatory technology (RegTech) specialist, has recently released its 2022 CIRC Statistical Report. The report is “based on submissions received directly from victims of virtual asset crimes in South Korea, offering… Read More

February 22, 2023 @ 1:00 am By Omar Faridi  |  

Hub71, Abu Dhabi’s global tech ecosystem, announced the launch of Hub71+ Digital Assets, a dedicated Web3 specialist ecosystem, “with more than $2 billion of capital committed to fund Web3 startups and blockchain technologies from the UAE’s capital.” Hub71+ is “a specialist ecosystem dedicated to advancing… Read More

February 21, 2023 @ 10:55 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

The Securities and Futures Commission (SFC) launched a consultation on the proposed requirements “for operators of virtual asset trading platforms.” Under a new licensing regime to take effect on 1 June 2023, all centralized virtual asset trading platforms “carrying on business in Hong Kong or… Read More

February 19, 2023 @ 10:51 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

PhonePe, one of India’s largest Fintech platforms, announced it has raised another $100 million in primary capital from Ribbit Capital, Tiger Global, and TVS Capital Funds, at a pre-money valuation of $12 billion. This new investment “follows the recent $350 million primary fundraise that closed… Read More

February 17, 2023 @ 8:34 am By Omar Faridi  |  

DBS reported an 80% year-on-year growth in the number of Bitcoin (BTC) traded on the DBS Digital Exchange (DDEx) in 2022, and “a doubling in the number of BTC custodised with the bank’s digital asset custody solution.” The firm claims these business metrics “underscore the… Read More

February 16, 2023 @ 5:29 pm By JD Alois  |  

The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is continuing its crypto crackdown filing charges againstTerraform Labs PTE Ltd and founder Do Hyeong Kwon. The firm is based in Singapore but the Commission has not been shy about pursuing crypto scofflaws anywhere in the world. Kwon was… Read More

February 16, 2023 @ 1:37 am By Omar Faridi  |  

As part of its efforts to enhance financial literacy among the younger generation in ASEAN, Maybank’s Cashville Kidz financial literacy program has reached out to 37,020 students and 945 educators in over 113 schools in 2022. In a year that was recovering from the pandemic,… Read More

February 14, 2023 @ 10:57 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

XS.com, the multinational global Fintech and financial services provider, has announced that it will be the Global Partner of “the first ever Fintech and crypto exhibition of its kind held in the Kingdom of Bahrain.” The Fintech and Crypto Summit is “organized by Smart Vision… Read More