Asia

August 23, 2021 @ 10:37 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

The Arab Bank, one of the largest financial institutions in the Middle East, has launched its Fintech-focused corporate accelerator program, called “AB Accelerator,” in Egypt, after its successful launch in Jordan in 2018. The launch of this Fintech-related program in Egypt comes as part of… Read More

August 23, 2021 @ 10:19 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

Pakistan’s JS Bank and NayaPay have entered an agreement in order to support and enhance virtual payments in the country. Through their partnership, JS Bank and NayaPay will allow their clients to link their JS Bank account or JCash wallet to their NayaPay wallets for… Read More

August 23, 2021 @ 10:10 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

HSBC Malaysia reveals that it has introduced the DuitNow Request feature for corporates so they can improve the collection of recurring payments from their clients. This secure, real-time payment solution will aim to do away with the requirement for companies to constantly follow up with… Read More

August 23, 2021 @ 10:08 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

Philippines-based Tonik, a virtual banking platform that was recently awarded an operational license by the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP), has introduced a physical debit cards for its customers. Tonik bank clients are now able to order physical debit cards via an easy-to-use app, and… Read More

August 23, 2021 @ 5:47 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

Ojamu, which aims to bring AI-enhanced MarTech (marketing technology) to the blockchain by harnessing the power of DLT and NFTs, says it wants to help with “predicting” the “most effective” digital marketing strategy for major brands. Founded in 2019, Singapore-based Ojamu notes that they plan… Read More

August 22, 2021 @ 10:29 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP), the central bank of the Philippines, recently confirmed  that it will no longer be accepting applications for new virtual banks including firms seeking to  convert their current status, starting from September 1, 2021. Virtual banking applications sent to the nation’s… Read More

August 22, 2021 @ 9:28 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

The Abu Dhabi Global Market (ADGM) has introduced the 5th edition of its flagship project,  Fintech Abu Dhabi Innovation Challenge. The challenge is reportedly a part of the upcoming Fintech Abu Dhabi festival – which is scheduled to take place in November 2021. The ADGM… Read More

August 22, 2021 @ 9:13 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

The Bank of Thailand (BOT) has introduced its plans (after an extensive study) to start testing a retail central bank digital currency (CBDC) during Q2 2022. The BOT had carried out a research study on the implications and feasibility of issuing a retail CBDC, as… Read More

August 22, 2021 @ 7:28 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

Indonesia’s Lifepal, a digital direct-to-consumer (D2C) insurance marketplace, reveals that it has acquired an oversubscribed $9 million through a Series A round, bringing the total capital secured by the firm to $12 million. As noted by its management, Lifepal is the largest insurance marketplace in… Read More

August 22, 2021 @ 7:20 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

Malaysian Insurtech company VSure.life has reportedly acquired a RM12 million (appr. $2.83 million) investment from ACE market-listed Revenue Group via its wholly-owned subsidiary Revenue Harvest (as well as being approved by Bank Negara Malaysia’s or BNM, the nation’s central bank to take part in its… Read More

August 22, 2021 @ 7:00 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

Investment management company Investcorp and Singapore’s private capital exchange ADDX have teamed up to further expand the use of digital securities in the private markets. The first product that been introduced under the partnership is a diversified portfolio of US residential properties from the Sunbelt… Read More

August 22, 2021 @ 4:36 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

The Philippine Digital Asset Exchange (PDAX), a virtual currency exchange that’s licensed by the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP), the nation’s central bank, revealed earlier this week that it had secured $12.5 million in capital. PDAX‘s investment round has reportedly been led by an unnamed… Read More

August 22, 2021 @ 1:45 pm By Xu Gao  |  

Tencent: No Plan to Provide Palm Payment Service  This week, Tencent was reported to provide a new palm payment service, which would be the first of such functions in China and would be linked to the user’s WeChat account. However, Tencent has denied this news… Read More

August 22, 2021 @ 12:38 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

On August 18, 2021, hackers managed to steal more than $90 million in over 69 different cryptocurrencies and digital tokens from Japan-based exchange Liquid Global. Liquid’s teams had “yet to release a postmortem detailing the attack vector used by the hacker,” the CipherTrace team noted… Read More

August 19, 2021 @ 8:29 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

The Union Bank of the Philippines (UnionBank) has teamed up with crypto-asset custodian Hex Trust in order to test out its digital asset custody services – which are compliant with the guidelines provided by the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP), the nation’s reserve bank. Through… Read More

August 19, 2021 @ 7:25 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

Touch ‘n Go Group (TNG) and Principal Asset Management revealed on August 18, 2021 that they’re introducing the Principal e-Cash Fund, which is the underlying fund for Touch ‘n Go’s GO+. This product is now Shariah-compliant, the update confirmed. TNG’s management noted that this makes… Read More

August 19, 2021 @ 10:14 am By JD Alois  |  

Yield Guild Games (YGG) has raised $4.6 million in a funding round led by Andreessen Horowitz (a16z). The funding was said to have been finalised prior to the YGG token sale on July 27 and was joined by Kingsway Capital, Infinity Ventures Crypto, Atelier Ventures,… Read More

August 19, 2021 @ 8:37 am By Omar Faridi  |  

Ajar, a MENA region rental collection platform, reveals that it has expanded its business operations to the Kingdom of Bahrain. With an established presence in Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates (UAE), the firm will be providing its property management and rent collection services in… Read More

August 19, 2021 @ 7:45 am By Omar Faridi  |  

Zilliqa, the Singapore-headquartered “high-performance,” enterprise-grade blockchain platform has unveiled its 2021-2022 cohort of ZILHive Accelerator projects. The ZILHive Accelerator is a 6-month program that’s focused on launching blockchain or DLT-powered initiatives from concept to commercialization. As mentioned in the release shared with CI: “The accelerator… Read More

August 19, 2021 @ 7:41 am By Omar Faridi  |  

European Fintech solutions provider finleap has teamed up with Bahrain-based telecom firm Batelco in order to support Open Banking in the MENA region. Recently, Batelco became the very first GCC-headquartered firm to acquire an Open Banking license. Through this latest partnership, finleap will be extending… Read More