Asia

September 22, 2020 @ 7:14 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

Mohammed Al Beloushi, CEO at Barker and Booth Commercial Agency LLC, has confirmed that his company will make a strategic investment into the operations of Israel-based Fintech firm Fintica AI LLC, a deal made after the signing of the Abraham Accords – which is the… Read More

September 22, 2020 @ 6:36 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

Payments technology giant MasterCard has teamed up with Pakistan-based Silk bank to expand credit card issuance options in the country. This could help increase the purchasing power of local residents and promote digital payment adoption as well. Through the partnership, Silk Bank customers in Pakistan… Read More

September 22, 2020 @ 9:39 am By Samantha Hurst  |  

  UK banking group Standard Chartered Bank announced on Tuesday it has officially launched its virtual bank “Mox” in Hong Kong. According to Standard Chartered, Mox was created in partnership with PCCW, HKT, and Trip.com, which provides its suite of retail banking services entirely digitally… Read More

September 21, 2020 @ 11:49 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

Ajit Doval, the National Security Adviser (NSA) to the Prime Minister of India, recently warned that financial crime and fraudulent activities have increased significantly and could continue to rise, because more consumers are conducting transactions online following the COVID-19 outbreak. Doval said that the country… Read More

September 20, 2020 @ 10:19 pm By Samantha Hurst  |  

Digital assets exchange OKEx announced on Friday it is offering a full suite of trading products for Uniswap’s UNI. The platform reported that the products will include margin, swap trading, coin-margined perpetual swap, and savings. It will also offer zero transaction fees in UNIUSD perpetual… Read More

September 20, 2020 @ 9:57 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

Benjamin Diokno, the Governor of the Reserve Bank of the Philippines, recently noted that the underlying technology behind digital tokens may streamline or enhance existing financial services. The nation’s central bank is looking into the feasibility of issuing its own virtual currency. Diokno believes that… Read More

September 20, 2020 @ 7:55 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

Refinitiv, one of the largest providers of financial markets data and infrastructure, has revealed that China CITIC Bank International will be using the Refinitiv Electronic Trading platform to streamline its foreign exchange (FX) trading and distribution workflow. Banks and other financial service providers are looking… Read More

September 19, 2020 @ 7:10 pm By JD Alois  |  

Ethis Group has launched the first fully Shariah-compliant equity crowdfunding platform in Malaysia, according to a note from the company. Ethis already operates in Indonesia with another platform planned to commence soon in Dubai. The announcement of the launch was made during Islamic Fintech Week… Read More

September 19, 2020 @ 5:13 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

Singapore, Helsinki (in Finland) and Zurich (in Switzerland) have been named as the world’s “smartest” cities during this year. They’ve managed to outperform other major European and global financial hubs, according to the Smart City Index Report for 2020. Geneva is another Swiss city that… Read More

September 19, 2020 @ 3:10 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

Visa (NYSE: V), the global leader in digital payments, recently published the results of its survey which aimed to assess the impact of COVID-19 on consumer behavior in Pakistan. Visa’s Stay Secure survey reveals Pakistani consumers’ general views about conducting digital transactions, their preferences and… Read More

September 19, 2020 @ 2:07 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

Harriet Cao, co-founder at the IRIS Foundation, an organization that supports the ongoing development of IRISnet, a platform that serves as an interchain service hub for next-generation distributed applications, says that China’s Blockchain Service Network (BSN) is a “relevant step” forward when it comes adopting… Read More

September 19, 2020 @ 12:59 pm By Xu Gao  |  

Cloud Computing PaaS Startup BoCloud Completes Series D Round of financing On September 17th, cloud computing PaaS [platform as a service] and multi-cloud management startup BoCloud announced the completion of its series D round of financing. The investment was provided by Guoxin Venture Capital, Xinhuan… Read More

September 18, 2020 @ 8:43 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

The Qatar Financial Center Regulatory Authority (QFCRA) recently revealed that it will be migrating its online services to the Microsoft Cloud in order to move forward with its digital transformation strategy. The move to Microsoft Cloud comes after the Middle Eastern nation’s Ministry of Transport… Read More

September 18, 2020 @ 7:33 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

Lizzie Chapman, CEO and co-founder at ZestMoney, which claims to be one of the largest and fastest-growing Fintech firms in India, recently discussed what she considers the future of lending in a post COVID world. She acknowledges that this has been one of the most… Read More

September 18, 2020 @ 6:23 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

Industry professionals in Indonesia are calling on Fintech firms to expand their operations outside of Java and partner up with the nation’s government in order to cater to the requirements of the unbanked population. Only 23% of Fintech firms in the country have a reach… Read More

September 18, 2020 @ 7:42 am By Omar Faridi  |  

The UAE’s Ministry of Finance will be working with the First Abu Dhabi Bank (FAB) in order to launch electronic or digital Dirham contactless payments cards for settling governmental service charges. The eDirham has been set up as a system of digital channels that are… Read More

September 17, 2020 @ 10:18 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

BlockArrow Capital, an alternative asset fund focused on investing in the blockchain sector, reveals that there are 463 blockchain or distributed ledger tech (DLT) focused developers that have created 13 new ICON Foundation projects for the ICON ecosystem. The projects have been developed thanks to… Read More

September 17, 2020 @ 9:32 pm By JD Alois  |  

Hg Exchange (HGX), Southeast Asia’s first private securities exchange, has kicked off trading. Founding members of the exchange include PhillipCapital, Prime Partners, and Fundnel – a leading securities crowdfunding platform serving sophisticated investors across Asia. Richard Teng, formerly an executive at the Monetary Authority of… Read More

September 17, 2020 @ 9:11 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

India-based PhonePe, a major digital payments platform, has teamed up with the Brihanmumbai Electricity Supply and Transport (BEST) in order to offer a frictionless, contactless, safe, and secure payment option to commuters in Mumbai, which is a major financial center and one of the country’s… Read More

September 17, 2020 @ 8:09 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

Cryptocurrency and blockchain technology adoption continues to rise, with banks, institutional investors, and everyday consumers now using these platforms to engage in everyday transactions or to implement various business use cases. According to Chainalysis, the “patterns of cryptocurrency usage” vary widely across the globe. The… Read More