Vietnam’s Maritime Commercial Joint Stock Bank partners Backbase for Engagement Banking platform
MSB is Vietnam’s first joint-stock commercial bank and currently serves 5.5 million customers.
Asia Pacific
The latest fintech news, resources and expert analysis in Asia Pacific by the leading intelligence provider for the worldwide fintech community.
Crypto.com buys Australian brokerage service and trading company Fintek Securities
Crypto.com also recently acquired Watchdog Capital to offer equities and equity options for traders in the US.
Myanmar’s Wave Money taps Amdocs for Digital Financial Services platform
Wave Money’s WavePay digital wallet currently has over 11.5 million users.
Zand Bank partners Alibaba Cloud and Ant Digital Technologies to drive GenAI adoption in UAE
The partnership seeks to “accelerate the applications of generative AI, blockchain and payment technology”.
Modifi raises $15m, inks MoU with Japan’s SMBC to support SMEs with cross-border financing solutions
Modifi and SMBC will seek to assist Asia’s SME exporters in expanding international trade operations.
Japan’s SmartBank secures $27m in mix of equity funding and debt financing
SmartBank says it is “actively recruiting” for roles in marketing, compliance, data analysis, and engineering.
Interview: Jason Cao on Huawei’s fintech frontier and digital transformation innovation
Cao details the best strategies for digital amid a “highly challenging time” for the global banking industry.
MAS and Banque de France trial post-quantum cryptography to secure financial communications
The tests paired Microsoft Outlook with PQC plugin algorithms.
BCA Syariah goes live with Thought Machine’s Vault Core
BCA Syariah is a subsidiary of Bank Central Asia (BCA), one of Indonesia’s largest banks.
MAS’ Project Guardian pilots settlement of tokenised fund subscriptions and redemptions using Swift
The initiative was led by Swift, UBS Asset Management and blockchain platform Chainlink.
Airwallex reportedly in talks over fresh $200m investment at new $6bn valuation
Airwallex last raised $100 million through a Series E extension two years ago at a valuation of $5.5 billion.
Chiba Bank adds personalisation features to Chibagin app through Moneythor partnership
The updates leverage Moneythor’s financial services personalisation engine; deployed by the bank in May.
Canada’s Koho launches in-app eSIMs with Boxo and Airalo
Koho’s 1.7 million Canadian customers will now be able to purchase eSIMs from within its app.
Western Union acquires Singtel’s mobile wallet Dash
Dash has accrued 1.4 million customers since launching 10 years ago.
Mitsubishi acquires 50% of Ayala’s stake in Mynt for $320m
Mitsubishi is set to snap up half of Ayala’s 13% share in Mynt.
Sibos 2024: Real-time payments in focus with ACI Worldwide – video interview
Dive deep into the latest developments in real-time payments from across the globe with ACI Worldwide.
Sibos 2024: The evolution of payments collaboration in financial services
Day two of Sibos 2024 featured a number of insightful panels and keynotes on the future of payments.
Bank Rakyat Indonesia taps Nium for international money transfers
Bank Rakyat Indonesia operates over 7,150 branches and reported approximately $4 billion in profit for 2023.
Wise joins Japan’s domestic payment network Zengin
Wise will be able to process real-time payments in Japan directly, without intermediaries.
FinVolution expands into Pakistan with Daira launch
Daira is a new lending platform offering low-interest, flexible loans for customers in Pakistan.
ICYMI fintech funding round-up: Bitlayer, Quartr, FutureMoney, Solifi and more
A handy round-up of the recent funding endeavours of fintech companies across the globe.
Toss Securities promotes Gyubin Kim to CEO
Kim succeeds Seungyeon Kim, who has served as CEO of Toss Securities since April last year.
Bank of Hangzhou partners Malaysia’s Maybank to support cross-border businesses in China
The partnership will focus on “enhancing cross-border business and advancing digital innovation”.
HSBC launches embedded finance venture SemFi with Tradeshift
SemFi provides embedded payment, trade and financing solutions from HSBC.
Singapore Gulf Bank strengthens C-Suite ahead of launch
SGB is gearing up to launch in November 2024.
Saudi Awwal Bank partners Singapore’s PayerMax for digital payment enhancement
PayerMax claims to support over 600 different payment methods for digital merchants.
Indonesia’s Krom Bank taps AWS Cloud for digital banking upgrade
Krom’s core ledger is being powered by SaaS cloud banking platform Mambu.
SME-focused digital lender Validus lands $50m debt facility from HSBC
The facility will be deployed through Validus’ Indonesian subsidiary Batumbu.
Singapore’s DCS Innov acquires digital wallet fintech HolyWally
DCS Innov previously tapped HolyWally to develop its InstaWally solution.
India’s DMI Finance lands a further $334m investment from MUFG
The new capital injection brings MUFG’s total investment in DMI Finance to $565 million.
Singapore-based fintech start-up WSPN bags $30m seed funding
Founded by ex-Visa and Paxos employees, WSPN offers digital payment solutions using DLT.
Singapore’s Valverde taps Broadridge for investment management solution
Valverde will deploy Broadridge’s tech to support its recently launched Valverde ASEAN+ Fund.
Singapore-based wealthtech Syfe lands $27m Series C funding
Syfe claims to have achieved profitability in Singapore in “early 2024”, five years after its launch.
MAS to commence quantum-proofing cybersecurity trials with banks “in the coming months”
DBS, HSBC, OCBC, UOB, SPTel and SpeQtral are all set to take part.
Future FinTech Group promotes Hu Li to CEO
Li has served as CEO of FTFT International since January this year.
Payoneer acquires payroll start-up Skuad in Singapore for $61m
Payoneer CEO John Caplan says the deal will “accelerate our evolution and B2B momentum”.
HD Bank launches Vikki Digital Bank in Vietnam powered by Thought Machine’s Vault Core
The new digital-only bank is the result of a joint venture between HD Bank and Galaxy FinX.
Philippines-based fintech Mynt sees valuation top $5bn with MUFG and Ayala funding
Both MUFG and Ayala Corporation have invested $393 million each in the company.
Octo3 merges with fintech solutions provider Evantagesoft to launch new FTS.Money brand in Asia
The new brand is preparing to launch IBAN accounts and remittance services later this year.
July 2024: Top five fintech funding rounds of the month
FinTech Futures takes a look back at five of the top funding rounds to take place over July.
