Eurasian Bank launches Digital Tenge Card in preparation for Kazakhstan’s CBDC
The National Bank of Kazakhstan intends to issue its own CBDC in late 2025.
Asia
RTGS.global signs pilot agreements for settlement service with three new banks
The three banks are Tajikistan-based Alif Bank and Bank Arvand and Montenegro’s Universal Capital Bank.
India’s InCred Finance secures unicorn status with $60m Series D funding
The Series D funding round takes InCred Finance’s valuation up to $1.05 billion.
National Bank of Georgia taps Ripple for CBDC pilot
With Ripple, Georgia’s central bank aims to explore use cases and potential benefits of having a digital currency.
IndusInd Bank taps Viamericas for digital inward remittance offering
The bank says its remittance platform provides customers with full transparency over payments.
India’s Kotak Mahindra Bank appoints Ashok Vaswani as CEO and managing director
Vaswani currently serves as president of Pagaya and as non-executive director at LSEG.
Turkish fintech Figopara taps Provenir to automate risk decisioning
The partnership comes as Figopara gears up for a “significant” international expansion push.
Indian fintech Aurionpro acquires loan management system Omnifin for $9.8m
Aurionpro says the deal “significantly accelerates” its ambitions to take its lending solutions into new markets.
ICYMI fintech funding round-up: Untangled Finance, Kennek and more
A handy round-up of the recent funding endeavours of fintech companies across the globe.
Al Etihad Payments partners India’s NPCI to develop UAE’s first domestic card scheme
Al Etihad Payments is a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Central Bank of the UAE.
India’s IDBI Bank names Nehal Shah as new deputy chief technology officer
Shah will be responsible for the bank’s IT security and digital channels across various functions.
Spice Money taps NSDL Payments Bank to offer zero balance accounts to rural India
Through this partnership, Spice Money aims to broaden financial inclusion across India.
Kazakhstan fintech Freedom reportedly under investigation by SEC, DOJ
According to documents seen by CNBC, the SEC’s Boston office has been investigating Freedom for months.
Fintech unicorn Slice to merge with India’s North East Small Finance Bank
Its merger with NESFB will see Slice transition into a small finance bank.
AlphaSense lands $150m Series E funding at $2.5bn valuation
The latest fundraise comes months after AlphaSense secured $100m in Series D funding led by Alphabet’s CapitalG.
DigitalAPICraft signs as Google Cloud vendor and appoints Marco Tedone as CTO
Marco Tedone, the firm’s new CTO, spent almost 12 years leading API strategy for HSBC.
Yes Bank appoints Pankaj Sharma as chief strategy and transformation officer
Prashant Kumar, managing director and CEO of Yes Bank, says Sharma’s appointment comes “at an important juncture”.
Bright Money lands $62m debt and equity funding
The round consists of $50 million in debt funding and $12 million in equity.
Pakistan’s latest challenger HugoBank gains preliminary approval
It will position itself as a retail bank offering digital financial services to boost financial inclusion in Pakistan.
Indian fintech Perfios secures $229m in Series D funding round
The funding came from Kedaara Capital, and existing backers Warburg Pincus and Bessemer Venture Partners.
India’s Samunnati signs for Finbots.AI’s CreditX AI credit modelling solution
The deal marks another step in Finbots.AI’s push to scale across APAC.
ICYMI fintech funding round-up: CredRight, MFast, Maly and OneID
A handy round-up of the recent funding endeavours of fintech companies across the globe.
Digital banking – realising the opportunity
Aspire Systems’ Suresh Ranganathan talks about the company’s ambition to be at the forefront of digital banking transformation.
India’s Yes Bank draws on Zaggle to launch credit cards with spend management capabilities
The Yes Bank Zaggle corporate credit card seeks to enable businesses to tap operation efficiencies.
FSS launches new payments technology platform for banks
The Blaze platform aims to ensure high durability during peak workloads and improve fraud prevention.
India’s PhonePe taps Cloudera to streamline data management
PhonePe says the collaboration marks a “significant milestone” in its data journey.
Colendi lands banking licence to become Turkey’s first digital deposit bank
As Turkey’s first digital bank, ColendiBank is aiming to reach 50 million customers regionally.
Standard Chartered global head leaves to found fintech start-up
Manohar Chadalavada is leaving the bank to be the co-founder of a fintech start-up currently in stealth.
AI-powered conversational payments to launch on India’s UPI
The tech will enable users to converse with an AI system to initiate and complete transactions.
Indian neobank Zolve expands into expat-friendly mobile services with telecom-as-a-service platform Gigs
Zolve’s telecom-financial offering is tailored for expats pursuing educational or professional opportunities in the US.
Turkish fintech Param acquires BNPL firm Twisto to boost European expansion
Param plans to leverage Twisto’s licences to offer its embedded financial solutions across Europe.
Mastercard Strive India launches to help small businesses go digital
Strive India will focus on micro-enterprises, women-led businesses and agri-entrepreneurs in the country.
Starling Bank plans to take its BaaS platform Engine to APAC
CNBC reports that the challenger is in talks to deploy Engine with an undisclosed Asian bank.
Bangladesh Bank taps Fime to launch domestic card scheme
The six-year partnership will see Fime help the central bank establish an independent payment infrastructure.
Indian fintech start-up Credgenics secures $50m Series B funding
The round was led by Westbridge Capital, Accel, Tanglin Ventures, Beams Fintech Fund and other strategic investors.
Mobility fintech Moove secures $76m funding to fuel global expansion
The latest investment brings Moove’s total funding to date to over $335 million across equity and debt.
Svatantra to acquire Navi Group’s microfinance subsidiary for $178.6m
On completion of the deal, Svatantra says it will become the second largest microfinance entity in India.
Garanti BBVA Financial Technologies launches new venture for digital assets
The launch is Garanti BBVA Financial Technologies’ first foray into digital assets.
Vijay Shekhar Sharma buys 10% stake in Paytm worth $628m from Antfin
Sharma’s shareholdings in Paytm will increase to 19.42%, while Antfin’s shareholdings are reduced to 13.5%.
UK fintech Rapyd snaps up PayU GPO in $610m deal to boost global expansion
PayU says the sale will allow it to focus on “the huge fintech opportunity” in India.
