Instarem, a digital payments platform under Nium, now lets SMEs apply for non dilutive funding directly inside its business platform after integrating Choco Up’s growth financing service. The feature has been live since 1 September 2025 in Singapore and Australia. It launches as Southeast Asia’s cross border commerce expands, with IDC projecting intra regional trade to reach US$14.6 billion by 2028, about 2.8 times the 2023 level. Eligible Instarem Business users can apply for up to US$1 million in revenue linked financing. Underwriting draws on business performance data, and Choco Up typically disburses approved funds within two business days to a client’s Instarem account or operating bank account. The financing is collateral free and requires only a personal guarantee, supported by basic KYB documents and recent transaction history. Choco Up has backed more than 1,000 SMEs across Singapore, Hong Kong and Australia, contributing to about US$2.5 billion in gross merchandise value. Instarem processes more than US$6 billion a year and completes payments up to 12 times faster than traditional banks. Percy Hung “Fast, flexible, non-dilutive financing lets owners stay in control of how and when they scale. Many digital-first businesses do not fit traditional credit boxes, yet their growth moves in real time. Embedding financing within Instarem means businesses can act at the point of need, from inventory and marketing to supplier terms, without giving up equity. We chose Instarem because it is where cross-border SMEs already operate daily: payments, foreign exchange, and now funding, in one place.” said Percy Hung, Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Choco Up. Michael Minassian “By partnering with Choco Up, we add a practical growth lever to our payments and FX stack so businesses can collect, convert, and capitalise inside a single platform. It is about reducing friction and helping regional champions scale internationally with confidence.” said Michael Minassian, Global Head of SME Business at Instarem. Instarem and Choco Up plan to deepen their API integration to automate data sharing and speed decision making. They are also evaluating invoice and trade financing products to support broader working capital needs and aim to expand the service to Hong Kong in the first quarter of 2026. SMEs can apply through the Instarem Business portal.     Featured image: Edited by Fintech News Singapore, based on image by mkmult via Freepik   The post Instarem Now Offers Up to US$1 Million in Choco Up SME Financing appeared first on Fintech Singapore.

Trust Bank has rolled out its 2025 Year-End Rewind, a feature in the Trust App that gives customers a personalised look at how they lived, saved and spent this year. The recap works like a financial highlight reel and assigns users one of 16 animal characters based on their spending style. A customer who used their Trust card for savings and travel may be tagged as a Smart Nomad, shown as an otter. Customers with strong savings and FairPrice Group spending patterns may instead appear as Deal Hunters, represented by a lion. The characters open into insights on overseas spending, interest earned, FairPrice Group spending and other spend categories. Trust said the feature was shaped by the rise of year-end summaries on platforms like Spotify and Strava, and by the tendency for routine banking perks to lose visibility over time. The bank added that the recap is one way to help its more than 1 million customers reflect on their financial patterns. Naveen Sethia, Head of Design and Customer Experience at Trust, said, “Year-End Rewind is all about celebrating each customer and making finance fun. We wanted something personal, delightful, and reflective of the unique ways our customers have lived, saved, and spent with Trust.”     Featured image: Edited by Fintech News Singapore, based on images by thanyakij-12 and sebdeck via Freepik The post Trust Bank Launches Spotify-Style Year-End Rewind with Personalised Animal Avatars appeared first on Fintech Singapore.

A DBS Bank employee helped an elderly woman avoid losing more than S$200,000 in a suspected scam, according to The Straits Times. The incident occurred on 24 December 2024, when a woman in her 70s arrived at the bank’s Century Square branch asking to withdraw S$190,000 in cash. Staff noticed she appeared highly unsettled and became defensive when questioned about the large withdrawal. She kept her phone to her ear throughout the exchange and avoided eye contact, which heightened concerns that someone was directing her on what to say. Assistant service manager Fionice Teoh, who was 38 weeks pregnant and nearing maternity leave, continued to ask questions despite being shouted at for almost two hours. She felt that her role extended beyond processing transactions and that she needed to safeguard vulnerable customers who might be under pressure. After repeated attempts to calm the woman, Teoh persuaded her to return the next day, allowing time for the bank’s anti-scam team and the police to step in. That evening, an officer from the Anti-Scam Centre visited the woman’s home and discovered she had already taken out S$12,000 from another branch. She had been preparing to hand the money to scammers posing as bank staff and law enforcement officers who claimed her accounts were linked to a money laundering investigation. They had also warned that her family could face consequences if she stopped cooperating. It took the officer close to an hour to convince her she was being deceived. The intervention prevented her from losing more than S$200,000 of her savings. A few days later, she returned quietly to the branch with a small bag of chocolates to express her gratitude. Teoh said many victims feel ashamed about falling for scams, so the gesture was meaningful to the team. Scams continue to cause significant losses in Singapore. Since 2020, victims have lost around S$4 billion. In 2024 alone, there were 1,504 cases of government official impersonation scams, with losses exceeding S$151 million. Recent legal changes allow courts to impose caning for serious scam-related offences, with penalties of up to 24 strokes. DBS said it is strengthening its defence measures while ensuring services remain smooth for customers. The public is encouraged to use tools such as the ScamShield app, install antivirus software and verify unexpected messages or calls directly with organisations. Scam victims should notify the police and their financial institutions immediately. Support is available through the 24/7 ScamShield hotline at 1799.     Featured image: Edited by Fintech News Singapore/Malaysia, based on image by DBS   The post Pregnant DBS Staff Foils S$200,000 Scam Against Elderly Customer appeared first on Fintech Singapore.

As 2025 draws to a close, one thing is clear: the world of financial services is compounding. Every shift in financial technology, regulation, and consumer behaviour accelerates the next, creating a landscape where progress feels constant yet uneven. Asia Pacific illustrates this vividly. In the Philippines, the payments race intensified with Manny Pacquiao’s fully integrated Manny Pay app launch and Google Pay’s arrival. Malaysia, on the other hand, advanced ASEAN’s first 24/7 Real-Time Gross Settlement system while preparing for open finance. Hong Kong unveiled its Fintech 2030 strategy as two digital banks reached profitability, while Singapore now has better oversight for its national payment schemes through SPaN amid the Tokenize Xchange fallout. These moments signal a broader truth: finance is entering a new era defined by intelligence, embedded finance, and trust-centric design. These are not isolated regional shifts, but part of a global restructuring of the industry. The question is rather on how fast and in which direction these shifts will compound in 2026. To that end, the Mambu Predictions Report 2026 brings together perspectives from leaders across its ecosystem. Its insights chart the structural forces shaping fintech trends in 2026, from agentic AI to cybersecurity and regtech. The Era of Agentic and GenAI Solutions It comes as no surprise that agentic and generative AI are actively reshaping how banks decide, manage risk, and engage with their customers. While the potential is undeniable, questions constantly circle back on trust, ethics and control as the traditional boundaries between man and machine diminish. Tiffany Carpenter, Senior Industry Advisor for Financial Services at Microsoft, notes, Tiffany Carpenter “Generative AI co-pilots will become standard for advisors and operations, while compliance frameworks like the EU AI Act will drive transparent, explainable AI adoption.” Adrian Congiu, Vice President of Product Development at Mambu, agrees. He envisions a future where the “relationship banker” works in tandem with agentic AI, explaining, Adrian Congiu “These autonomous systems can automate time-consuming tasks and surface key insights. This shift allows human talent to focus on what matters most: personalised service and meaningful relationships.” Anandha Ponnampalam, Technology Director of OSB Group, takes this further. He suggests banking platforms will soon evolve like “living organisms,” continuously adapting via AI-driven optimisation. He believes that financial institutions will increasingly assemble capabilities from composable, cloud-native components. Anandha Ponnampalam “Large language models, agentic coding assistants and self-healing test frameworks will reduce build times from months to weeks.” Ponnampalam notes that the real winners will move fast but stay disciplined, using AI to accelerate delivery while hard-coding compliance, resilience, and ethical checks throughout the build. Trust Will Always Be the Most Valuable Currency Financial institutions now operate in a landscape where technology frequently outpaces regulation, meaning resilience and security must evolve in lockstep with innovation. When compliance and security are woven together by design, they mutually strengthen one another to create systems that are transparent, secure, and ethically grounded. Ivneet Kaur, Chief Product and Technology Officer at Mambu, shares, Ivneet Kaur “Looking ahead to 2026, as innovation accelerates and regulation struggles to keep pace, the real leaders will be those who combine speed and creativity with resilience, compliance, and security.” Rachel Freeman, Chief Growth Officer at Tyme Group, identifies a crucial shift for the coming years, predicting that regulation will become the primary differentiator in financial innovation. She adds, Rachel Freeman “Whether in fiat or digital assets, those that combine regulatory credibility with balance-sheet strength will rise to prominence.” Jan Georg Lehmann, Chief Commercial Officer at Knowit, expands on this outlook. Jan Georg Lehmann “The increasing sophistication of AI-powered attacks and growing regulatory scrutiny of digital evidence will redefine cybersecurity strategies in 2026 and beyond.” He emphasises that operational resilience is now a top priority, driving rapid investment in biometric verification, continuous threat detection, and zero-trust architectures. Banking as a Connected Ecosystem As institutions transition from legacy systems to cloud-native platforms designed for agility and scale, a new model of value creation is taking shape. Technology is becoming the strategic core of modern banking. Paula Neira, Director of Market Sales at Mambu, notes that staying ahead now requires financial institutions to think and operate like technology companies. That means adopting AI capabilities, leveraging API-driven technologies and building on open, composable platforms that foster collaboration and innovation. Paula Neira “Composable architecture allows financial institutions to refresh products, integrate new capabilities, and launch services in weeks rather than years.” Charith Mendis, Head of Worldwide Banking Industry at Amazon Web Services (AWS), expands on this, highlighting how ecosystems and agentic capabilities are converging to redefine customer experience. Charith Mendis “The convergence of ecosystems with agentic capabilities creates intent-based banking experiences for customers that will transition from ‘show me how’ to ‘do it for me’.” Yet, meaningful transformation requires both technological acceleration and institutional resilience. Rob Howse, Chief Operating Officer at Leeds Building Society, points out that many incumbents continue to feel the strain of legacy technologies that limit growth and are not able to meet customer expectations. Rob Howse “Meanwhile, neo-banks have been able to build the technology foundations to out-compete incumbents, but are struggling to build the balance sheets and risk management controls to be sustainable.” Ultimately, Howse believes success will belong to the institutions that can pair modern technology with deep banking strength. Those who commit to this journey, he concludes, will be the dominant players of the future. The Future of Finance, Defined As we look toward 2026, the convergence of agentic AI, resilient infrastructure, and open ecosystems signals that the industry is moving past the hype. The experiments of 2025 are now crystallising into the essential operating models of the future, where technology acts as the invisible enabler of better human outcomes. Across the insights shared, one theme stands out: sustainable growth will belong to those who can innovate quickly while safeguarding the trust that is the bedrock of financial services. This era of “purposeful progress” demands a fundamental rethink of value creation. Whether through composable architectures that break down silos or AI-driven intelligence that deepens relationships, the goal remains the same: to build a financial system that is agile, secure, and deeply responsive. Featured image edited by Fintech News Singapore based on image by freepik on Freepik  The post Fintech Trends 2026 Reveal Why AI and Tech Adopters Will Win in Financial Services appeared first on Fintech Singapore.

A Malaysian man has been sentenced to five and a half years in jail for helping an overseas syndicate spread Android malware that enabled scammers to take control of victims’ phones. Channel News Asia reported that the malware allowed unauthorised access to banking and other applications, resulting in losses of about S$3.2 million. How the Malware Tutorials Fueled the Scams Cheoh Hai Beng, 49, became involved after reconnecting with a Taiwanese acquaintance he first met in a South Korean prison. The acquaintance, Lee Rong Teng, invited him to the Dominican Republic in 2022 and later introduced him to Spymax, a remote access Trojan disguised as harmless Android applications. Once installed, the software allowed operators to view the phone’s contents, monitor activity and initiate outgoing bank transfers without the user’s knowledge. Between February and May 2023, Cheoh recorded at least 20 tutorial videos showing how to install and operate the malware. The clips demonstrated how to extract passwords, access cryptocurrency and banking applications, read SMS messages and track device locations. These videos were later distributed to syndicate members and potential partners. The group used the tutorials to conduct scams in Singapore from June 2023 to June 2024. Victims were tricked into downloading compromised apps, after which their phones were remotely accessed. A total of 129 people lost more than S$3.19 million through unauthorised transactions. Banks in Singapore responded to rising threats by introducing a 24-hour cooling period for first-time fund transfers to reduce the likelihood of rapid fraudulent withdrawals. Cheoh left the Dominican Republic in April 2023 and was arrested in Penang in June 2024 following a joint operation by Malaysian police and Singapore’s Technology Crime Investigation Bureau. He was later brought to Singapore to face charges. He pleaded guilty to participating in a criminal syndicate and conspiring to use malware to gain unauthorised access to mobile phones. He was also fined S$3,608, which represented the money he received for filming the videos.     Featured image: Edited by Fintech News Singapore, based on images by nikol85 and AI-generated image via Freepik The post Malaysian Man Jailed for Filming Malware Tutorials Behind S$3.2M Scam appeared first on Fintech Singapore.

IBM and Confluent have signed a definitive agreement for IBM to acquire all issued and outstanding Confluent common shares for US$31 per share. This values the company at US$11 billion. Confluent provides an open-source enterprise data-streaming platform designed to connect, process and govern real-time data. This capability is increasingly essential for deploying AI systems. IDC estimates that more than one billion new logical applications will emerge by 2028, reshaping technology architectures across industries. These applications, along with AI agents, require trusted, real-time data to operate effectively. IBM and Confluent aim to integrate applications, analytics, data systems and AI agents to strengthen intelligence and resilience in hybrid-cloud environments. Arvind Krishna “IBM and Confluent together will enable enterprises to deploy generative and agentic AI better and faster by providing trusted communication and data flow between environments, applications and APIs,” said Arvind Krishna, IBM Chairman, President and CEO. Jay Kreps, Confluent’s CEO and co-founder, said: Jay Kreps “We are excited by the potential to join IBM and to accelerate our strategy with IBM’s go-to-market expertise, global scale and extensive portfolio. I look forward to the future we will build together as Confluent becomes part of IBM.” Confluent’s platform prepares data for AI by keeping it clean and connected across disparate systems, reducing silos common in agentic AI workloads. The company’s total addressable market has grown from US$50 billion to US$100 billion in four years. Its capabilities, combined with IBM’s AI infrastructure software and automation tools, are positioned to capture this expanding opportunity. IBM views Confluent as a strategic fit aligned with its hybrid-cloud and AI roadmap. It complements IBM’s existing offerings in data and automation. The company expects product synergies across AI, automation, data and consulting, along with operational efficiencies gained through scale. IBM anticipates the deal will contribute to adjusted EBITDA in the first full year and to free cash flow in the second year after closing.   Featured image credit: Edited by Fintech News Singapore, based on image by ilygraphic via Freepik The post IBM to Acquire Confluent for US$11 Billion appeared first on Fintech Singapore.

HSBC’s drive to become a leaner institution began with dismantling co-management roles that CEO Georges Elhedery said had muddied accountability, an early step in a wider restructuring effort he described to Bloomberg Television. Elhedery, who took charge 15 months ago, has nearly cut the lender’s operating committee in half as part of a restructuring intended to streamline decision making and give executives clearer ownership of their businesses. He said the bank had operated with layers of dual or multiple reporting lines that limited transparency around performance, although a majority of revenue is now overseen under single leadership. The CEO, a former co-head of global banking and markets, is continuing a multi-year turnaround that has involved thousands of job cuts, the closure of several operations and the consolidation of others. He said the overhaul will take time and will require steady discipline as the bank works toward a simpler structure. A major pillar of his strategy is the rapid introduction of artificial intelligence across the organisation. HSBC has already provided AI tools to roughly 170,000 staff, integrating them into areas such as document drafting, wealth management, fraud detection and customer verification. Elhedery said employees will be assessed on how actively they adopt these tools, which he views as essential to remain competitive in the workforce of the future. The bank is currently running more than 100 AI use cases, about half of which are already live. Elhedery said workers are not expected to be replaced by technology but warned that those who fail to build skills around AI risk becoming less relevant over time. Elhedery also spoke about his leadership philosophy, including his decision to take a six-month sabbatical several years ago to accelerate his study of Mandarin. He said the experience helped him better understand Chinese communication and negotiation styles and encouraged others at the bank to take time for personal or professional development. He added that the restructuring requires a tough stance on legacy complexity within the organisation. Speaking earlier at a banking conference in London, he described the need for a ruthless approach to rebuilding HSBC. In the interview, he said his engineering background has shaped the way he identifies inefficiencies, noting that complexity often accumulates when organisations lose focus. He said restoring that focus is necessary for HSBC to operate more effectively.     Featured image: Edited by Fintech News Singapore, based on image by ilygraphic via Freepik The post HSBC CEO Elhedery Slashes Co-Head Roles, Cites Lack of Accountability appeared first on Fintech Singapore.

Syfe reported more than US$2 billion in client returns in 2025 and said it reached group profitability in the fourth quarter across Singapore, Hong Kong and Australia. The results came amid volatile global markets. Assets under management rose past US$10 billion. The year also saw Syfe acquire and take private ASX-listed Selfwealth, which now operates as Selfwealth by Syfe. It also closed a US$80 million Series C round and launched new products, including a private credit partnership with BlackRock in Singapore. Hong Kong recorded the strongest growth, with assets under management rising nearly six times from the previous year. Syfe said its focus on lowering investment costs resulted in US$88 million in client fee savings in 2025. The platform also paid out nearly US$127 million in passive, lower-risk income to investors during periods of market stress. Dhruv Arora “In 2025 we continued to fundamentally redefine value through innovation. Our approach means actively removing barriers that prevent people from accessing quality investment products and advice. A perfect example is Syfe’s introduction of UCITS savings plans to the region this year. It means anyone, no matter how little money they have to start, can regularly invest small amounts into the kind of high-quality funds usually reserved for the high-net-worth,” said Dhruv Arora, Founder & CEO of Syfe. Syfe plans further expansion in 2026. Options trading will launch this month in Singapore on Syfe Brokerage, with Australia and Hong Kong set to see additional features as Selfwealth by Syfe continues integration. Arora added that the move into profitability strengthens the company’s ability to invest in new products, markets and talent in the year ahead.     Featured image: Edited by Fintech News Singapore, based on image by noob via Freepik The post Syfe Turns Profitable in Q4 2025 as Client Returns Exceed US$2 Billion appeared first on Fintech Singapore.

Fibe has raised 35 million US dollars from International Finance Corporation (IFC) in its Series F funding round. The company will use the capital to strengthen its lending capacity and expand affordable credit for underserved middle income households in India. Fibe provides cash loans for urgent personal expenses and impact linked financing for medical and education needs. It has disbursed more than nine million loans and says it is scaling through disciplined credit governance and a focus on financial inclusion for young and tech savvy individuals. Akshay Mehrotra Akshay Mehrotra, MD & Group CEO, Fibe, said, “IFC’s investment is a meaningful milestone in our journey to make impact-led financial solutions accessible and affordable for millions. Over the years, we have built a diversified base of lending partners, a resilient risk engine, credible credit ratings, and a distribution network that strengthens our reach across India. This capital will help us enhance our product suite further and deliver a unified experience across borrowing, saving, investing, and payments — while remaining focused on responsible credit and positive socio-economic outcomes.” Imad N Fakhoury Imad N Fakhoury, IFC Regional Division Director for South Asia, said, “IFC’s equity investment will both expand responsible financing for underserved individuals, especially women, and strengthen Fibe’s responsible finance approach. This support will help families manage healthcare needs, invest in education, and build financial resilience. This partnership advances our commitment to human capital and inclusive growth by bringing affordable, technology-enabled financial solutions to those who need them most,” Founded in 2015, Fibe has raised more than 266 million US dollars in equity, including secondaries, from investors such as TPG’s The Rise Fund, Norwest Venture Partners, Eight Roads Ventures, TR Capital, Piramal Finance Limited and Chiratae Ventures. The company reports that it has been profitable for four consecutive years. Over the past year, it has expanded to more than 940 cities through technology led outreach and now works with over 8,500 partner centers and more than 50 channel partners. Fibe offers a range of consumer and impact linked loans and works with regulated financial institutions under governance, compliance and risk management standards.   The post Indian Fintech Fibe Raises US$35M Series F Funding to Boost Credit Access appeared first on Fintech Singapore.

Validus has raised US$30 million in a Series D funding round led by Khazanah Nasional, Malaysia’s sovereign wealth fund. The funding will support its expansion in Indonesia and Thailand. The move follows the divestment of its Singapore business to GXS Bank, Grab’s digital bank, in April. Founded in 2015, Validus provides alternative lending solutions to small and medium enterprises in Southeast Asia. The company says it has disbursed more than US$5 billion in loans and has built a vertically integrated lending model that combines supply chain financing, proprietary credit analytics and institutional participation. Validus works with regional and international banks and major corporates in Indonesia and Thailand, which it identifies as a combined US$46 billion supply chain financing market. It also reports that its Indonesia business has been profitable for the past three years. The new capital will support operational scaling and loan book growth, with the company projecting a doubling of loan volumes over the next three years. Avendus Capital acted as the exclusive financial advisor to Validus on the transaction. Nikhilesh Goel Nikhilesh Goel, Co-founder & Group CEO of Validus said, “We are thrilled to partner with Khazanah. Their disciplined, long-term investment approach and deep expertise in the financial services sector make them an ideal partner for us as we deepen our capabilities to provide impactful financing solutions to SMEs in the region. This partnership will significantly advance our mission to drive financial inclusion and economic prosperity across Southeast Asia.”     Featured image: Edited by Fintech News Singapore, based on image by mkmult via Freepik The post Validus Raises US$30 Million Series D Round Led by Khazanah Nasional appeared first on Fintech Singapore.

Razorpay Singapore has launched a checkout feature that applies instant, payment specific discounts to help merchants cut costs and improve conversions. Razorpay Offers lets merchants present discounts when customers select certain payment methods such as PayNow or credit cards. High-visibility banners steer customers towards a specific payment method with instant discounts. The feature integrates into existing checkout flows without additional engineering work and is aimed at helping businesses manage high payment acceptance costs and reduce cart abandonment. The tool supports high visibility prompts that highlight eligible discounts and guide customers toward preferred payment methods at the moment they decide how to pay. This is intended to counter common drop off points, particularly unexpected charges such as shipping fees and taxes, which continue to be the largest driver of abandonment. Angad Dhindsa Angad Dhindsa, Head of Southeast Asia, Razorpay said, “Merchants today are looking for practical levers that improve the customer journey without any additional complexity. This feature is designed to fit directly into existing workflows and support merchants, navigating both conversion challenges and reducing cost of accepting payments.” The launch comes as abandonment rates remain high. Global levels average about 70 percent, and categories such as fashion and accessories in Singapore have exceeded 85 percent this year. Razorpay says presenting discounts at the final decision point can encourage shoppers to complete their purchases. Payment costs also remain a concern. Credit cards are still one of the most expensive online payment methods in Singapore, with fees that can reach up to 3.4 percent plus S$0.40 per transaction. PayNow offers a lower cost alternative, and the company says the feature can help shift usage toward more cost efficient methods without adding friction. Razorpay sees the feature as part of broader efforts to streamline checkout flows as competition intensifies and merchants look for clearer, faster and more predictable payment journeys.     Featured image: Edited by Fintech News Singapore, based on image by Freepik The post Razorpay Singapore Enables Merchants to Steer Users to Cheaper Payment Methods appeared first on Fintech Singapore.

Banks have been the backbone of merchant acquiring.  Their regulatory strength, trusted brands, and long-standing merchant relationships established them as the primary enablers of digital payments.  Over the past decade, however, the landscape has evolved rapidly. New-age acquirers—fintechs, orchestration platforms, and digital-first processors—have introduced new levels of speed, flexibility, and intelligence across onboarding, APIs, alternative payment methods, global acceptance, and analytics. This shift does not reflect a lack of capability within banks. Rather, it highlights how quickly technology and merchant expectations have advanced. Banks continue to hold significant advantages: deep trust, compliance expertise, settlement infrastructure, treasury strength, and the ability to serve merchants at scale. By modernising their payments stack and adopting a more software-centric architecture, banks are well-positioned to lead the next phase of innovation in merchant acquiring. The New Competitive Landscape Merchant acquiring is no longer simple transaction processing – it has become a full-stack digital experience.  Businesses today expect a single platform powering payments across web, app, in-store, QR, mobile wallets, and cross-border channels.  They want clear visibility into authorisation rates, routing configurations, fees, and settlements, and the agility to add payment methods instantly. Fintech acquirers anticipated this shift early. They built cloud-native platforms with modular APIs and orchestration layers separating checkout, routing, fraud, tokenisation, FX, and reconciliation.  They ship improvements quickly, integrate regional payment methods in weeks, and offer real-time dashboards with actionable business insights. Banks, by contrast, still often rely on legacy gateways stitched together with multiple vendor systems. Onboarding takes weeks. Dashboards are fragmented. Routing logic is simplistic. Adding alternative payment methods takes months. Cross-border flows depend on outdated treasury processes. The result? Merchants increasingly prefer agile acquirers – even when banks are more trusted. But this isn’t a permanent disadvantage. With the right modernisation strategy and ecosystem partners, banks can match – and surpass – today’s challengers. From Gateways to Platforms: Rethinking the Architecture The first transformation is architectural.  Banks must shift from monolithic gateways to modular, cloud-native payment platforms – where routing, fraud, tokenisation, settlement, and reconciliation operate as separate, scalable services. This enables rapid integration of new payment methods like UPI, PayNow, Mada, or wallets; ensures omnichannel consistency; and accelerates product updates.  More importantly, it gives merchants a unified interface rather than fragmented portals and reporting systems. Several global banks are already pursuing this path – often partnering with platforms like Juspay that bring merchant-scale, cloud-native infrastructure that integrates with existing acquiring systems. Reimagining Merchant Experience Banks have traditionally designed their systems around internal processes – risk, compliance, settlement cycles, and batch systems.  Today, however, merchants expect consumer-grade experiences. They want: Digital-first onboarding with modern APIs, SDKs, and sandbox environments – in hours, not weeks. Intuitive dashboards that provide deep operational insights into success-rates, declines, and settlements. Self-service capabilities – configuring PG settings, toggling payment methods, setting up webhooks, managing settlements, and more. Banks must treat acquiring as a product, not as a service line. When banks match (or exceed) the merchant experience offered by fintech acquirers, they immediately become competitive again. Success-Rate Engineering: The New Battleground One of the biggest differentiators for modern acquirers is their ability to optimise authorisation rates.  Even a 2–3% uplift can generate millions in additional revenue for merchants. Fintech acquirers invest heavily in real-time routing, intelligent retries, tokenisation, fraud scoring, device intelligence, and BIN-level decisioning. Banks, on the other hand, often rely on static routing logic and legacy fraud systems. But banks hold a hidden advantage – closer issuer relationships and deeper visibility into network-level patterns.  Once modernised with real-time decisioning and adaptive routing, banks can outperform fintechs and shift merchant preference. Competing in a Global Economy Payments are no longer local. Even mid-sized merchants operate in multiple markets, and expect multi-currency pricing, local settlement, transparent FX, and compliance with local regulatory frameworks such as SCA or data localisation.  They also expect support for local payment methods – wallets, account-to-account systems, national rails, and open-banking-based payments. Banks must evolve from card-only acquiring to universal acceptance. Orchestration platforms are essential here – they enable banks to adopt new rails rapidly without lengthy integration cycles. The Role of AI and Data Banks sit on some of the richest datasets in financial infrastructure – issuer authorisation patterns, merchant risk behaviour, cross-border insights, and interchange flows. Historically, this data lived in silos. Modern platforms change this. AI can predict issuer declines, optimise routing paths, enable adaptive fraud prevention, drive dynamic pricing, and provide merchants with performance intelligence. Data is no longer a back-office asset – it is a competitive advantage. Path to Modernisation The transformation process requires both technology and organisational change. Banks must build cross-functional product-led teams and adopt a merchant-centric operating model.  Equally important is building an ecosystem rather than going solo – working with orchestration providers, risk platforms, APM aggregators, and infrastructure partners such as Juspay to accelerate delivery and expand coverage. Modernisation happens in phases – starting with orchestration and unified APIs, and progressing toward AI-driven routing, dynamic fee engines, expanded payment method coverage, and real-time operational intelligence. The goal is not to rebuild everything – but to combine bank-grade trust with modern agility. Banks Can Win This Race The rise of fintech acquirers does not signal the decline of banks – it signals the need for reinvention. Banks remain uniquely positioned to win in merchant acquiring, backed by trust, scale, and regulatory credibility.  What they need is a modern, modular, intelligence-driven payments stack that puts merchants at the centre. The question is not whether banks can compete – it’s which banks will modernise fast enough to win. Featured image by romanshashko via Freepik. The post Modernising Bank Payments: How Banks Can Win in Merchant Acquiring appeared first on Fintech Singapore.

Despite growing demand for product personalization, most banking customers are underwhelmed by the personalization they receive, underscoring a gap between between customer expectations and what banks are delivering in experience, according to a new study by Hong Kong-based strategy consultancy Quinlan and Associates in partnership with management consulting company Synpulse. The study, which polled nearly 150 consumers in 2025, found that nearly three quarters (74%) of banking customers consider personalization critical to their banking experience. Yet 71% of those who value personalization say they have either not experienced it or are dissatisfied with what they are receiving. This suggests that, despite strong demand, only a small minority actually receive tailored experiences that meet their expectations and deliver real satisfaction. Additionally, less than half (44%) of the customers who consider personalization important have actually experienced it at all. This reveals that many banks are still not equipped to provide meaningful, individualized value, suggesting that personalization remains an under-stated priority. Even among those who have received personalized services, more than half (52%) are not satisfied, highlighting that banks’ personalization efforts lacked sufficient thought and implementation rigor. Gap between customer importance and satisfaction, Source: Tailor-made: Hyper-personalising the retail banking experience, Quinland and Associates, and Synpulse, Dec 2025 Underwhelming personalization and customer experience contribute to lower retention rates in the banking sector compared to other industries. The customer retention rate in banking stood at 75% in 2024, well below the non-banking average of 82.5%. Retention in the sector has declined in recent years, underscoring persistent gaps in service quality and customer satisfaction. Customer retention rate, Source: Tailor-made: Hyper-personalising the retail banking experience, Quinland and Associates, and Synpulse, Dec 2025 Rising competition in the banking landscape Falling retention rates also reflect intensifying competition from digital banks that are elevating experience standards. In Hong Kong, digital bank Mox Bank offers a streamlined onboarding process that takes just about 5 minutes on average, with roughly 70% of applicants being processed without the need for manual intervention. Across Asia, UOB’s digital brand TMRW uses artificial intelligence (AI) to anticipate needs and deliver curated insights and rewards suited to individual preferences. In China, Tencent-backed WeBank leverages AI, blockchain, cloud computing, and big data to serve underbanked individuals and small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), using these technologies for underwriting, product matching, and hyper-targeting. Gains from addressing the personalization gap The Quinlan and Associates research indicates that closing this personalization gap could unlock significant revenue for banks by improving customer acquisition, engagement, and loyalty. By using first-party data, customer relationship management (CRM) insights, and third-party behavioral signals, banks can tailor product awareness and marketing campaigns to a customer’s life stage, goals, and financial context, potentially boosting customer acquisition by 63%. In engagement, ads, emails, and push notifications can be dynamically adapted to a customer’s behavior, preferences, and interaction history to increase relevance and click-through rates, improving engagement by 36%. Banks can also personalize the product journey by adapting product recommendations, featured presentation, and support to a customer’s profile, intent and behavior. Customers are found to be 94% more likely to purchase a personalized product than a generic offering. Effective personalization also improves retention. Experiences tailored to tenure, life events, and transaction behavior can reinforce trust, and deepen engagement for long-term retention, increasing retention by 69%. Customer funnel, Source: Tailor-made: Hyper-personalising the retail banking experience, Quinland and Associates, and Synpulse, Dec 2025 Results from the Quinlan and Associates study align with other recent research. Accenture’s Banking Consumer Study 2025, released in March, also underscores the critical importance of personalization. Polling more than 49,000 customers across 39 countries and 700 banks, the study found that a lack of connection in digital interactions is pushing customers to seek more personal banking experiences and diversify their banking relationships. As a result, many customers are engaging with additional providers. 73% of customers now use multiple banks beyond their primary financial institution, and 58% have purchased a financial service or product from a new provider in the last 12 months.   Featured image: Edited by Fintech News Singapore, based on image by thanyakij-12 via Freepik The post Banks Are Falling Short on Customer Personalization appeared first on Fintech Singapore.

Amazon will invest more than US$35 billion across its businesses in India through 2030, adding to the nearly US$40 billion it has already committed. The announcement was made at the sixth Amazon Smbhav Summit in New Delhi. Amazon expects its next phase of investment to generate another one million direct, indirect, induced and seasonal jobs by 2030. This will come from the expansion of fulfilment and delivery networks that also support packaging, manufacturing and transportation sectors. The company said it will continue building infrastructure, advancing AI capabilities and supporting small business growth. As part of its AI plans, Amazon aims to extend AI tools to 15 million small businesses and improve shopping experiences for hundreds of millions of customers. It also intends to support AI education for 4 million government school students through curriculum support, career tours, hands-on programmes and teacher training aligned with the National Education Policy. Amazon also aims to increase cumulative ecommerce exports enabled from India to US$80 billion by 2030 as it expands its technology and logistics footprint. Amazon is India’s largest foreign investor and leading enabler of ecommerce exports, with its investments supporting over 12 million digitised small businesses, US$20 billion in exports and about 2.8 million jobs. Amit Agarwal “We are humbled to have been a part of India’s digital transformation journey over the past 15 years, with Amazon’s growth in India perfectly aligned with the vision of an Atmanirbhar and Viksit Bharat. We have invested at scale in growing the physical and digital infrastructure for small businesses in India, creating millions of jobs, and taking Made-in-India global.” said Amit Agarwal, Senior VP Emerging Markets, Amazon.     Featured image: Edited by Fintech News Singapore, based on image by Freepik The post Amazon to Invest US$35 Billion in India, Create 1 Million Jobs by 2030 appeared first on Fintech Singapore.

When you meet Vince Iswara, the CEO and Co-Founder of DANA, you quickly realise he is not the type of founder who builds a company for the spotlight. He speaks softly, thinks carefully, and smiles easily when talking about his team. If you didn’t already know that DANA serves more than 200 million users, you probably wouldn’t guess it from the way he carries himself. He talks like someone who is still in the trenches, still solving problems one by one, and still treating every day as if the company could disappear if they missed a step. That mindset that he holds is not an act but rather something that has been shaped by years of pressure that most people never saw. The Early Path That Led to DANA DANA was formally established in 2017, but for Vince, the story began much earlier. He had already built a digital wallet business during the period when the word “fintech” wasn’t even part of Indonesia’s vocabulary. That early experience brought him into close contact with Ant Financial, now known as Ant Group. They were interested in the company he built, and for a year and a half, they held long discussions about a potential partnership. The conclusion, however, was a little bit unexpected. You see, Ant Group felt the business that Vince was running itself was not the right vehicle for long-term growth. But on the flip side of the coin however, they believed the founder was. As Vince puts it, “they saw me as the real potential,” and that opened the door for him to join Ant and learn directly from the ecosystem they had built in China. @fintechnewsnetwork Great idea. Wrong time. Instead of quitting, Vince Iswara paused his journey, joined Ant Group to learn their playbook, and waited for the market to catch up. Today, that patience has turned into Indonesia’s largest e-wallet 200 Million users. @DANA Indonesia #fintech #ewallet #Indonesia #payments ♬ original sound – Fintech News Network – Fintech News Network That time that Vince spent in China is vital to how it shaped his worldview. He saw how mobile wallets could shift an entire nation’s behaviour and how thoughtful product design could lift millions into the formal economy. By the time he returned to Indonesia to co-found DANA, he carried a clearer sense of what was possible. Indonesia, in his eyes, was ready for its own version of that story. Years Spent on the Edge The early years of DANA were far from glamorous, needless to say. Most people know the company today, but few realise just how close to the edge it operated. Vince describes it without softening the memory. “The first five, six, seven years of our journey, we were pretty much on the edge. We were always worried that the next day would be our last day. There were so many challenges.” @fintechnewsnetwork How do you compete with 100% Cashback? DANA CEO Vince Iswara admits he worried every day might be the company’s last when rivals started giving away free money. Here is how they survived the “Cash Burn” wars to become Indonesia’s largest e-wallet today with over 200 million users. @DANA Indonesia #fintech #ewallet #payments #cashback ♬ original sound – Fintech News Network – Fintech News Network Competition according to the winner of the Fintech Frontiers 50 awards, Vince, was aggressive. Regulations were evolving. Investors were uncertain. And the market was flooded with incentives that somewhat distorted user behaviour. The Co-Founder of DANA said that at that time, you can clearly see that the market is flooded with crazy offers like 50% cashback, 70% cashback and even at some point of time, 100% cashback. In that moment, Vince questioned himself. How is he supposed to compete in that mad market with users that are kind of irrational? “At the time, we were like, are we in the right industry? Can we continue to keep doing this?” Vince said. But Vince told that those were the years that shaped the company more than any growth milestone ever could. It made DANA who they are today. A Culture Built in Real Time Speaking of what made DANA what it is today, many have also asked on what kept DANA alive, standing tall as one of if not the largest e-wallet company in Indonesia. And no, it was not a sudden breakthrough. It was more of a culture that is shaped through the grind of experimentation and survival. Vince never points to a single moment that changed everything. “Every single thing that we build over time, one at a time, makes us where we are today. There is no inflection point where suddenly we jump up. It’s growth over time, but continuously.” @fintechnewsnetwork The Secret to Success Doesn’t Exist. DANA Founder Vince Iswara says there is no “magic moment” where you suddenly win. The reality? Get your hands dirty. Dream big. Focus on building great products. @DANA Indonesia #fintech #Indonesia #ewallet ♬ original sound – Fintech News Network – Fintech News Network That steady approach influenced the team as much as the product. Vince told us that out of the first 81 people who joined DANA, 65 are still with the company today. In a sector where talent shifts constantly, this level of loyalty is unusual. Very impressive if I may add. Vince remains close to them, often reviewing product decisions himself and staying engaged with the details. “I enjoy actually putting my hand to the dirty work, working together with the team on building the product and the services.” The hands-on culture that Vince created, kept DANA grounded even as its user base scaled into the millions. Designing for Real Inclusion DANA’s scale is impressive, but Vince never talks about it as the point of the journey. For him, the real marker of progress has always been impact. He has a straightforward view on financial inclusion in Indonesia, and it cuts through the usual noise. Access isn’t the problem. Branches, agents, and digital channels exist almost everywhere. The real challenge according to Vince, is literacy. People need tools they can actually understand, not just tools they can technically reach. That idea structures the way DANA builds. The team doesn’t want to design features around what they think users should do. They want it to be around what people already do. Things like, a family account that quietly teaches budgeting through everyday use. Merchant tools that help SMEs see their revenue clearly for the first time. Small product decisions that, when stacked together, move users from basic access to genuine financial capability. Vince often describes DANA’s growth as a series of steady, deliberate steps. Vince Iswara As he puts it, “every single thing that we build over time, one at a time, makes us where we are today.” It’s a line that captures the company’s entire approach to inclusion. There is no single breakthrough feature that fixes everything. There are only consistent improvements that compound into something meaningful. These stories remind Vince that inclusion grows the same way DANA did. Steadily, quietly, and through decisions that prioritise understanding over scale. Cash Is Still King, But It’s Starting To Lose Its Crown Despite these successes, Vince is still very clear about one thing. For all the headlines about valuations, market share, and digital adoption, Indonesia is still in the early chapters of its wallet story. From afar, it may look like the sector has matured. Some players are listed, others are backed by global giants, and e-wallet penetration has climbed fast. But on the ground, the picture is rather different. He points to the simplest indicator, cash. “Cash is still king,” as Vince or everyone else in the world would say. Vince said that it still accounts for roughly half of all transactions in the country, even though e-wallets have already overtaken cards and now sit at around 30% of the market. There are signs of progress, but it also shows how much more is left to do. And as long as that remains true, the full promise of digital finance is still out of reach for many Indonesians. For Vince, this is not a race for dominance between players but against the limits imposed by cash. If Indonesia can collectively shrink cash usage and expand responsible digital adoption across wallets, banks, and payment providers, the result is a much larger economic pie for everyone. It means better visibility, stronger inclusion, and more opportunities for GDP and income growth across the population. This is why he doesn’t dwell on questions about market position. Being a top player doesn’t change the fact that the work is unfinished. In Vince’s view, the real transformation will come from pushing deeper into behaviour, not wider across demographics. Indonesia may have made its first leap, but the real journey is only beginning. The Underdog Mindset That Never Left Even as the company grows, Vince prefers to think from the bottom rather than the top. His advice for the new generation of entrepreneurs reflects the same humility that shaped DANA’s earliest years. “Be an underdog,” he says. “Make sure that you have that mindset. Make sure that you are always aiming for a big dream.” It is the same outlook that kept DANA alive during the toughest periods. The same approach that pushes the team to listen harder, build carefully, and keep improving without chasing hype. For Indonesia, the pressure is still real and the problems remain complex, but there is a different confidence in the way Vince speaks about the road ahead. He has seen what steady progress can build. And he believes Indonesia’s financial landscape will continue to transform not through big leaps, but through the same steady accumulation of improvements that built DANA from the beginning. If the first eight years were defined by endurance, the next eight may be defined by deeper expansion. Sounds interesting? Hear Vince tell the story himself, and watch the full conversation of How a Second Chance Led to Indonesia’s Largest E-Wallet | Vince Iswara, Co-Founder, DANA down below. The post Vince Iswara, the Co-Founder Who Runs DANA with the Discipline of an Underdog appeared first on Fintech Singapore.

Pakistani fintech NayaPay has launched global QR payments through a collaboration with Alipay+, enabling users to make payments at merchants in more than 50 countries. The service connects Pakistani consumers to Alipay+’s network of 40 mobile payment partners and more than 150 million merchants worldwide across retail, dining, transport, healthcare and entertainment. The feature expands NayaPay’s existing services, which include Visa debit cards, local and international transfers, bill payments and home remittances. The company said it was the first Pakistani fintech to enable direct QR payments in China through its 2024 partnership with Alipay+, which connected users to over 80 million merchants there. The new integration extends similar capability to global markets as cross-border travel and spending rise. NayaPay said the service offers a more seamless and cost-effective way for users to pay overseas. Customers can scan and pay at participating Alipay+ merchants through the NayaPay app. Danish A. Lakhani Danish A. Lakhani, CEO NayaPay said, “When we started NayaPay, our ambition was to give Pakistanis the same freedom and confidence with money that people enjoy in the world’s most advanced markets. This step brings us closer, not only by making payments abroad seamless but by making them universally accessible and easy on the pocket. Whether our users are studying, working or exploring the world, they deserve a global payment experience that keeps up with them.” Pan Yan Pan Yan, Head of Strategic Partnership Office for Alipay+, Ant International, said, “Our goal at Alipay+ is to connect anyone, anywhere in a seamless, digitally-enabled manner. The growth of mobile platforms like NayaPay is transforming how millions of people travel and interact with local merchants. Through this next step of our collaboration, we’re jointly making it easier for Pakistanis to explore the world, and do so with the same trusted and familiar experience, just like home.”     The post Pakistan’s NayaPay Enables QR Payments to Over 50 Countries via Alipay+ appeared first on Fintech Singapore.

Not long ago, banking in Asia Pacific meant standing in line at a branch, filling out slips of paper, and waiting patiently for transactions to be processed. Fraud, when it occurred, was relatively visible and often easier to contain, counterfeit notes, forged signatures, or cheque tampering were the risks banks kept a close watch on. Those threats were tangible, localised, and limited in scale. Fast forward to today, and the contrast is striking. Payments move at the speed of a tap, digital wallets are used as readily as cash once was, cross-border transactions settle in seconds, and modern AI agents are here to help us spend on different things before we even feel guilty for it. This progress has opened remarkable opportunities for businesses and individuals alike, but it has also created new avenues for crime. Fraud is no longer about a forged cheque or a stolen wallet; it is about invisible, sophisticated attacks that exploit every digital channel. Each new innovation designed to make payments faster and more accessible has, in turn, created fresh openings for those intent on exploiting the system, a reality mirrored in recent regional data, where cybersecurity remains the leading risk for Asia Pacific’s (64%), and digital disruption, including AI, has surged from 30% last year to 36% today, with expectations to hit 55% within three years. Together, they capture the dual challenge confronting the region: the need to secure increasingly digital financial ecosystems while adapting to a rapidly changing threat landscape powered by automation and AI.   A region defined by contrasts Asia Pacific is home to some of the world’s most digitally advanced economies as well as markets where millions of people are only just beginning to experience financial services online. In Singapore or Australia, customers expect their banks to use advanced fraud detection in real time, while in parts of Southeast Asia, financial-inclusion initiatives are bringing first-time users onto digital platforms, often with limited awareness of the risks involved. The diversity of regulatory frameworks across the region adds another layer of complexity. The result is an environment rich in opportunity, but equally attractive to fraudsters who thrive on fragmentation and uneven preparedness. This combination of large transaction volumes, varying levels of digital literacy, and inconsistent oversight has made APAC a prime target. For example, one report by VISA shows that US $36 of every US $1,000 of accepted e-commerce orders in Asia Pacific turn out to be fraudulent, and an additional US $55 are rejected due to fraud suspicions. Meanwhile, the specialist threat-intelligence firm Group-IB highlights the growing threat of AI-driven credential-testing attacks in APAC, where automation is validating stolen credentials through subtle, undetected transactions. In such an environment, phishing attacks mimic official communication styles with uncanny accuracy, synthetic identities slip past legacy verification systems, and fraudsters use stolen personal data not just to commit one-off crimes but to build entire profiles that look authentic on the surface. Fraud profiles across key APAC markets In Malaysia, regulators have stepped up expectations around real-time fraud monitoring and behaviour-based analytics as mobile payments and push-payment scams proliferate. Whereas in the Philippines, the rise of account-scam legislation reflects the growing vulnerability of first-time digital-finance users who may lack awareness of fraud-vectors. In Indonesia, rapid adoption of digital wallets, cross-border payment rails, and QR-based transfers has broadened the attack surface, prompting stronger oversight of payment-system infrastructure. According to Group-IB’s regional reporting, financial-services firms in the APAC region were among the top targeted sectors, with over 40 attacks recorded in one year alone. These typologies emphasise that banks and fintechs in APAC must adopt fraud-management platforms capable of real-time link-analysis, behaviour-based models, cross-channel analytics and device-risk scoring to keep pace with evolving threats. Why traditional approaches fall short The days of relying on post-event investigation are long gone. In the time it takes to identify and investigate a suspicious transfer, a fraudster may have already routed funds across multiple accounts and jurisdictions, making recovery almost impossible. Manual checks, however rigorous, cannot cope with the sheer speed and volume of today’s digital transactions. Traditional financial institutions which still rely on legacy fraud solutions and hence reactive defences won’t cope with dozens of automated AI agents, trained to replicate customer behavior. Updating fraud scenario databases and rules should be done timely and proactively, across every channel. So, the question each financial institution should ask themselves today – are the prevention mechanisms prepared and tuned to spot and stop an advanced AI-orchestrated fraud run in real-time or its time for a major upgrade? The role of technology This is where advanced fraud management platforms make a difference. They change the game. Unlike legacy, modern solutions offer modern techniques to combat fraud such as link analysis, automated decisioning powered by AI and analytics, behavior modelling. With SaaS deployments – rules, intel and databases are continuously updated, following the freshest existing techniques available in communities. In countries such as Hong Kong, regtech adoption is already at 97% among surveyed companies and AI adoption at 75% as reported by Hong Kong Monetary Authority. With BPC’s SmartVista Fraud Management, financial institutions leverage AI-powered technology with ML-backed rules for behaviour modelling and link analysis to predict the patterns of fraudulent activity before it happens. Financial institutions gain a view of their customers that spans every channel, whether it is online payment, digital, merchant payments, or core banking transactions. SmartVista Fraud Management supports online, near-real-time, and offline validation with customizable fraud rules, low-code/no-code configuration, multi-institution, link analysis and visual analytics capabilities. It allows users to test rules on historical data, utilize fuzzy matching algorithms, and independently manage ML scoring models and datasets through an intuitive UI. Jonathan Bautista Jonathan Bautista, Commercial Director, APAC, BPC on flexibility in deployment: “Flexibility matters in APAC. Some banks operate under strict local regulations requiring on-premise systems, while others prefer the scalability of cloud-based models. SmartVista supports both, allowing institutions to adapt without compromising performance. Just as important, its low-code/no-code and modularity, so that fraud management teams can tailor rules and workflows fast, starting with our hundreds prebuilt templates and customize them as they wish.” Lessons from practice Experience across the region shows that moving from fragmented controls to an integrated, proactive approach not only reduces financial losses but also strengthens customer trust. A recent example is Malaysia’s Co-opbank Pertama, which has adopted BPC’s SmartVista Fraud Management in the cloud to strengthen its defences. By moving away from manual, post-event checks and embracing real-time monitoring and behaviour-based profiling, the bank has positioned itself to stop fraud at the speed it occurs. “Our global expertise and success allows us to apply best practices locally. It is in the breadth of our deployments.” adds Jonathan Bautista.  Some examples include Meezan Bank in Pakistan rolled out SmartVista Fraud Management enterprise-wide to protect all payments from ATM, POS, mobile to e-commerce channels; DSK Bank in Bulgaria adopted enterprise fraud management to harden every digital touchpoint; BIM in Mauritania introduced SmartVista Fraud Management and now leverages the centralised platform to intercept 100% of potentially fraudulent operations; and in LATAM, Banco Finandina chose BPC’s SmartVista 3-D Secure 2.0 to safeguard its e-commerce business end-to-end. Different markets, different regulatory realities yet one platform with consistently strong outcomes. These cases show an important point: fraud management is not simply about deploying technology, it is about building trust, protecting reputation, and ensuring that financial services remain secure without creating barriers for legitimate users. In APAC’s  highly competitive environment, where consumer expectations are rising and regulators are pushing for stronger oversight, striking this balance is not a differentiator, it is a necessity. A shared responsibility No single institution can tackle fraud in isolation. Regulators play a central role in establishing standards and encouraging transparency. Merchants and payment networks must ensure that their systems are not the weakest links in the chain. Technology providers, like BPC, bring the tools and expertise to make enterprise-wide protection possible. But it is ultimately the responsibility of financial institutions to integrate these elements into a coherent strategy, before vulnerabilities can be exploited at scale. What Can We Conclude in Combating Fraud? Fraud has always shadowed the progress of finance. What has changed is its speed, scale, and sophistication. In today’s APAC digital economy, fraud prevention must be more than an afterthought or a compliance exercise; it must be treated as a cornerstone of resilience and growth. Financial institutions that invest in proactive, intelligent fraud management will not only limit losses but also build the trust that underpins long-term success. Those who fail to adapt risk far more than financial damage, they risk eroding the confidence that keeps customers engaged. For institutions seeking practical guidance, BPC has developed a guide “The Anatomy of the New Fraudster” to gain profound insights on modern fraud and how to oppose it effectively, what is the fraudster modus operandi and effective strategies to enhance every business channel security.  These insights, together with SmartVista’s proven capabilities, are already helping organisations across the region protect every transaction, on every channel.  The post The Silent Disruptor: Unmasking Digital Fraud in APAC’s Financial Networks appeared first on Fintech Singapore.

TenPay Global and Mastercard have formed a partnership that enables fast and secure remittances to Weixin Pay. This move lets eligible users abroad send salaries or family support to a recipient’s Weixin Pay Wallet Balance or linked bank card through Mastercard Move. TenPay Global is Tencent’s cross-border payment platform, and Weixin Pay is a widely used mobile payment service in China. China received about US$31.41 billion in personal remittances in 2024, according to the World Bank. Cross-border transfer needs continue to grow as more people work, study and travel overseas and as global commerce expands. The collaboration links Mastercard Move’s global network with the Weixin ecosystem to support money flows into the Chinese Mainland. Mastercard Move reaches nearly 10 billion endpoints, including bank accounts, cards, wallets and cash-out locations. It spans more than 200 countries and territories, supports over 150 currencies and covers more than 95 percent of the world’s banked population. Extending connectivity to more than 1.4 billion Weixin and WeChat users broadens available options for senders and recipients. Anouska Ladds “Across Asia Pacific, digital wallets are already an integral part of everyday life. With this collaboration, recipients gain fast, secure and transparent access to funds right where they already pay. It’s exactly how we’re driving payments modernisation across the region together with our partners: embedding financial services into everyday life, expanding access, and empowering people and organisations to thrive in today’s digitally connected economy,” said Anouska Ladds, Executive Vice President, Commercial New Payment Flows, Asia Pacific, Mastercard. Wenhui Yang “We are committed to helping users stay connected wherever they are. Together with Mastercard, we are unlocking new opportunities and greater convenience for people around the world to send money back home. This marks another step forward in supporting the growing money transfer needs of a globally connected user base, ensuring funds arrive swiftly and safely in an everyday platform they trust. We will continue to build solutions that foster cross-border connectivity and create meaningful value for both senders and recipients,” said Wenhui Yang, CEO of TenPay Global (Singapore).     Featured image: Edited by Fintech News Singapore, based on image by zendaIA via Freepik The post TenPay Global, Mastercard Enable Direct Remittances to Weixin Pay in China appeared first on Fintech Singapore.

Airwallex has acquired a majority stake in Skye Sab Indonesia, a Category 1 PJP (Penyedia Jasa Pembayaran) license holder. The acquisition enables Indonesian merchants seeking international expansion to access Airwallex’s financial infrastructure, while facilitating foreign businesses’ entry into Indonesia. It also extends Airwallex’s presence in Asia-Pacific markets, including Australia, China, Hong Kong, Japan, Malaysia, New Zealand, South Korea, Singapore, and Vietnam. This follows Airwallex’s US$330 million Series G funding round at an US$8 billion valuation, marking a roughly 30% increase from its previous round six months earlier. The investment will support the company’s growth in key markets, including Indonesia, and the development of AI-driven tools to streamline financial workflows and improve cross-border operations. Jack Zhang “As AI lowers software costs, infrastructure and data become the ultimate differentiator,” said Jack Zhang, co-founder and CEO of Airwallex. “Airwallex connects the full spectrum of a customer’s financial operations, money in, money out, and everything in between, giving our agents the contextual data to execute with precision. This proprietary visibility, built on our scalable financial infrastructure, is what powers agentic finance.” With over 64 million SMEs in Indonesia, demand for secure, cost-effective cross-border payment solutions is high. Airwallex’s global infrastructure, combined with PT Skye Sab Indonesia’s local capabilities, aims to support these businesses in expanding internationally. In Southeast Asia, Airwallex reported a 108% year-on-year revenue increase and 94% growth in transaction volume for Q3 2025. Globally, the company exceeded US$1 billion in annualised revenue and US$235 billion in transaction volume.     This article first appeared on Fintech News Indonesia.  Featured image credit: Edited by Fintech News Indonesia, based on image by ismode via Freepik The post Airwallex Acquires Majority Stake in Indonesian Payment Provider appeared first on Fintech Singapore.

Microsoft will invest US$17.5 billion in India over four years to expand its cloud and artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure, scale up skilling programmes and support local operations. It said this is its largest investment in Asia and follows the US$3 billion announced earlier this year, which is expected to be fully deployed by end-2026. The announcement came after Microsoft Chairman and CEO Satya Nadella met Prime Minister Narendra Modi to discuss India’s AI roadmap. When it comes to AI, the world is optimistic about India! Had a very productive discussion with Mr. Satya Nadella. Happy to see India being the place where Microsoft will make its largest-ever investment in Asia. The youth of India will harness this opportunity to innovate… https://t.co/fMFcGQ8ctK — Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) December 9, 2025 Microsoft said the plan aligns with the Prime Minister’s vision of scale, skills and sovereignty, which guides national efforts to build AI capabilities at population level. Much of the new funding will support data centre expansion, including a hyperscale region in Hyderabad scheduled to go live in mid-2026. Microsoft will also expand its existing regions in Chennai, Hyderabad and Pune to improve performance for enterprises, startups and public agencies. The company is working with the Ministry of Labour and Employment to bring AI tools to the e-Shram and National Career Service platforms, which serve more than 310 million informal workers. The updates include multilingual access, AI-assisted job matching, skills demand forecasting and automated resumé creation. Through e-Shram, workers are connected to 18 welfare schemes. Microsoft is doubling its skilling target to 20 million people by 2030. It said 5.6 million have been trained since early 2025, with more than 125,000 individuals securing jobs or entrepreneurial opportunities through its programmes. New digital sovereignty offerings, including Sovereign Public Cloud and Sovereign Private Cloud, were also introduced. Microsoft 365 Copilot will begin processing data within India by the end of 2025, making the country one of the top four global markets to receive in-country data handling for the service. The company said this will support compliance needs across government, finance and healthcare. Union Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw said the investment reflects India’s growing role as a global technology partner. Puneet Chandok Puneet Chandok, President, Microsoft India and South Asia, said, “Microsoft has been part of India’s fabric for more than three decades. As the nation moves confidently into its AI-first future, we are proud to stand as a trusted partner in advancing the infrastructure, innovation and opportunity that can power a billion dreams. Building on the US$3 billion investment announced in January 2025, our new US$17.5 billion commitment and deep partnership across India’s technology ecosystem are focused on turning India’s AI ambition into impact for every citizen.” Microsoft employs more than 22,000 people across several cities who work on AI development, engineering, data centre operations and customer support.     Featured image: Satya Nadella, chairman and CEO, Microsoft with Prime Minister Narendra Modi The post Microsoft to Invest US$17.5 Billion in India to Expand AI, Cloud Infrastructure appeared first on Fintech Singapore.