LankaPay and SLTDA have partnered with Alipay+ to attract more regional travellers and widen QR payment acceptance in Sri Lanka. The tie-up will market Sri Lanka through Alipay+’s network of more than 40 e-wallets and banking apps in Asia Pacific, which reaches over 1.8 billion user accounts. Travellers using Alipay+ partner apps will also get access to offers and promotions when making purchases through LankaQR, Sri Lanka’s national QR payment network. The initiative is expected to influence travel decisions, support tourist spending and contribute to tourism earnings. It also aims to bring more local merchants, especially micro and small businesses, into the digital payments ecosystem by encouraging them to accept cross-border QR payments through LankaQR. The partnership marks the first phase of a broader collaboration between LankaPay and SLTDA to support tourism growth and digital payment adoption in Sri Lanka.     Featureed image: Dinuka Perera, Deputy CEO, LankaPay; Udana Wickramasinghe, Director, Research & International Relations of SLTDA; Buddhika Hewawasam, Chairman – SLTDA; Channa De Silva, CEO, LankaPay; Michael Guo, General Manager, SEA ANZ South Asia – Alipay+; Sittipong (Pok) Kittiprapapong, Country Manager -Thailand, Philippines, and Emerging Markets – Alipay+; Britzee Capili, Business Development Manager – Philippines, Sri Lanka and Maldives – Alipay+; Tommy Yeoh, Regional Director of Global Affairs & Strategic Development, South Asia & ASEAN (ex SG, ID & VN) – Ant International The post LankaPay and Alipay+ Expand QR Payments for Tourists in Sri Lanka appeared first on Fintech Singapore.

It is a surprising disconnect when it is reported that more than 85% of banks are already deploying some form of AI, and yet most initiatives still struggle to move beyond the pilot stage. A recent MIT study only reinforces that gap when it suggests that as many as 95% of generative AI pilots fail to deliver measurable value, while Gartner has warned that over 40% of these projects could fail by 2027. AI may be everywhere in banking conversations, but tangible impact remains harder to pin down. For Cynthia Siantar, General Manager of Singapore and Hong Kong, Head of Investor Relations at Dyna.Ai, the explanation is far less mysterious than it seems. Having spent time inside one of Southeast Asia’s largest digital banks before moving into the AI world, she has seen both sides of the equation. Her conclusion is sharp. Cynthia Siantar “Even if the tech works … more often than not, the human systems do not,” she said during a conversation with Fintech News Singapore. It is a line that neatly captures the core problem facing financial institutions today. In her view, the issue rarely lies with the technology itself, but in how organisations operate and follow through on change. Build-Versus-Partner Trap One of the most common patterns Cynthia has observed is the instinct among large financial institutions to build AI capabilities in-house. “Especially for big financial institutions, they somehow would rather build than buy or partner, thinking that if they were to build it themselves, they’ll have full control,” she said. That sense of control is understandable, but it often slows things down, with development dragging out and solutions losing relevance by the time they are ready. Business users, meanwhile, struggle to see the relevance of what is being built for them. “I’ve heard the perspective of business teams say they don’t even know what the internal teams are doing, and whatever gets built just isn’t useful enough,” Cynthia noted. Startups and specialist vendors operate under a different kind of pressure, where solving real problems quickly is not optional but necessary to survive. Banks, by contrast, often approach AI as a technical build rather than a business tool, and that disconnect continues to widen the gap between experimentation and execution. @fintechnewsnetwork 95% AI projects fail, here’s how to fix it AI Fintech Banking ♬ original sound – Fintech News Network – Fintech News Network The Messy Middle of AI Execution Even when an AI solution technically works, it still has to survive the machinery of a large organisation. Enterprise environments tend to slow things down, as projects move through layers of stakeholders and approvals, often losing momentum before they have a chance to scale. “If it’s not something that’s visible enough to the management, it may never happen,” Cynthia said. “A lot of projects just get stuck, and eventually they fail.” There is also a human resistance factor that rarely gets discussed openly. AI projects can be unsettling, especially when they begin to change how teams work or shift responsibilities across functions, and not everyone is ready to adapt. “It’s scary,” she said. “They have to change the way they work, but many are comfortable where they are.” What Successful AI Execution Looks Like in Practice Despite these challenges, some banks are managing to move beyond pilots and deliver real returns from AI. From Cynthia’s experience, the difference often comes down to ownership, specifically whether there is a team inside the bank that is willing to take responsibility and carry the initiative forward. “What I’ve experienced so far is that it really comes down to having the right team from the bank that’s willing to try and take it forward,” she said. Banks that make AI work tend to have senior leadership driving the effort, creating room for teams to learn and refine as they go. The same thinking carries into how these banks work with external vendors. Rather than treating them as transactional suppliers, more effective institutions approach AI as a collaborative effort, refining solutions together as real operational needs become clearer. “I don’t consider my clients as just clients, they’re partners,” Cynthia said. The Incumbent Dilemma and Why Digital-Native Banks Move Faster One of the digital banks in the region also benefits from being a relatively young institution. With minimal legacy systems and fewer entrenched processes, digital-native banks tend to move more comfortably into experimentation, unburdened by the layers of technology and governance that slow larger organisations. “Minimum legacy,” Cynthia pointed out but, “They’re willing to try,” she continued. Leadership has played a role as well, with many CEOs and CROs who are strongly AI-focused, often pushing AI beyond short-term initiatives into a more sustained strategic priority for the bank. “Just being a digital bank is not sexy enough,” she said. “Now you have to be an AI-powered bank.” Incumbent banks, however, are far from standing still, with many investing heavily in AI and building internal capabilities while also experimenting with tools from hyperscalers such as Microsoft and Google. Where they tend to struggle is in how those efforts translate into business outcomes. Discussions inside larger institutions often drift toward technical comparisons and feature-level debates, with teams spending disproportionate time evaluating accuracy rather than whether the solution actually delivers value for the business. From the perspective of frontline teams, those distinctions matter far less than whether AI helps them work more efficiently or improve results. A deeper tension sits around ownership and control. Internal teams, particularly in established banks, often want to build and own AI capabilities themselves. That instinct can turn potential partnerships into competitive exercises, slowing progress in the process. “The fight isn’t just with hyperscalers,” Cynthia said. “It becomes a fight with the dream of wanting to build it themselves.” Many banks are still operating in an early phase of AI adoption, where experimentation is encouraged, and outcomes are not yet under intense scrutiny. But that grace period, Cynthia suggests, will not last forever. AI Joins the Working World Looking ahead, Cynthia is pragmatic about where banks should focus next, particularly when it comes to agentic AI. Given banks’ risk profiles, she encourages starting with internal-facing use cases. Smarter, compliant copilots that support relationship managers or internal teams allow banks to experiment while ensuring that responsibility for outcomes still sits with the business users, a structure that tends to give compliance teams greater comfort. That same approach still holds, starting small and learning quickly while staying close to business users to understand what actually drives impact. Beyond specific use cases, Cynthia sees a broader shift underway. AI is increasingly becoming part of everyday life, with individuals subscribing to personal AI tools to boost productivity. That familiarity, she believes, will naturally carry over into the workplace. “AI is becoming our assistant … essentially it is its own AI worker,” she said. In the future, organisations will not only manage human employees but AI agents as well. Functions such as HR and IT may evolve to oversee hybrid workforces, balancing people and machines, as familiarity with AI in daily life begins to shape expectations at work. That future may still feel some distance away for banks struggling to move beyond pilots, but Cynthia’s message is clear. The constraint is no longer the technology itself, but how institutions organise, take ownership, and follow through on change. In banking, making AI work is less about chasing the next model and more about fixing the systems around it. Catch up on more of Cynthia Siantar’s conversation in the full interview below. The post Why AI Keeps Failing in Banks, and What It Takes to Make It Work appeared first on Fintech Singapore.

Vertex Holdings will appoint Temasek CEO Dilhan Pillay Sandrasegara as Chairman from 15 April, as the firm posted more than US$100 million in FY2025 profit. He will succeed Teo Ming Kian, who is retiring from the Board, while Deputy Chairman Lee Kheng Nam will also step down. The Singapore-based venture capital firm said its FY2025 result was supported by portfolio exits, listings and valuation gains. Dilhan previously served on the Vertex Holdings Board from 2015 to 2018. Vertex said at least five portfolio companies could pursue listings over the next 12 months, subject to market conditions. The group manages close to US$7 billion in assets across Asia, Israel and the United States. It is a wholly owned subsidiary of Temasek Holdings. During Teo’s tenure, Vertex grew from nearly US$200 million in assets in 2012 to close to US$7 billion.     Featured image: Edited by Fintech News Singapore, based on image by ismode via Freepik   The post Vertex Names Temasek CEO Dilhan Pillay Sandrasegara as Chairman appeared first on Fintech Singapore.

When Anthropic announced Claude Mythos Preview on 7 April 2026, it did something unprecedented. It built a frontier AI model so capable at discovering and exploiting zero-day vulnerabilities that it chose not to release it to the public. Instead, through the newly launched Project Glasswing, Anthropic granted limited, invitation-only access to roughly 40 to 50 organisations responsible for critical software infrastructure, including Amazon Web Services, Apple, Broadcom, Cisco, CrowdStrike, Google, JPMorgan Chase, the Linux Foundation, Microsoft, NVIDIA, and Palo Alto Networks. The company committed up to 100 million USD in usage credits to help these defenders identify and patch thousands of previously unknown high-severity vulnerabilities across every major operating system, web browser, and widely used application. Some of those flaws had remained undetected by human experts for up to 27 years. This was not marketing hype. Anthropic’s own testing showed Mythos Preview achieving a 72.4 percent success rate in generating working exploits, a dramatic leap from near-zero performance in earlier models like Claude Opus 4.6. The decision to withhold general release sent a clear message: the offensive potential of such AI now outpaces our collective defensive capabilities, raising risks to global critical infrastructure. For fintech leaders, CISOs, CIOs, regulators, and policymakers in Southeast Asia and beyond, Mythos is not a distant laboratory curiosity. It is a wake-up call that the traditional cybersecurity paradigm, built on detection, patching, and eradication, has reached its limits in an AI-accelerated, hyper-interconnected world. We must evolve. The Limits of the Old Playbook Traditional security approaches assume threats are relatively slow, human-driven, and containable through signatures, perimeters, periodic patches, and zero-trust verification. These methods still work reasonably well against known, legacy threats. But they were never designed for the scale and speed of AI-generated attacks. In today’s reality, a single Mythos-class model can autonomously audit millions of lines of code, simulate complex exploit chains, and surface zero-days faster than any human red team. When these capabilities proliferate, and they will, a vulnerability in one widely used library or cloud service can cascade across global supply chains, payment networks, trading platforms, and regulatory reporting systems. The status quo already delivers far more instability than we openly admit. IBM’s 2025 Cost of a Data Breach Report shows the global average time to identify and contain a breach fell to 241 days, the lowest level in nearly a decade. Mandiant’s M-Trends 2025 report indicates that the global median dwell time for intrusions rose slightly to 11 days, with external notifications often taking 26 days or longer. These figures represent normalised, under-discussed costs: prolonged exposure, repeated minor incidents, patch-induced outages, and silent degradations that rarely make headlines but erode trust and resilience in financial systems. We tolerate this hidden fragility because it fits familiar compliance checkboxes and audit trails. Boards and insurers reward deterministic controls and reasonable security practices. Yet this approach offers zero scalable defence against the unknown unknowns that frontier AI now generates routinely. Why a Biological Paradigm Is Now Essential Nature has solved similar problems over billions of years. Biological immune systems do not pursue perfect eradication of every pathogen, an energetically wasteful and often impossible goal. Instead, they tolerate, compartmentalise, incorporate harmless elements as memory, and co-evolve with threats. Approximately 8 percent of the human genome consists of ancient endogenous retroviruses, some of which now play regulatory roles. The microbiome includes countless entities we live with rather than destroy. Defence is layered, distributed, adaptive, and memory-based. Evolve by design translates this lesson into cybersecurity. We shift from zero-trace eradication to bounded incorporation: treat threats as evolutionary pressure while keeping impact within acceptable probabilistic bounds, what I term martingale error. In simple terms, martingale error means we accept small, probabilistically bounded disruptions (for example, brief, isolated performance dips) rather than demanding impossible zero-degradation perfection. The goal is antifragility: systems that improve from stress rather than merely surviving it. Two interlocking mechanisms power this shift: Chaos Engineering as Immune Stress Testing Popularised by Netflix’s Chaos Monkey and its successors, chaos engineering intentionally injects controlled failures, simulated exploits, and live-like probes into production or shadow environments. Mature implementations have demonstrably improved availability, reduced mean time to recovery, and built confidence in resilience without catastrophic outages. In the new paradigm, defensive AI agents run continuous, scalable game days at machine speed. Impact stays tightly bounded, for example, transient degradation of less than 0.1 percent latency on isolated nodes for seconds, not system-wide collapse. Predatory Transformation as Active Adaptation Autonomous agents do not merely detect or block; they hunt, quarantine, analyse attacker behaviour, and actively transform the environment. Code paths rotate, implementations diversify via evolutionary algorithms, and harmless motifs from threats are incorporated as institutional memory, drawing on decades of research into artificial immune systems (AIS), including negative selection for anomaly detection and clonal selection for adaptation. This aligns with emerging automated Moving Target Defence (AMTD) techniques. Gartner predicts that by 2025, 25 percent of cloud applications will leverage AMTD features and concepts as built-in prevention approaches. The result is a living, self-improving system rather than a static fortress. Mapping the Risk Spectrum This approach handles different threat types more realistically than eradication ever could: Unexploited (dormant) zero-days become fuel rather than hidden time bombs. Proactive chaos simulations surface them early. Predatory agents diversify implementations around them, turning potential time bombs into low-cost evolutionary fuel without waiting for the next Patch Tuesday. Active attacks in progress trigger real-time predator-prey dynamics. The system mutates live, feeds deceptive data, isolates impact locally, and propagates learned immunity network-wide. Dwell time shrinks dramatically because adaptation happens at machine speed. Full-on propagating viruses, ransomware, or worms are compartmentalised like mild endemic infections. The threat provides signal for rapid co-evolution. Instead of chasing perfect removal (which often fails in interconnected environments), the ecosystem incorporates lessons and neutralises future variants faster than attackers can iterate. Evolution is never unbounded. Software cannot grow wings tomorrow. Hard constraints are essential: maximum runtime overhead (typically less than 5 percent), strict backward compatibility, energy and performance budgets, regulatory compliance floors, and human-defined fitness functions tied to business KPIs. Rollback mechanisms, cryptographic signalling limits between agents, and emergency kill switches prevent runaway behaviour or autoimmunity-style over-reactions. Human oversight remains the ultimate policy layer. Fintech Risks in Southeast Asia: Why This Matters Locally In Southeast Asia’s fast-growing fintech sector, these challenges are especially acute. Rapid digital banking expansion in Malaysia, Indonesia, and Singapore has created highly interconnected ecosystems reliant on cross-border instant payment schemes such as DuitNow, PromptPay linkages, and regional QR payment networks. A single zero-day in a shared cloud library or open-source component could cascade through payment rails, lending platforms, and regtech compliance systems. Supply-chain attacks targeting fintech vendors already pose outsized risks in a region where many institutions operate hybrid legacy-modern stacks. Traditional patch-and-eradicate methods struggle with the speed of AI-driven threats precisely when trust and uptime are most critical for financial inclusion and economic growth. Addressing Legitimate Critique from Traditional CISOs and CIOs Resistance is understandable and should be engaged seriously. Many CISOs will argue that chaos engineering and predatory transformation introduce unacceptable instability, especially in regulated fintech and critical infrastructure environments. Probabilistic, self-mutating systems are harder to audit, certify, and insure. Short executive tenures (often 18 to 30 months) incentivise risk aversion. Legacy maintenance already consumes 60 to 80 percent of many IT budgets; bold experiments threaten headcount, vendor relationships, and career safety. “We followed best practices and were breached by an AI zero-day” is easier to defend than “our evolving system had an unexpected mutation.” These concerns are valid, but the status quo already delivers systemic instability, just in familiar, under-reported forms. The new paradigm reframes risk rather than eliminating it: from rare but catastrophic whole-body failure (cascading collapse across interconnected financial rails) to more frequent yet treatable localised infections. The latter is far more survivable, learnable, and containable. Localised impact can be isolated, studied, and used to strengthen the broader system. Moreover, withholding Mythos from the public does not solve proliferation. State-sponsored teams operate without Anthropic’s safety guardrails and are almost certainly developing comparable or superior capabilities. Sophisticated non-state actors and even skilled individuals with access to advancing open-source models are closing the gap rapidly, likely within the next 12 to 24 months. Static defences hand the initiative to whoever deploys offensive AI first. In fintech, where speed, interconnectedness, and trust are paramount, clinging to archaic approaches is not prudence; it is deferred catastrophe. A Pragmatic Path Forward, With Policy Support Implementation must be hybrid and phased, not a big-bang replacement. Begin with shadow canaries and non-critical workloads. Expand consortia like Project Glasswing into broader industry pilots across ASEAN fintech hubs. Maintain traditional controls as the innate immune layer while layering on adaptive capabilities. Define success through measurable resilience metrics: faster recovery times, lower aggregate impact under stress, and bounded degradation, not the unattainable zero-incident ideal. Policy and regulatory frameworks can accelerate responsible adoption. Regulators could introduce safe harbour protections for organisations experimenting within clearly defined evolutionary bounds. Cyber insurers should shift incentives toward resilience outcomes (for example, quantified recovery speed and martingale-style impact tolerances) rather than pure checklist compliance. Governments and industry bodies can fund shared chaos engineering sandboxes and mandate evolutionary resilience reporting for systemically important financial infrastructure. In Southeast Asia, where digital finance growth is rapid and interconnectedness with global systems is deepening, such forward-looking policy could position the region as a leader in next-generation cyber resilience. The building blocks already exist: decades of artificial immune system research, proven chaos engineering practices, early AMTD deployments, and the defensive potential of frontier AI itself. Mythos did not create the problem; it simply made the obsolescence of the old paradigm impossible to ignore. Interconnectedness has long been viewed as cybersecurity’s greatest weakness. Evolve by design flips that script: it turns shared threat signals into collective strength. Like every living system that has survived predation across deep time, our digital infrastructure must adapt within realistic boundaries, or risk being out-evolved by those who weaponize AI without restraint. The choice is no longer whether to change. It is whether we evolve deliberately and boundedly now, or allow the next Mythos-scale event to force a far more painful transition later. Featured image: Edited by Fintech News Singapore, based on image by freepik via Freepik The post Love the Virus: Anthropic’s Mythos Forces Cybersecurity’s Biological Turn appeared first on Fintech Singapore.

Thailand’s SEC has opened a public consultation on rules that would allow crypto exchange-traded funds (ETFs) in the country. The proposal covers crypto ETFs, the outsourcing of digital asset investment management for mutual funds, and the role of fund supervisors. Public comments are open until 11 May 2026. The SEC is proposing to allow spot crypto ETFs in the form of mutual funds that invest directly in crypto assets. These funds would follow a passive strategy and maintain average net exposure of at least 80 percent of NAV to a single crypto asset over the accounting year. Bitcoin and Ethereum would be the first eligible assets, while other qualifying crypto assets would need to be highly liquid and widely accepted. Asset management companies seeking to launch crypto ETFs would need to show they have the staff, systems and service providers needed to run them. Fund holdings would mainly have to be kept with SEC-regulated digital asset custodians, and the products would be listed and traded only on the stock exchange. Investor safeguards and market limits The SEC is also proposing added investor safeguards, including clearer disclosure, investor education, and checks to confirm investors understand the risks before trading. The framework also says crypto ETF investments should match an investor’s risk tolerance and avoid excessive concentration in crypto assets. The regulator also plans to amend existing rules to let Thai mutual funds and private funds invest in local crypto ETFs. Previously, they could only invest in foreign crypto ETFs within existing limits. At the same time, the SEC said it would not allow alternative products linked to foreign crypto ETFs in the initial stage, including depositary receipts tied to overseas crypto ETFs. The consultation also covers related rule changes for mutual funds investing in digital assets. Any outsourced digital asset investment management would have to be handled by a licensed digital asset fund manager. The SEC is also proposing to allow qualified digital asset custodians and other digital asset business operators to act as fund supervisors for crypto ETFs, subject to requirements on financial strength, personnel and operational systems. The proposal follows resolutions by the SEC Board in December 2025 and the Capital Market Supervisory Board in February 2026 to move ahead with rules supporting crypto ETFs in Thailand.     Featured image: Edited by Fintech News Singapore, based on images by madushankalm and bloodua via Freepik The post Thailand Moves Closer to Crypto ETFs as SEC Opens Public Consultation appeared first on Fintech Singapore.

Shipping companies paying crypto tolls to pass through the Strait of Hormuz could face significant sanctions exposure. According to Chainalysis, such payments could leave maritime operators exposed to enforcement action, fines and reputational damage, as Iran remains subject to broad US and international sanctions. The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, or IRGC, is reportedly extracting fees starting at US$1 per barrel of oil from vessels seeking safe passage. These payments reportedly involve IRGC-linked intermediaries, with fees negotiated in yuan, stablecoins or other digital currencies. Chainalysis noted that transacting with sanctioned entities typically requires specific approval or a licence from the relevant authorities. Sanctions exposure and digital asset use While some reports have specifically referenced bitcoin, Chainalysis suggested that stablecoins may be more likely to be used if such a system is implemented at scale. The firm linked this to Iran’s historical use of stablecoins for liquidity and price stability in illicit trade. It also estimated that IRGC-linked activity accounted for about 50% of Iran’s total crypto ecosystem in the fourth quarter of 2025. Blockchain transparency can help regulators and compliance teams trace fund flows in near real time. Chainalysis added that identifying entities that have interacted with sanctioned wallets is becoming increasingly important for exchanges, financial institutions and shipping companies monitoring exposure to IRGC-linked activity. Maintaining visibility into these flows is likely to remain important as the situation develops.     Featured image: Edited by Fintech News Singapore, based on images by user6371061 and muhammad.abdullah via Freepik The post Hormuz Crypto Toll Payments Could Expose Shipping Firms to Sanctions Risk appeared first on Fintech Singapore.

OKX and HashKey Capital are investing in Vietnam Prosperity Crypto Asset Exchange, or CAEX, as it seeks to join the Vietnamese government’s pilot programme for regulated digital asset trading. The investment amount was not disclosed. The two firms are joining CAEX as strategic partners alongside founding shareholders VPBank Securities and LynkiD. They will inject capital in April 2026 to help CAEX meet the VND 10 trillion, or about US$380 million, minimum charter capital requirement. This is needed for the exchange to take part in the five-year regulatory sandbox under Government Resolution 05/2025/NQ-CP. The investment comes as Vietnam moves to formalise a market that recorded more than US$100 billion in annual crypto inflows between 2022 and 2024. High Barriers for Vietnam’s First Crypto Trading Licences The Ministry of Finance is reviewing licence applications, with CAEX reportedly among only five companies to clear the initial qualification round. Under the new framework, licensed operators are expected to function in a similar way to regulated financial institutions. Requirements include compliance with Financial Action Task Force anti-money laundering standards and Level 4 IT security, the highest technical standard in Vietnam. As part of the partnership, OKX and HashKey will support CAEX with technical infrastructure, security systems and liquidity connectivity. Star Xu “Long-term growth comes from aligning with regulatory clarity, not avoiding it,” said Star Xu, Founder and CEO of OKX. He added that as rules become clearer, liquidity is increasingly moving toward compliant venues. The investment also strengthens VPBank’s presence in the digital asset space. VPBank Securities will contribute financial governance and investment expertise, while LynkiD will oversee digital identity and core platform infrastructure. Vietnam’s pilot programme is aimed at shifting the country’s retail-heavy offshore crypto activity into a regulated domestic market, with a focus on tokenised real-world assets.     Featured image: Edited by Fintech News Singapore, based on image by saurabh Jainth via Freepik The post OKX and HashKey Invest in CAEX as Vietnam Reviews Crypto Trading Licences appeared first on Fintech Singapore.

ASEAN’s push to link payment systems across borders gathered pace in 2025, with cross-border QR payments reaching 36.2 million transactions worth US$716.4 million. The figures were disclosed in a joint statement issued after the 13th ASEAN Finance Ministers’ and Central Bank Governors’ Meeting in the Philippines. As of December 2025, ASEAN had established 29 QR payment and person-to-person instant payment linkages within the region and with external partners. P2P transfers reached 1.6 million transactions worth US$305.7 million in 2025, reflecting the growing relevance of these payment links for households, businesses and migrant workers across the region. The trend mirrors wider changes in Southeast Asia’s payments mix, where QR, wallet and account-to-account options are taking a larger share of transactions across markets. Work will continue under the Roadmap for Instant Payment Connectivity through policy exchanges aimed at managing cross-border payment risks such as fraud, aligning oversight practices and strengthening capacity building. The joint statement also underscored the need for greater transparency and a shared understanding of legal and regulatory expectations to sustain momentum in regional payments connectivity. ASEAN is also looking forward to the completion of a regulatory comparison dashboard to help reduce ambiguity, improve coordination and support interoperability in regional payment schemes. Financial Health, Literacy and AI Oversight on Agenda Beyond payments, the Philippines has made advancing ASEAN regional payments connectivity one of the Priority Economic Deliverables under its 2026 chairmanship theme, “Navigating Our Future, Together.” The meeting also endorsed financial health as a regional priority. Member states agreed to develop a regional measurement framework to support regular monitoring, evidence-based policymaking and innovation in financial services, particularly for vulnerable groups. ASEAN also welcomed the completion and publication of the ASEAN Digital Financial Literacy Core Competency Framework in February 2026. The framework was developed by the ASEAN Working Committee on Financial Inclusion in collaboration with the OECD. Member states were encouraged to use the framework to guide digital financial literacy initiatives that support the safe and informed use of digital financial services. The joint statement also highlighted work by the ASEAN Capital Market Forum on digital capital market products and services, AI supervisory measures and a supervisory toolkit for regulators. It further outlined plans for a white paper on regulatory and supervisory technologies aimed at strengthening the management of cybersecurity threats and online scams.     Featured image: Edited by Fintech News Singapore, based on image by user3993991 via Freepik The post ASEAN Cross-Border QR Payments Hit US$716.4 Million in 2025 appeared first on Fintech Singapore.

Adyen, the global financial technology platform, announced its Intelligent Money Movement product, which aims to connect payments, liquidity management, and payouts together on a single platform. The Adyen Intelligent Money Movement product is for large global enterprises. It is said to enable businesses to move funds faster, gain real-time visibility into their cash positions, and reduce operational complexity. Ethan Tandowsky, the Chief Financial Officer for Adyen, shared, Ethan Tandowsky “Intelligent Money Movement is designed to eliminate the gaps between payments, liquidity management, and payouts. By consolidating the lifecycle of funds on a single platform, we’re enabling businesses to access capital faster, improve working capital efficiency, and make more proactive financial decisions.” Adyen’s Intelligent Money Movement caters to businesses that manage complex payment and payout flows on large scales, including insurance, retail marketplaces, and online travel agencies. The company shares that it has built its entire financial technology stack on a single platform, Intelligent Money Movement, and in doing so, is able to enable payments, liquidity management, and payouts within one system. Featured image edited by Fintech News Singapore based on image by whyframestudio on Freepik The post Adyen’s Intelligent Money Movement Connects Enterprise Payments, Cash Flow, and Payouts appeared first on Fintech Singapore.

ShopBack posted a net profit of US$208.4 million in FY2025 after a year of layoffs and cost cuts. Audited filings reviewed by DealStreetAsia show the turnaround was driven mainly by fair value gains rather than a recovery in its core business. The Singapore-based cashback platform, through its local entity Ecommerce Enablers Pte. Ltd., reversed a US$65.1 million loss a year earlier. The swing was driven largely by net finance income of US$231.9 million, compared with a US$5.7 million cost in FY2024, mainly due to fair value adjustments linked to preference shares. Its underlying business, however, remained loss-making. Revenue slipped 2.8% to US$129.4 million, while operating loss narrowed to US$23.1 million from US$59.1 million. The smaller operating loss followed a broader restructuring. Employee benefits, ShopBack’s largest cost item, fell to US$61.5 million from US$90.2 million a year earlier, while other expenses also declined. Marketing and advertising spending, however, rose slightly to US$24.9 million from US$22.7 million. Operating losses narrow after restructuring The results reflect ShopBack’s pullback from more capital-intensive segments as it refocuses on its core cashback and affiliate business, following its exit from buy now, pay later and layoffs in 2024. ShopBack also reduced its cash burn, though operating cash flow remained negative. Net cash used in operations narrowed to US$9 million from US$33 million in FY2024, while cash and bank balances stood at US$208.6 million at end-March 2025, compared with US$211.6 million a year earlier. Its balance sheet remained under pressure. Total equity was still negative at US$230.3 million, though that improved from negative US$445.6 million in FY2024. Total liabilities fell to US$571.7 million from US$780.8 million, with preference shares accounting for a large share under current accounting treatment. In its filing, ShopBack said those preference shares are redeemable only under specific conditions and that it does not currently have a contractual obligation to repay them. The latest results show ShopBack has become leaner, but has yet to restore operating profitability. Cost cuts have narrowed losses, but the business still needs to stabilise revenue and show it can recover without support from accounting gains.     Featured image: Edited by Fintech News Singapore, based on image by wahyu_t via Freepik The post ShopBack Reports FY2025 Net Profit Amid Layoffs and BNPL Exit appeared first on Fintech Singapore.

Standard Chartered is weighing changes to its digital-asset structure, with Bloomberg reporting that parts of Zodia Custody could be moved into one of the bank’s own operations. The plan under review would shift part of Zodia’s crypto custody activity into a unit within the bank’s corporate and investment bank that already provides similar services. Zodia could still remain a separate software-as-a-service business focused on digital-asset custody under the structure being considered. Bloomberg also reported that an announcement could come as soon as this month, though it remains unclear whether Standard Chartered has held talks with all of Zodia’s minority investors. Those investors include Northern Trust, Emirates NBD, National Australia Bank and SBI Holdings, alongside Standard Chartered. Standard Chartered and Zodia Custody declined to comment on the report, while some of the other shareholders either declined to comment or did not immediately respond. The review comes as Standard Chartered continues to build out its digital-asset business through both its core bank and affiliated ventures. In January 2025, the bank received a licence in Luxembourg to offer crypto and digital-asset custody services to clients in the European Union. It later launched digital-assets trading for institutional clients in July 2025, and said at the time that its Corporate and Investment Bank was already offering digital-assets custody and trading alongside ventures including Zodia Custody and Zodia Markets. Standard Chartered partnered with Northern Trust to launch Zodia in December 2020. Zodia now lists offices in London, Dublin, Luxembourg, Singapore, the UAE, Sydney and Hong Kong on its website.     Featured image: Edited by Fintech News Singapore, based on image by sitthiphong via Freepik The post Standard Chartered Considers Restructuring Zodia Custody appeared first on Fintech Singapore.

Money20/20 has announced the complete jury lineup for The Money Awards 2026, ahead of its global awards ceremony taking place at Money20/20 USA in Las Vegas on 18 October 2026. The program, now in its second year, received hundreds of entries from more than 41 countries and recognised 27 winners in the last year’s edition. The 2026 edition spans five categories: Banking, Payments, Partnerships & Strategic Alliance, Startup (Early Stage & Growth Stage), and the Diamond Award. The Startup Early & Growth Stage category recognises founders who are currently at key milestones in their journey, pushing the industry forward. Meanwhile, The Diamond Award, which is the program’s highest honour, spotlights the most transformative achievements in the global fintech arena. The Banking, Payments, and Strategic Alliance Categories highlight excellence across each respective pillar. Grania Chesterton, VP of Awards at Money20/20, said: “The Money Awards were created with a single purpose: to set a global benchmark for excellence in fintech. Our Jury Presidents and Global Jury are embedded in the industry with deep operational expertise, and they play a critical role in defining what great really looks like. That’s why this recognition carries real weight.” Each category is led by a Jury President and supported by a panel of senior industry figures drawn from financial institutions, technology innovators, investors, startups, and emerging disruptors. Jury Presidents include Osama Bedier, Investment Partner, NYCA Partners for Startup (Early Stage & Growth Stage); Shruti Patel, EVP, Business Banking and Chief Product Officer of U.S. Bank for Banking; Dave Excell, Founder, Featurespace, a Visa Solution, for Payments; Garry Sien, Chief Innovation & Solutions Officer, International, Ant Digital Technologies for Partnerships & Strategic Alliance; and Mary Ellen Iskenderian, President & CEO, Women’s World Banking, for the Diamond Award Category. All entries will be assessed via a multi-stage process, which combines independent scoring with group deliberation. Winners will receive a trophy as well as year-round visibility across Money20/20’s platforms, including speaking opportunities, media coverage, investor exposure, and networking access. Entries are currently open and remain live right up to 28 July 2026. Further information, including judging criteria, entry instructions, and category details can be found at www.money2020.com/awards. Featured image edited by Fintech News Singapore based on image by Money20/20 The post Money20/20 Announces Global Jury Lineup for The Money Awards 2026 appeared first on Fintech Singapore.

Thunes has joined Circle Payments Network Managed Payments to expand stablecoin-based settlement across its global payments network. The move builds on a partnership between Thunes and Circle that began in 2024 with the use of stablecoin-powered liquidity. Through the latest integration, Thunes customers will be able to access Circle Payments Network Managed Payments while continuing to operate within existing fiat-based workflows. The two companies have already integrated USDC into Thunes’ Direct Global Network, which spans more than 140 countries. This has helped reduce reliance on traditional banking hours and cut the need for heavy prefunding in local accounts. The setup has supported round-the-clock liquidity management and improved capital efficiency for members such as banks, money transfer operators and gig economy platforms. Thunes’ network connects 12 billion bank accounts, mobile wallets and stablecoin wallets. Chloé Mayenobe Chloé Mayenobe, Deputy CEO at Thunes, said, “Joining CPN Managed Payments is the natural next step in our journey to make the world’s payment systems truly interoperable. Our goal has always been to remove the borders from money movement. By deepening our long-standing collaboration with Circle, we are ensuring that whether a customer uses a traditional bank account in Europe, a mobile wallet in Africa, or digital assets in Asia, the experience is fast, secure, and invisible.” Nikhil Chandhok Nikhil Chandhok, Chief Product and Technology Officer at Circle, said, “Thunes brings deep expertise in global payment connectivity and operational scale. Their experience operating across diverse payment ecosystems provides valuable input as we continue to develop the Circle Payments Network and expand access to stablecoin-powered settlement for financial institutions globally.”     Featured image: Edited by Fintech News Singapore, based on image by mkmult via Freepik The post Thunes and Circle to Expand Stablecoin Settlement Options appeared first on Fintech Singapore.

Payment giant Visa has launched a new solution that helps businesses support and accept payments initiated by AI agents. Intelligent Commerce Connect is part of Visa’s Intelligent Commerce portfolio and is aimed at businesses building AI agents, selling through them or processing those transactions. Available through a single integration on the Visa Acceptance Platform, the product supports payment initiation, tokenisation, authentication and spend controls. It also connects with Visa’s Intelligent Commerce APIs and other networks’ APIs, allowing AI agents to pay with both Visa and non-Visa cards. The product supports payments initiated through several agent protocols, including Trusted Agent Protocol, Machine Payments Protocol, Agentic Commerce Protocol and Universal Commerce Protocol. It can also help merchants make product catalogues discoverable on AI platforms by surfacing details such as descriptions, specifications and prices. For service providers processing transactions on behalf of merchants, the product can also support orchestration and PCI compliance. The setup is designed to work with major token vault providers, allowing agent platforms to connect without relying on a single vendor. Intelligent Commerce Connect is being piloted with partners including Aldar, AWS, Diddo, Highnote, Mesh, Payabli and Sumvin, with a broader rollout planned later this year.     Featured image: Edited by Fintech News Singapore, based on image by tete_escape via Freepik   The post Visa Moves to Simplify Merchant Acceptance for AI Agent Payments appeared first on Fintech Singapore.

Airwallex has named Carolyn Renzin as Chief Regulatory and Compliance Officer as it expands across major global markets. Carolyn Renzin Based in New York, Renzin will lead the company’s global regulatory and compliance programme. Renzin joins from FanDuel, where she served as Chief Legal and Compliance Officer during a period of rapid growth in the online betting and gaming sector. Prior to that, she spent more than six years at JPMorgan Chase, where she worked on regulatory engagement and compliance remediation following the global financial crisis. Her appointment comes as Airwallex broadens its regulated product suite in the U.S., including the recent launch of Airwallex Yield through its registered broker-dealer, Airwallex Capital US LLC. Airwallex holds more than 85 licences and permits across North America, Europe, the Middle East and Asia Pacific. In 2026, it expects to increase compliance spending by 70 percent year on year and grow its dedicated regulatory and compliance team by about 50 percent. Airwallex is also using AI agents to support KYC, KYB, anti-money laundering checks and transaction monitoring. Jack Zhang “Our customers are operating across more markets, moving faster, and adopting AI-driven financial workflows that didn’t exist two years ago. As we expand the range of financial products and services we offer globally, that velocity and complexity raises the bar for how we manage risk and compliance. Our customers expect us to set that bar, not just meet it. Carolyn’s experience building compliance programs at scale, across both traditional banking and high-growth technology, is exactly what this moment requires.” said Jack Zhang, Co-founder and CEO, Airwallex. Jeanette Chan will remain Chief Legal Officer and continue to lead Airwallex’s global legal strategy, product and commercial counsel, and licensing initiatives.     Featured image: Edited by Fintech News Singapore, based on image by Borin via Freepik The post Airwallex Taps Carolyn Renzin to Lead Global Regulatory and Compliance Efforts appeared first on Fintech Singapore.

CARSOME, CarTimes and Japan Consumer Credit Service (JACCS), a member of Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group (MUFG), have formalised a strategic auto financing partnership in Singapore. The collaboration aims to strengthen financing capabilities in one of Southeast Asia’s most established automotive markets. The agreement follows JACCS’s acquisition of a 49% stake in CarTimes Capital in February. CarTimes, a majority-owned subsidiary of CARSOME, anchors the partnership in Singapore, building on CARSOME and JACCS’s 2025 collaboration in Malaysia through CARSOME Capital. CarTimes and CarTimes Capital have established a significant presence in Singapore, providing vehicle ownership solutions supported by an understanding of local customer and dealer dynamics. The partnership will focus on offering structured financing solutions for both consumers and dealers, while adhering to prudent credit standards aligned with Singapore’s regulatory environment. Eddie Loo, Founder and Managing Director of CarTimes, said: Eddie Loo “In Singapore, the opportunity lies in how demand is supported. In a market defined by structure and transparency, how financing is aligned plays an important role in enabling vehicle purchases. This partnership allows us to strengthen that alignment and support a more consistent flow of transactions across the market.” Ryo Murakami, President and Representative Director of JACCS, added: Ryo Murakami “Going forward, we will further deepen the trust placed in us by everyone in the CarTimes, devote our full efforts to expanding the business of CarTimes Capital, and contribute to the development of the Singapore economy and to the prosperous lives of the people who live here.”     Featured image credit: CARSOME press release The post CARSOME, CarTimes and JACCS Seal Auto Financing Deal in Singapore appeared first on Fintech Singapore.

The disruption to DBS digital banking services on March 19 was caused by an “erroneous step” when performing a system change, said Deputy Prime Minister Gan Kim Yong on Wednesday (April 8). In a written parliamentary reply, Gan, who is also the Minister for Trade and Industry and Chairman of the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS), stated that the authority will “follow-up with DBS to strengthen their change management process.” The disruption lasted for approximately one hour, from 12:03 pm to 1:19 pm, and prevented customers from viewing their deposit balances. Some customers also could not make payments through digital channels. However, ATMs, credit cards, and NETS debit cards remained accessible throughout the period, and DBS was able to recover its systems and restore all services after one hour. Alex Yeo, Potong Pasir SMC member of Parliament, questioned Gan on whether DBS had identified the root cause of the disruption, if it resembled previous incidents, and how the bank was addressing it. Yeo also enquired how MAS would take further steps to ensure that banks strengthen the resilience and reliability of their digital banking services. Addressing the regulatory standards for banks, Gan said MAS has set a clear expectation for institutions to limit unscheduled downtime for critical systems to four hours for any rolling period of 12 months. Gan Kim Yong “This expectation holds banks to high standards of system resiliency while recognising that operational disruptions can sometimes happen due to the complexity of systems,” he said. He added that banks must “swiftly and safely” restore services whenever a system outage occurs.       Featured image credit: Edited by Fintech News Singapore, based on image by eakkachaihalang via Freepik The post DPM: DBS Digital Banking Disruption on March 19 Caused by System Change Error appeared first on Fintech Singapore.

Singapore-based fintech Aspire has entered a strategic collaboration with J.P. Morgan Payments to improve foreign exchange (FX) efficiency and wallet-based fund conversion for clients operating internationally. For businesses working across borders, inefficient currency conversion can lead to delayed payments, unpredictable costs, and missed opportunities. Under the collaboration, J.P. Morgan Payments will act as a primary FX provider to Aspire, enhancing pricing, corridor access, and infrastructure resilience across markets. The first phase focuses on FX-to-wallet conversion in multiple currencies, including SGD, USD, GBP, EUR, and HKD. Aspire customers can now convert and manage funds within their wallets with institutional-grade infrastructure supporting each transaction. Andrea Baronchelli “As Aspire scales, our focus remains clear: delivering powerful banking infrastructure and simplified finances for globally ambitious companies,” said Andrea Baronchelli, CEO and Co-Founder of Aspire. “This collaboration with J.P. Morgan Payments further strengthens our FX strategy, combining institutional scale with fintech flexibility to deliver the competitive pricing and resilient infrastructure our customers need as they grow.” Christine Tan “At J.P. Morgan Payments, we continue to focus on supporting innovative fintechs that are building for global commerce,” said Christine Tan, APAC Head of FIG Sales at J.P. Morgan Payments. “Collaborating with Aspire reflects a shared commitment to delivering reliable, secure and scalable financial infrastructure for businesses operating across borders.” J.P. Morgan Payments processes over US$10 trillion in payments daily, across more than 160 countries and 120 currencies. Aspire has also expanded its regulatory presence, securing eight licenses and registrations across Australia, Europe, and the US to support multicurrency accounts, payments, cards, and spend management. Edited by Fintech News Singapore, based on image by mkmult via Freepik The post Aspire Partners with J.P. Morgan Payments to Expand Cross-Border FX and Wallets appeared first on Fintech Singapore.

The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) is working with the Association of Banks in Singapore and member banks to strengthen safeguards for GIRO transactions. Alvin Tan, Minister of State for Trade and Industry and Board Member of MAS, announced the review in response to Parliamentary Questions regarding the security of automated payments. The review will evaluate several new measures, including options for customers to set monthly limits on both the total value and the frequency of deductions. Additionally, the industry is exploring more robust transaction monitoring and stricter due diligence requirements for billing organisations. MAS is also considering various suggestions submitted by Members of Parliament and the public. Consumers should review their current GIRO arrangements and set appropriate transaction limits through their banks. For those seeking alternative methods, MAS noted that non-GIRO options such as standing instructions remain available, allowing customers to set fixed recurring payment amounts.     Featured image credit: Edited by Fintech News Singapore, based on image by iuriimotov via Freepik The post MAS and Singapore Banks Review GIRO Payment Limits and Monitoring Over Security Concerns appeared first on Fintech Singapore.

Bengaluru-based digital lending startup Kreditbee has raised US$280 million, bringing its post-money valuation to US$1.5 billion. The round comprises US$220 million in primary capital for the company and US$60 million in secondary capital for existing investors selling shares. The funding was led by Hornbill Capital, Japanese bank MUFG-backed Dragon Funds, and Indian private equity firm Motilal Oswal Alternates, with participation from WhiteOak Capital, A.P. Moller Holding, and existing investors including Premji Invest and Advent International, The Economic Times reported. Madhusudan Ekambaram “This is our last private round before our planned public listing. We are hopeful that in the next two to three months the merger of our technology and NBFC entity will be completed,” said Co-Founder Madhusudan Ekambaram. The company is awaiting approval from the National Company Law Tribunal before formally starting its IPO. Competitors such as Fibe, Moneyview, and Kissht are also preparing to go public. Founded in 2016 by Ekambaram, Karthikeyan Krishnaswamy and Vivek Veda, Kreditbee began with unsecured consumer loans and has since expanded into secured products like loans against property and small enterprise lending. The firm operates around 50 sales offices and recently launched its own Unified Payments Interface (UPI) application. “Our focus will be on cross-selling products to existing customers and building GenAI capabilities across multiple business functions,” Ekambaram added. Kreditbee previously raised about US$200 million in January 2023 at a US$680 million valuation and has raised roughly US$256 million in total since inception. The company reported operating revenue of Rs 805 crore and net profit of Rs 137 crore for the quarter ending December 2025. Total disbursals for 2025-26 reached Rs 30,000 crore, with assets under management of Rs 15,000 crore, including Rs 500 crore in loans against property and Rs 1,000 crore in small and medium enterprise lending.     Featured image credit: Edited by Fintech News Singapore, based on image by dlzerox via Freepik The post Digital Lender Kreditbee Raises US$280M, Hits US$1.5B Valuation Ahead of IPO appeared first on Fintech Singapore.