The Securities and Commodities Authority (SCA) of the UAE and the Securities and Futures Commission (SFC) of Hong Kong have signed a MoU on the mutual recognition of investment funds and investment management companies. It is the first agreement of its kind between the two authorities and marks a step towards greater financial cooperation between the Middle East and Asia. The MoU aims to strengthen regulatory collaboration between the two financial centres, reduce duplication of requirements, and facilitate cross-border market access. It also includes provisions for information exchange, joint on-site visits, and the sharing of expertise and regulatory practices. Waleed…

Stablecoins are quickly evolving from crypto-native assets to credible instruments for mainstream finance. In 2024 alone, stablecoin transaction volumes hit 27.6 trillion, surpassing the combined volume of Visa and Mastercard, according to the World Economic Forum. Signaling significant real-world interest from major players. But are stablecoins here to change finance forever? Join us to find out first-hand this and more at our webinar: What’s behind the rise of stablecoins? What are the potential success factors leading towards its adoption? How stablecoins are being used to make payment rails faster, cheaper, and programmable What banks and fintechs need to consider before…

The Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) will advance Project Ensemble and encourage commercial banks in the city to introduce tokenised deposits, while promoting live transactions of tokenised assets. “We are implementing a regime for stablecoin issuers and formulating legislative proposals regarding licensing regimes for digital asset dealing and custodian service providers,” Hong Kong’s Chief Executive John Lee said in his 2025 Policy Address on September 17. The HKMA is expected to assist the government in regularising the issuance of tokenised bonds and to encourage banks to strengthen risk management through their supervisory sandbox, according to Asian Banking and Finance. Separately,…

The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) and the Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to strengthen cooperation on banking supervision. The agreement builds on years of collaboration between the two regulators and will support the exchange of information and mutual assistance for supervisory purposes. The arrangement is aimed at improving oversight of banks with operations in both Singapore and Hong Kong, where lenders from each market have a significant presence. Chia Der Jiun, Managing Director, MAS, said, “This MOU reaffirms the strong partnership between MAS and the HKMA and paves the way for deeper…

XTransfer has entered into a strategic partnership with SPD Bank’s Shanghai Branch, announced at the “XTransfer TradeVision Summit 2025”. The partnership focuses on enhancing cooperation in areas such as local accounts, multi-currency settlement, and compliance risk control, with the aim of providing SMEs engaged in foreign trade with safer and more efficient global collection and cash management services. SPD Bank has a history of embracing digital innovation and possesses extensive expertise in cross-border finance, with a long-standing commitment to supporting SMEs in global trade. XTransfer specialises in B2B foreign trade finance and connects SMEs with major international financial institutions through…

From late September 2025, Japan’s largest cashless payment service, PayPay, will be accepted at more than two million merchants across South Korea through Alipay+, a cross-border digital payment service operated by Ant International. The arrangement will enable PayPay’s 70 million registered users to make payments wherever the Alipay+ logo is displayed, provided they have completed identity verification (eKYC) on the PayPay app in Japan. The move marks the beginning of PayPay’s overseas expansion. Users will be able to pay at a wide range of locations, including retail outlets, restaurants, cultural sites, shopping centres, and traditional markets. Promotional offers are expected…

Lenovo Hong Kong has announced the signing of a MoU with Cyberport, aimed at supporting Hong Kong’s innovation and technology development and assisting startup growth. The partnership seeks to combine Lenovo’s global technology expertise with Cyberport’s experience in nurturing startups, providing support from proof-of-concept stages to international market expansion. Serena Cheung, General Manager of Lenovo Hong Kong and Macau, said, “Cyberport has been successful in fostering a vibrant startup community. Lenovo understands the challenges and opportunities startups face, and through this collaboration, we aim to leverage our technology, resources, global network, and investment experience to help startups transform innovative ideas…

PAObank, in which Ping An Insurance holds a stake, is marking its fifth anniversary with a new strategic partnership with China Ping An Insurance (Hong Kong) Company Limited (CPAIHK). The collaboration seeks to integrate banking and insurance services, aiming to create greater value for customers through joint initiatives. As part of this partnership, PAObank has introduced its first joint programme with CPAIHK, which includes a set of customer offers. The initiative reflects PAObank’s approach of combining financial services with additional protection benefits, supported by what the bank refers to as its “insurance DNA.” Ronald Iu, Chief Executive of PAObank, said:…

GoPay users can now make payments at QRIS-enabled merchants in Japan, following Bank Indonesia’s move in August 2025 to extend its cross-border QR code payment system to the country. As reported by Tech in Asia, the update allows Indonesian travellers to pay Japanese merchants by scanning JPQR codes through the GoPay app. GoPay, operated by GoTo Financial, already facilitates QRIS cross-border payments in Thailand, Malaysia, and Singapore. Bank Indonesia has also begun piloting connectivity between QRIS and China’s digital payment systems, with a full rollout targeted by the end of 2025. According to the central bank, cross-border QRIS transactions reached…

Bupa Hong Kong, a health insurance provider and healthcare specialist, has announced the appointment of Albert Fung as Director of Group Business & Partnerships, Health Insurance, effective September 15. He will report directly to Raymond Young, Chief Distribution Officer. In this role, Fung will be responsible for developing and implementing sales strategies to support the growth of Bupa’s group insurance business, with a particular emphasis on intermediary and partnership channels. He will oversee the Channel Services New Business team, Client Management team and Partnerships team in delivering Bupa’s Connected Care model, in line with the company’s strategy to strengthen healthcare…

UnionPay International (UPI), a Shanghai-based payment network, in partnership with its counterparts, announced the pilot launch of a cross-border QR payment linkage between China and Indonesia, under the guidance of the two central banks. At the launch in Beijing, a pilot transaction was carried out using an Indonesian mobile payment application. In Jakarta, whitelisted users successfully completed transactions via the UnionPay App and Alipay app by scanning QRIS, Indonesia’s unified QR code. During this sandbox phase, selected users from mainland China can make payments at more than 40 million QRIS merchants in Indonesia. At the same time, pilot merchants in…

The Hong Kong Mortgage Corporation Limited (HKMC) has signed a MoU with China International Capital Corporation Limited (CICC) in Hong Kong, focusing on co-operation in Infrastructure Financing and Securitisation (IFS). The two parties will work together in areas including capital market opportunities linked to infrastructure assets, broadening the investor base, and exploring renminbi-denominated options for infrastructure loan securitisation. The aim is to strengthen Hong Kong’s role as an infrastructure financing hub and support investment and financing flows in the sector. Colin Pou, Executive Director and Chief Executive Officer of the HKMC, said: “The HKMC’s IFS platform has grown significantly in…

At the 2025 INCLUSION · Conference on the Bund in Shanghai, Ant Group introduced new service updates to AQ, its AI-powered healthcare application, with the aim of improving access to medical services. “We hope AI can empower doctors by extending their reach to more patients, freeing up time for medical research and the fight against complex diseases, while equipping community doctors with powerful AI assistants,” said Cyril Han, Chief Executive Officer of Ant Group. Since its official launch in China in June 2025, following public testing in September 2024, AQ has been used by 140 million people, 60% of whom…

Invest Hong Kong (InvestHK) announced that Canadia Bank, one of Cambodia’s leading financial groups, has established a representative office in Hong Kong. The move, approved by the Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA), is seen as a step towards strengthening economic links between Hong Kong, Cambodia, and the wider ASEAN region. The decision follows a meeting in Cambodia in July 2024 between the Chief Executive, John Lee, and the Chairman of Canadia Integrated Group, Dr Pung Kheav Se. Discussions at the meeting highlighted Hong Kong’s role as an international financial centre and explored areas of cooperation, laying the groundwork for the…

At the 2025 INCLUSION · Conference on the Bund in Shanghai, Alipay announced that its QR code-based contactless payment and engagement solution, Alipay Tap!, has grown to 200 million users in China since its launch in June 2024. This milestone follows the platform surpassing 100 million users in April 2025. Alipay Tap! allows users to complete a transaction or access a service by tapping their unlocked phone on a merchant’s terminal or Alipay Tap! Tag, removing the need to open an app, scan a code, or navigate multiple screens. As Alipay continues to evolve from a digital wallet into a…

TADA, a zero commission ride hailing platform from Singapore, has launched in Hong Kong in partnership with YAS Insurtech, a regional provider of embedded micro insurance. Under the arrangement, every TADA journey in the city will include real time, trip specific insurance cover without the need for riders to opt in. The insurance activates when a journey begins and remains in place until the rider reaches the destination. Sean Kim, Group Chief Operating Officer of MVLLABS and Chief Executive of TADA, said the move reflects the company’s priorities: “Safety and trust define the rider experience. By seamlessly integrating YAS’s protection…

The Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) on Monday (September 8) released a consultation paper on a new supervisory policy manual module, CRP-1, which outlines how crypto-assets should be classified under the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision’s global capital standards due to take effect in early 2026. The proposed framework focuses on crypto-assets issued on permissionless blockchains, the public chains that underpin most mainstream stablecoins and tokenised products. According to Andrew Fei, partner at law firm King & Wood Mallesons, “If issuers can show they have effective safeguards against risks tied to public chains, such assets could qualify for lower capital…

Fintech is scaling at a pace once unimaginable, bringing millions into the digital economy and redefining how financial services operate. But every leap forward is shadowed by an equally fast-moving wave of fraud. Bad actors are evolving in real time, probing onboarding and transaction flows for exploitable gaps. The rise of GenAI has accelerated this arms race. Fraudsters now wield AI to supercharge attack vectors, from synthetic identity fraud and deepfakes to fabricated receipts and hyper-realistic documents, making scams more convincing, scalable and more challenging to detect than ever before. The Ongoing Dilemma of Synthetic Identity Fraud Synthetic identity fraud…

The Global Legal Entity Identifier Foundation (GLEIF) has announced TOPPAN Edge, a subsidiary of TOPPAN Holdings that provides business process, security, and identity solutions, as the first Japanese Qualified vLEI Issuer (QVI) within the verifiable Legal Entity Identifier (vLEI) framework. Developed by GLEIF, the vLEI is a globally standardised digital form of organisational identity. By providing organisations and their representatives with cryptographically verifiable credentials, vLEIs aim to support trust and transparency in digital interactions, addressing challenges associated with digitalisation. As a QVI, TOPPAN Edge will issue and manage vLEI credentials for organisations seeking to enhance transparency and trust across global…

The Dubai Financial Services Authority (DFSA), the independent regulator of the Dubai International Financial Centre (DIFC), and the Securities and Futures Commission (SFC), the statutory body responsible for regulating Hong Kong’s securities and futures markets, have signed a MoU to enhance cooperation in the regulatory oversight of collective investment scheme managers in each other’s markets. The agreement aims to ensure compliance, governance, and alignment of cross-border regulatory practices. The MoU was presented during the 10th Belt and Road Summit in Hong Kong. The MoU establishes a framework for consultation, cooperation, and information exchange to enhance the supervision of regulated entities…