Cards & Payments
Mastercard launches Fleet: Next Gen to streamline fleet payments in APAC
Mastercard launches Fleet: Next Gen to streamline fleet payments in APAC
It offers acceptance in a million locations and data gathering capabilities.
UnionPay links 25 foreign wallets to Weixin Pay as China QR use surges
Global travellers can use domestic cards on Weixin Pay QR network
Will stablecoins disrupt the banking business?
The response from central banks and regulators worldwide has varied widely.
Indonesia's Artajasa ties up with Ant International on cross-border payments
Artajasa connects over 80,000 ATMs and 41 million merchants in Indonesia.
Siam Commercial Bank to perform maintenance on international fund transfers
SCB Easy App users will not be able to use the service during this period.
Philippine payments market to hit $29.17b by 2033
The report places 2025 value at $16.72b and tracks a climb from 2024 baseline levels.
Mastercard pushes tokenisation as payments go passive
Transactions fade into the background when there’s trust.
Mizuho and Fujitsu automate 70% of SME order processing tasks
It streamlines 70% of order processing tasks by elimination manual input and conversion work.
Modern card issuing doubles as banks shift from UX to cost
The number of cards issued this way is expected to be at 1.6 billion by 2030.
Airwallex buys Paynuri to enter South Korea payments market
It plans to hire 20 employees in the market in 2026.
XTransfer targets $20t market with Alipay-style instant transfers
Buyers and sellers can complete transfers 24/7 in as fast as 15 minutes.
Taiwan card sales fell to $12.55b in November
Revolving credit also came in much lower than the previous month.
Krungthai Card faces slower 2026 loan growth outlook: analyst
Management reported that credit card spending growth just 0.1% for the 11M period.
Visa urges banks to bridge data gap as payment choice surges
One bank doubled its cards in force and grew payment volumes by over 20%.
Software vendors threaten to replace banks in SME payments
By partnering early, banks remain the backbone of SME financial flows, McKinsey said.
Apple Pay opens China Visa cards as NFC hits 79%
The rollout starts with ICBC BOC ABC BoCom CMB CITIC Ping An and Industrial Bank.
Indonesia’s Jalin targets payment fraud with BPC tie up
Jalin will expand its utilisation of BPC tech for real-time fraud monitoring.
Commentary
From automation to agency: Asia’s wealth leaders can reinvent, not just streamline
Singapore aced its FATF evaluation — now comes the hard part
Are Asia’s digital banks prepared for the stablecoin era?
Why APAC is building home-currency stablecoins
Why Southeast Asian wealth managers must design the business before buying the technology
Why trust in Asian banking increasingly gets built off the record
Hong Kong cleared stablecoins for take-off. Getting them to work across Asia is the hard part
The financing challenge behind Asia’s wealth transfer