Airpay Targets to Onboard 20 Million Users for Financial Wellness Platform
Weekly APAC news up to Wednesday, 9th of July 2025.
👀 NEWS HIGHLIGHT
Peak XV and Temasek-backed fintech platform Fi Money has launched a new feature that allows users to securely connect their financial data to AI assistants such as ChatGPT, Gemini, and Claude.
The integration enables users to ask personalised questions about their money from spending patterns to investment performance and receive real-time, AI-generated insights based on actual financial data. The new feature, called Talk to AI, is powered by Fi’s implementation of the Model Context Protocol (MCP), a framework that acts as a secure bridge between a user’s consolidated finances and external AI tools.
💡INSIGHTS
Beyond Digital: Huawei’s Vision for an AI-Driven Finance Future. Digital transformation is evolving fast. At Huawei’s HiFS 2025, CEO Jason Cao unveiled the “Digital + AI Flywheel”, blending strong digital infrastructure with AI to reshape finance. Read the full piece here
NOW, ON TO THE SUMMARY OF LAST WEEK'S NEWS
🧋 REGIONAL HIGHLIGHTS
⭐️ MAS fines CS, UOB, UBS, Citi, JB and LGT for AML failings.
⭐️ Airpay targets to onboard 20 million users for financial wellness platform.
⭐️ China issues first long-term non-bank payment licenses.
⭐️ AusPayNet launches public consultation on account-to-account payments.
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AUSTRALIA 🇦🇺
Australian banks launch nationwide Confirmation of Payee scheme. Banks have begun the roll-out of a nationwide Confirmation of Payee programme to help protect customers from being tricked into sending money to criminals. Keep reading
Australian cryptocurrency exchange Swyftx to acquire Caleb & Brown to target the US’s wealthiest crypto investors. The deal is the largest crypto acquisition in ANZ history and gives Swyftx access to the world’s leading digital assets market at a time when the US has sought to position itself as the ‘crypto capital of the planet’.
SINGAPORE 🇸🇬
Ant International unveils AI travel assistant built into E-wallets and super apps. It has introduced Alipay+ Voyager to help users plan and manage trips more easily. The tool combines Alipay+’s agentic AI travel capabilities into a single interface that supports itinerary planning, bookings, and local service discovery.
FOMO Pay launches Palm Payment Solution in Singapore. With the integration of the Palm Payment solution, FOMO Pay revolutionizes everyday transactions, offering users a seamless, simple, and no-mobile-required payment option suitable for diverse settings.
Bitstamp by Robinhood, Globally trusted & now licensed in Singapore. This is a key milestone in its long-standing commitment to providing secure, compliant, and institutional-grade access to crypto markets, and it marks the start of its expansion into the APAC region.
THAILAND 🇹🇭
Worldpay launches domestic acquiring capabilities in Thailand. This move enables global merchants to serve local consumers with their preferred payment types, LINE Pay, TrueMoney, PromptPay, and online banking. Read more
INDIA 🇮🇳
PayGlocal and Banking Circle to simplify cross-border payments for Indian firms. The collaboration aims to meet rising demand from Indian merchants seeking to scale globally, with both companies indicating plans to deepen the partnership further.
Bhim gets a big boost as NPCI scales up incentives and offers. Bharat Interface for Money (BHIM) has seen a resurgence, nearly doubling its monthly transactions to 70 million in June after a period of stagnation. This growth is attributed to a user-interface revamp, increased marketing spend by NPCI, and targeted incentives.
Indian FinTech firm FincFriends secures $11.5M debt funding. The funds will be used to expand operations and enhance credit offerings for underserved borrowers in India. Read more
Razorpay unveils Self-Healing tech for in-store payments. The new technology is designed to autonomously detect and resolve common issues that can interfere with payment transactions. Continue reading
MobiKwik arm secures SEBI nod to operate as a stockbroker. The license enables the MobiKwik subsidiary to carry out activities including buying, selling, dealing, and the clearing and settlement of equity trades. Its payments unit received authorization from the Reserve Bank of India to operate as an online payment aggregator.
PHILIPPINES 🇵🇭
Mastercard and Paynamics bring Click to Pay to more businesses in the Philippines. Through this collaboration, Paynamics’ merchant partners can now integrate Click to Pay in their platforms, backed by Mastercard’s trusted security technology.
MOVERS & SHAKERS
ANZ appoints Peter Barrass to the Worldline Australia Board. Barrass is one of ANZ’s most successful technology executives after he engineered an overhaul of the group’s institutional payments arm. The bank has now tapped him to join the board of its ailing merchant payments joint venture with Worldline.
Pine Labs to appoint Avendus Capital’s Sameer Kamath as CFO. His previous roles include senior stints at Motilal Oswal Financial Services and RPG Enterprises. Keep reading