Australia's Swyftx Exchange Buys New Zealand's Easy Crypto Exchange
Weekly APAC news up to Wednesday, 26th of March 2025.
👀 NEWS HIGHLIGHT
Banking Circle S.A., a Luxembourg licenced bank and a leading international provider of next-generation banking services, is pleased to announce that its wholly owned subsidiary BC Payments Pte. Ltd. has received the In-Principle Approval (IPA) for the Major Payment Institution (MPI) license from the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS).
NOW, ON TO THE SUMMARY OF LAST WEEK'S NEWS
🧋 REGIONAL HIGHLIGHTS
⭐️ Coinbase Is in Advanced Talks to Buy Derivatives Venue Deribit.
⭐️ Bank of Korea to launch CBDC pilot for real-world payments.
⭐️ Al Ahli Bank of Kuwait-Egypt partners with Visa to expand digital payments.
⭐️ dLocal partners with Belmoney to expand remittance services.
AUSTRALIA 🇦🇺
Australia's Swyftx exchange buys New Zealand's Easy Crypto exchange. The company aims to leverage both organic strategies and acquisitions to strengthen its market position without adopting a 'house of brands' approach. Read more
Google lets kids use Google Wallet for in-store payments in select countries. Kids with Android phones can now tap to pay at stores using Google Wallet in the US, UK, Australia, Spain, and Poland. Parents and guardians in these countries can now allow their children to access digital payments on their Android devices with supervision.
Australia’s crypto regulation framework includes digital assets, tokenization, and CBDCs. It aims to modernize its financial system. The government will work with major banks to combat de-banking and add anti-de-banking measures to DAP licensing.
SINGAPORE 🇸🇬
Singapore businesses can now accept UPI Payments via HitPay. The integration gives businesses access to over 450 million UPI users in India, offering a cost-effective alternative that can save merchants up to 50% on fees compared to traditional credit cards.
UNITED ARAB EMIRATES 🇦🇪
QED Investors leads $33m investment in NymCard, strengthening MENA’s payments infrastructure. With this investment, NymCard is deepening its presence across 10+ markets in MENA, improving its payment infrastructure solutions to better serve banks, enterprises, FinTechs, telecom providers.
Visa and Emirates NBD Pay launch advanced payment gateway. Cybersource will be incorporated into the platform, providing clients with robust payment solutions, advanced risk and fraud management tools, and cutting-edge compliance features leveraging artificial intelligence and machine learning.
Telr has been granted the Retail Payment Services License from the Central Bank of the UAE. Having met all regulatory conditions and requirements through a thorough approval process, this approval allows Telr to expand and revolutionize merchant acquiring and enhance payment aggregation solutions within the UAE.
INDIA 🇮🇳
PayU acquires strategic stake in Mindgate Solutions. Through this strategic investment, the company intends to utilise Mindgate’s capabilities to scale digital payment advancement worldwide. Additionally, the deal includes PayU acquiring a 43.5% stake in Mindgate.
PHILIPPINES 🇵🇭
Higala expands seed funding to $2.8M. The funding will greatly benefit Higala's robust ecosystem, which now includes an instant payment system, a platform bank, and an extensive network of collaborators committed to improving financial system resilience and accelerating the adoption of digital banking.
PAKISTAN 🇵🇰
Pakistan plans to legalize crypto in bid for foreign investment. The country aims to devise a clear regulatory framework for governing digital-asset activities to boost the local ecosystem, said Bilal bin Saqib, CEO of Pakistan Crypto Council. Continue reading