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This week underscores India's strong M&A, funding; SEA advances digital payments and lending.
📍 INDIA
Fairfax's $5.5 billion IDBI acquisition drove Q2 M&A ($2.8bn); Groww Q1 profit up 94% ($76M).
Education lending thrives: Home Credit bought Varthana ($100M); Education lending now 20% of NBFC AUM growth.
Wealth tech saw Neo Group raise $36M; UPI MDR for large merchants is under review.
📍 SEA
Atome Philippines secured $81M debt; Skyro launched a $1,600 digital credit line for growth.
Pakistan's digital payments jumped 300% YoY; Vietnam's NCB launched VietQR Global.
MAS tightened crowdfunding rules; Visa/Mastercard launched new stablecoin/wallet platforms.
The Rundown
🏦 M&A
Tata Capital acquired 88.6% stake in Yogloans for ₹318cr ($33M), entering India's gold loan business.
Home Credit India acquired Varthana Finance for ₹967cr ($100M) to grow education lending.
Canadian firm Fairfax Holdings acquired 60.7% stake in IDBI Bank for ₹53,000cr ($5.5bn), the largest foreign investment in an Indian bank.
🚀 Product Launches
Digit Life Insurance launched Digit Life Pension Plan in India with guaranteed and Nifty 50-linked annuity options.
Visa launched a stablecoin platform enabling financial institutions to mint, move and manage stablecoins through a single managed environment.
Mastercard launched wallet-building tools enabling banks and fintechs to add contactless payments across iOS and Android without separate integrations, available in 200+ countries by end of 2026.
Trust Bank launched UK UCITS (Undertakings for Collective Investment in Transferable Securities) ETF investing from USD 10 with 15% dividend withholding tax for Singapore investors.
CapBay, a Malaysian supply chain finance startup, partnered with MDEC, Malaysian government's digital economy platform, to open RM200M ($49M) financing pool for Malaysia Digital status companies.
Karnataka Bank partnered with CredAble to launch its first fully digital supply chain finance platform, targeting to double its SCF portfolio in FY27.
Housr partnered with CirclePe to launch a zero-deposit rental option for tenants.
Paymentology, a card issuer/processor, partnered with T2P, Thailand-based fintech and payment technology company, to deliver card issuing and digital payment solutions across Thailand.
OneAssist partnered with Ezeepay to expand AI-powered smartphone screen protection through Ezeepay's retail network across India.
National Citizen Commercial Joint Stock Bank (NCB) launched VietQR Global, a cross-border QR payment service supporting digital wallets from China, South Korea, Thailand, Laos, and Cambodia.
HitPay rolled out AI-readable e-commerce capability for merchants across Southeast Asia.
Skyro, a Philippine BNPL startup, launched SkyroCredit, a reusable digital credit line, nationwide in the Philippines with credit limits up to $1,600.
Budgetly, an Australian spend management SaaS startup, launched AI Bookkeeping for Australian SMEs.
CloudMile partnered with Tookitaki to launch AI-powered financial crime prevention for Malaysian financial institutions.
💸 Fundraises
Neo Group, a wealth and asset management firm, raised ₹350cr ($36M).
SimpleAI, Singapore-based accounting automation startup, raised $15M in seed and debt funding to acquire accounting firms across Asia Pacific.
Indifi, a SME lending startup, raised ₹79cr ($8.3M).
OneCard, a credit card distribution startup, raised ₹72cr ($7.6M) at $1.3bn valuation.
🏛️ Policy & Regulation
India's government examined restoring Merchant Discount Rate (MDR) on Unified Payments Interface (UPI) transactions for large merchants.
Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) introduced standing instructions for Systematic Withdrawal Plan (SWP) and Systematic Transfer Plan (STP) in demat-held mutual funds, with phased implementation by January 2027.
Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) required licensed crowdfunding operators to submit detailed quarterly data on issuances, overdue repayments, and implement stricter default procedures.
Triple-A, a Singaporean crypto payments startup, received an in-principle approval from Dubai's Virtual Assets Regulatory Authority (VARA) for broker-dealer services.
Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) identified shortcomings in anti-money laundering (AML) controls among crypto firms across due diligence and screening.
Paymonade, a Singaporean crypto infrastructure startup, received a Markets in Crypto-Assets (MiCA) licence enabling regulated crypto services across 30 European markets.
Reserve Bank of India (RBI) sought banks' views on introducing education savings product with higher interest rates for children's education expenses.
🗂️ Other News
Raise Financial rebranded its insurance broker GIBL as Pluto Insurance and committed ₹100cr ($11M) investment to expand insurance distribution across India.
Kissht's subsidiary received launched a mutual fund distribution vertical.
Atome Philippines raised $81M wholesale debt financing.
Pakistan's digital payments grew 300% YoY through June 2026, with mobile banking users reaching 137M and BISP cash payments declining to 1%.
SeABank, a Vietnamese bank, raised $50M.
India's financial services sector recorded ₹25,480cr ($2.8bn) in deal value during Q2 2026, growing 46% QoQ, largely driven by five mega-deals above $100M.
India's fintech sector raised $2bn in H1 2026, growing 42% YoY, driven by three mega deals despite weakening early-stage investments and deal activity.
India's mutual fund Systematic Investment Plan (SIP) stoppage ratio declined to 91% in June 2026, with 55 lakh new registrations exceeding 51 lakh discontinuances, while monthly SIP contributions reached record ₹31,781cr ($3.3bn).
Specialised Investment Funds (SIFs) recorded ₹17,858cr ($1.8bn) AUM in June 2026, growing 29% MoM with inflows surging 171% to ₹3,782cr ($392M).
HDB Financial Services reported ₹785cr ($81M) net profit in Q1FY26, up 38% YoY, driven by 20% growth in net interest income.
GXS Bank, backed by Grab and Singtel, grew its loan portfolio to S$1bn in 2025, with corporate lending reaching S$421M.
DBS targeted S$1 tn ($775bn) in retail and wealth Assets Under Management (AUM) by 2030, planning to add S$400bn ($310bn) over five years.
Groww reported INR 735cr ($76M) profit, growing 94% YoY in Q1 FY27.
Non-banking finance companies' (NBFCs) education loan assets under management grew 20% in FY26, with diversification across UK, Germany and Ireland offsetting US demand decline.
India Ratings and Research reported Foreign Currency Non-Resident (Bank) deposit inflows could reduce banks' reliance on certificate of deposit issuances in Q2FY27.
Public sector banks grew fee incomes driven by higher insurance commissions in FY26, with State Bank of India (SBI) reporting ₹2,795cr ($307M) in insurance commission, up 19.3% YoY.
Jana Small Finance Bank targeted reducing unsecured loans to 22-23% from 27%, with TVS Venu Group acquiring 9.9% stake.
State Bank of India (SBI) saw $1.9bn in foreign-currency resources under Reserve Bank of India (RBI)'s special incentive scheme, outpacing all peers.
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