The World Is Not Enough: Circle acquired Tazapay | TWIF Asia & India

Payment giants innovated: Razorpay launched MandateHQ & All-in-One QR, PhonePe entered UAE with Visa, and WhatsApp added bill payments.

Regulatory focus sharpened as RBI recognized a new SRO and tightened KYC norms, while Nextgen Finance raised $22.5M for MSME lending.

Digital finance advanced with DBS, OCBC, UOB pioneering Swift tokenised deposits and Trust Bank launching an AI spending assistant.

Market activity surged with Webull's $100M acquisition of Pi Securities, Mynt's $1.5bn IPO approval, and Singapore imposing strict anti-scam penalties.

Circle acquired Tazapay, a Singaporean merchant cross-border payments startup, that processed $25bn annualised payment volume across 100+ markets.

Indiabulls Enterprises in India acquired 70% stake in Fintech Cloud for ₹1,050cr ($110M).

Novus Loyalty, an Indian AI-driven, API-first enterprise loyalty and customer engagement company, acquired 81% in AutoPe Payment Solutions, an Indian digital payments company, for ₹105cr ($11M).

Webull acquired Pi Securities in Thailand for $100M, targeting THB 200bn ($6bn) combined assets under management in Thailand.

Razorpay partnered with HDFC Bank to launch MandateHQ Expansion, a unified card mandate portal enabling customers to manage all recurring payments centrally.

Razorpay launched All-in-One Compact, a QR-first payment device priced at one-third Android POS cost for Indian retail merchants.

PhonePe secured two licenses from Central Bank of UAE for consumer payments and merchant acquiring in first international expansion.

Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) launched Aadhaar Face Authentication Software Development Kit (SDK) and Sandbox to streamline digital onboarding for banks and fintech companies.

Jio Financial Services launched JioFinance360, a free, AI-powered personal finance dashboard on the JioFinance app.

Xflow partnered with HSBC to launch global payments collections for Indian merchants via UPI, cards and net banking by routing transactions through India’s domestic rails and settling in major foreign currencies.

PayU India launched an AI-powered Fraud Liability Protect solution that uses real-time risk assessment and dynamic authentication to shield Indian merchants from eligible fraud chargebacks on international card payments.

Indian Highways Management Company Limited (IHMCL) and National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) launched OneTag, enabling FASTag users to switch issuer banks without replacing physical tags across 13 crore issued tags.

PB Fintech's PB Pay, a payment aggregator platform, went live to offer unified payment solutions supporting UPI, cards, net banking, wallets, EMI and recurring payments for Indian merchants.

Sberbank unveiled GigaDoc, an AI-powered smart mirror analyzing blood pressure, pulse, stress, and diabetes risk at Innoprom India exhibition.

PhonePe partnered with Visa to launch Tap to Pay, Cross Border Scan to Pay, and Smart Accept for cardless payments across online, in-store, and international transactions.

Multipl launched UPI-linked spending account enabling investment of daily expenses in liquid mutual funds.

Jio Payment Solutions launched cross-border payment platform for Indian exporters accepting international payments.

BharatPe launched BharatPe Flex, enabling users to access up to ₹60,000 ($630) monthly credit through UPI payments.

Upstox launched US stocks trading with 8,000+ firms and 2,000+ exchange-traded funds (ETFs) for Indian investors.

Indian Bank planned to enter life insurance and asset management segments with board approval pending.

WhatsApp launched bill payments in India via Bharat Connect.

Axis Bank partnered with Scapia to launch Scapia Axis Bank Credit Card offering zero forex markup, no joining fee, up to 20% rewards on travel bookings.

Citibank launched blockchain-based instant cross-border payments for Japanese corporates, processing $1bn daily in tokenised deposits.

Trust Bank in Singapore launched Trust AI Ask, an artificial intelligence assistant enabling customers to query and summarise card spending by merchant, category, and date.

Mastercard, Visa and Ant International developed an interoperable Know-Your-Agent framework to enhance security in AI agent-led payments.

DBS, OCBC, and UOB conducted first live Singapore Dollar interbank transactions using tokenised deposits through Swift's blockchain ledger.

Ant International expanded its Agentic Mobile Protocol (AMP) across 10 Asian digital wallets serving 1.5 billion users, enabling AI agents to make authorized payments.

KB Kookmin Bank partnered with JP Morgan to launch blockchain corporate trade payments across 10 corridors.

Citibank launched blockchain-based instant cross-border payments for Japanese corporates, processing $1bn daily in tokenised deposits.

Mastercard launched Wallet Pay, a global portfolio of solutions that connects digital wallets to Mastercard's acceptance network.

Nextgen Finance, an asset-backed MSME lending startup, raised ₹215cr ($22.5M).

Piston, an Indian cardless payments startup for commercial fleets, raised ₹143cr ($15M).

Pearler, an Australian long-term investing startup, raised A$16M ($11.5M).

Sav, a UAE based personal finance management startup, raised $3.5M.

Credos Partners, a South Korean token-securities (STO) and real-world-asset (RWA) infrastructure startup, raised $1.6M.

Reserve Bank of India (RBI) recognised Unified Fintech Forum as the second self-regulatory organisation for India's fintech sector.

Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) launched Demat 2.0 pilot project for tokenised corporate bonds.

Reserve Bank of India (RBI) issued draft amendment directions on Know Your Customer (KYC) norms for money mule operations and cyber-enabled financial fraud, implementing Supreme Court directive for temporary debit holds.

Reserve Bank of India (RBI) Governor Sanjay Malhotra urged India's fintech ecosystem to strengthen cybersecurity and treat customer data as fiduciary responsibility.

National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) built AI registry to verify and monitor AI agents making transactions on Unified Payments Interface (UPI).

India's Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU) issued notices to 15 Virtual Digital Asset Service Providers for Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) non-compliance.

Gemini, a US-based crypto exchange and payments company, received a Major Payment Institution (MPI) licence from the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) covering cross-border money transfer and digital payment token services.

Singapore proposed penalties up to $8.2M for online services breaching anti-scam requirements, with caning and five-year prison sentences for repeat offenders.

Singapore Police Force piloted a common prefix for official calls to help identify impersonation scams, with adoption planned across government agencies in late 2026.

Bank of Thailand (BOT) tightened financial crime prevention measures through collaboration with eleven industry groups, strengthening customer checks and establishing a Central Fraud Registry database.

Bank of Thailand launched sector-wide digital fraud framework, requiring heightened due diligence on cash deposits above $5M and gold purchases above $10M.

SBM Bank India explored a 26% stake sale, with proceeds allocated for expansion and 32-35% credit growth in FY27.

HT Media Group's Mint Money app launched a bill-payments feature powered by NPCI's Bharat Connect (BBPS) that lets users track bills, get reminders, enable Auto Pay and earn rewards.

Navi UPI partnered with IndusInd Bank to deploy its UPI payment switch and improve transaction resilience and scalability.

Non-Banking Financial Companies (NBFCs) recorded ₹60 lakh crore ($630bn) credit growth at 14.9% YoY in July, with gold loans growing 68.5%.

India's forex reserves grew to $786bn in week to September 4, 2024, becoming fourth largest globally.

Debt mutual funds saw net outflows of ₹8,127cr ($850M) in August 2026.

National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) reported INR 4,240cr (USD 466M) revenue, growing 22% YoY in fiscal year 2025-26, but surplus declined 32% to INR 991cr (USD 109M).

SBM Bank India explored a 26% stake sale, with proceeds allocated for expansion and 32-35% credit growth in FY27.

Indian bank deposits grew 17.8% YoY in August 2026, reaching decade-high, driven by $136B FCNR(B) inflows, while domestic deposit mobilisation faced headwinds.

Gaja Alternative Asset Management, India's first listed private equity firm, reported ₹27.2cr ($2.85M) profit after tax in Q1 FY2026-27, growing 35% YoY.

JB Financial Group received final approval from Indonesia's Financial Services Authority (OJK) to take control of KB Bukopin Finance, to expand its auto-financing business in Indonesia with a focus on electric-vehicle loans.

Citi Hong Kong, in partnership with Mastercard, launched Hong Kong's first virtual credit card with a dynamic Card Validation Code (CVC) to reduce card-not-present fraud by limiting exposure of physical card credentials across digital merchants.

DBS and Citi completed the first weekend cross-border USD payment between Singapore and the US, settling in minutes instead of up to two business days, using tokenised deposits on Swift's Digital Ledger.

Segpay, a US based high-risk digital payments processor, launched Segpay Australia to serve online merchants in high risk sectors.

AusPayNet partnered with eftpos, Mastercard and Visa in Australia to launch a public information website (cardsurcharge.com.au) to help Australian businesses prepare for the 1 October 2026 ban on card surcharges.

Unlimit received a Money Service Operator (MSO) license from Hong Kong Customs to build regional payment channels across Asia-Pacific.

Grab is in talks to acquire a majority stake in Atome Financial, a Singapore-based buy-now-pay-later firm.

Philippine Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) approved Mynt, GCash's parent company, $1.5bn Initial Public Offering (IPO) with $11bn expected market capitalisation.

South Korea's stock exchange extended trading hours to attract global investors and boost market competitiveness.