Disruption

The Central Bank of the UAE has approved Zand, a digital bank, to launch Zand AED, a multi-chain AED-backed stablecoin.

Banks and payment giants at the Singapore FinTech Festival warned about deepfakes, cyberattacks, and AI-driven fraud even as they push aggressively into agentic AI and design their firms around AI-native operating models. With risks rising, leaders said 2026 will force a balance between ambition and safeguards.

Hong Kong’s financial secretary Paul Chan described the government's issuance of a third digital green bond as "reflecting the market support for tokenised products". The many times oversubscribed issuance had a large range of global investors.

HKEX to welcome Middle Eastern issuer soon, while Xiaomi hopes to bring its EV products to Europe.

Emerging markets are fuelling the rise of stablecoins. New regulations mean that more institutions are tapping greater distribution that could reshape global finance, including in Apac.

In an opinion piece, Malta Financial Services Authority (MFSA) chairman Jesmond Gatt, shares his views on how Apac's financial community can work closer together with Malta, including across digital assets, insurance and family offices.

As tokenised assets surge, institutions, innovators and regulators, are converging to rewrite how global capital moves, including in Apac, according to a high-level panel discussion at Token2049 in Singapore.

The division of the Swiss company has a workforce of approximately 7,000 and had revenues of $2.3bn in 2024; SoftBank is looking to fuse artificial super intelligence and robotics.

Europe’s T+1 transition requires more preparation from financial firms, including infrastructure. Senior directors from BNP Paribas, Capco and DTCC explained why to FA, and how Asia has been adapting to the US transition.