Apple has launched Apple Pay in India in partnership with Axis Bank, bringing the contactless fee service to iPhone, iPad and Apple Watch customers throughout a market that has been dominated for practically a decade by QR-code-based real-time funds. The transfer locations Apple in direct competitors with UPI, the National Payments Corporation of India’s interoperable stack that already processes billions of transactions month-to-month and has made India one of the crucial lively real-time funds markets on the earth.
The launch is notable as a result of India has traditionally been a tough marketplace for card-linked pockets merchandise. UPI’s zero-fee construction and deep service provider penetration have compressed the industrial house for competing fee rails. Whether Apple Pay positive aspects significant transaction quantity will rely closely on how Axis Bank and Apple worth acceptance, and whether or not extra financial institution companions are onboarded shortly. No additional issuing banks have been named within the announcement.
Hong Kong digital banks attain profitability
Across the area, two of Hong Kong’s licensed digital banks posted worthwhile half-year outcomes for the primary time, a milestone the sector has been working towards because the metropolis’s regulator issued eight digital banking licences starting in 2019. ZA Bank reported a 44% year-on-year rise in web revenue to $7.2 million in H1 2026, with payment revenue reaching a document $12.5 million. Mox Bank posted a pre-tax revenue of HK$8.63 million, equal to roughly $1.1 million, on working revenue development of 69% yr on yr.
The outcomes matter past Hong Kong. Several Asian jurisdictions have issued digital financial institution licences in recent times, and a persistent criticism of the mannequin has been the lengthy runway to profitability. ZA Bank and Mox demonstrating optimistic returns in the identical reporting interval supplies a information level that regulators and licence candidates elsewhere will reference.
Singapore crypto and stablecoin exercise accelerates
Singapore’s crypto economic system grew 55.4% to $284 billion within the first half of 2026, in accordance with figures cited within the e-newsletter, with institutional exercise rising 94% to $60 billion. StraitsX, the digital-assets subsidiary of Fazz, launched XSGD and XUSD stablecoins on Monad, with XSGD described as the primary Singapore Dollar-denominated stablecoin natively issued on the Monad blockchain. The Monetary Authority of Singapore finalised its stablecoin regulatory framework in 2023, and the market is maturing according to that framework, with licensed issuers now constructing on newer layer-one infrastructure.
Visa individually reported practically 200% year-on-year development in stablecoin-linked card funds globally, with enterprise and industrial programmes accounting for 17% of quantity within the monetary yr so far. The determine factors to stablecoins more and more functioning as a settlement rail for institutional and industrial flows somewhat than a retail speculative instrument.
Swift and supply-chain finance prolong cross-border attain
Swift launched a pay-by-alias initiative enabling cross-border funds utilizing cell numbers and electronic mail addresses, with greater than 100 banks collaborating at launch. The product mirrors the alias-based routing utilized in home real-time fee methods such as India’s UPI and Australia’s PayID, utilized to correspondent banking flows.
Mizuho Bank and the International Finance Corporation introduced a $1 billion supply-chain finance facility for Asia Pacific SMEs, a phase that is still structurally underserved by conventional commerce finance. In India, Moneyview listed on the inventory alternate at a 76% premium after its IPO was subscribed practically 98.5 instances, valuing it above $1 billion. StockGro filed preliminary paperwork with SEBI to lift between $210 million and $260 million. The week additionally noticed the State Bank of Pakistan open its second regulatory sandbox cohort for AI, funds and remittances, with functions due 30 November 2026, a sign that frontier markets within the area are actively competing for fintech funding and innovation.
AI stage 1 of 5: written by Darlyn Ho; AI helped with tone, construction or wording; edited and signed off by Mark Walker, Editorial Director. What the degrees imply
