Ant International Raised $1.2bn in Series A Round | TWIF Asia

Banks delivered strong Q1 FY27 (PNB +213%, AU SFB +37%); Industry level Gross NPAs fell to 1.73%.

Digital payments grew: Paytm revenue up 28% YoY. WealthTech saw Veriqus Group raise ₹387cr ($42.5M).

Crypto M&A surged: Bybit acquired Nobi (Indonesia), SBI Coinhako (SG); Revolut got an AU banking license.

Cross-border payments expanded: Emirates NBD on Partior blockchain; Alipay+ partnered with Hang Seng for HK QR.

Zaggle invested ₹8cr ($820K) to acquire 19.9% in MoneyHOP, a cross-border payments startup.

Competition Commission of India (CCI) approved The Brink's Company's acquisition of NCR Atleos Corporation in US $6.6bn.

UAE-based Bybit acquired majority stake in Nobi, an Indonesian OJK-regulated crypto asset company, launching Bybit Indonesia with 500 crypto asset pairs.

Allianz acquired HSBC Life Singapore for S$2.7bn ($2bn), with 15-year distribution partnership.

SBI Holdings acquired majority stake in Coinhako a Singaporean crypto trading platform.

Equal partnered with HDFC Bank to launch automated Background Verification (BGV) workflows through unified integration.

Glomo, operating from GIFT International Financial Services Centre (IFSC), became India's first non-bank acquirer to receive Visa Principal Member status.

Juspay partnered with Recurly to integrate Juspay’s open-source payment orchestration platform, Hyperswitch, into Recurly’s US subscription billing ecosystem.

5paisa Capital partnered with OpenAI to integrate AI-powered investing features.

Shanghai Commercial Bank partnered with Planto a Hong Kong finance spend tracking startup, to launch cross-bank financial analytics for Hong Kong corporate customers.

Funding Societies partnered with United Overseas Insurance to launch AssureProtect, a bundled insurance coverage for Business Term Loan product.

Emirates NBD launched real-time USD cross-border payments on Partior's blockchain settlement network, executing first MENAT region transaction with J.P. Morgan.

TPBank in Vietnam partnered with TerraPay to expand outbound cross-border payments, connecting customers to a network covering 156+ countries and territories.

Ant International's Alipay+ partnered with Hang Seng Bank in Hong Kong to enable QR code payments for Hong Kong merchants.

HashKey Group, Kbank, and BPMG signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to explore a South Korean won stablecoin-based cross-border payments infrastructure platform.

Atome Philippines and Chubb Philippines launched Atome Card Shield, an insurance plan combining online shopping protection with personal accident coverage for approximately USD 1 per month.

Kakao Group partnered with Circle Internet Financial to explore won-based digital assets and stablecoin technology in South Korea.

Fiuu, Razer's payment gateway platform in Southeast Asia, secured JCB Direct Acquiring license across Malaysia, Singapore, and Philippines.

Ant International, Alipay's international payments arm, raised $1.2bn.

Veriqus Group, a wealth and asset management company, raised ₹387cr ($42.5M).

Pillar, a Singaporean mortgage finance infrastructure startup, raised $10-15M.

JULO, an Indonesian digital lending startup, raised $5M.

Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India (IRDAI) launched a consumer awareness comic book series to improve life insurance literacy, to address India's 87% protection gap.

Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) eased certification requirements for Specialised Investment Fund (SIF) distributors, allowing single NISM Series V-D certification for selling mutual funds and SIFs.

Revolut received an unrestricted Australian banking licence from APRA, allowing it to launch Revolut Bank Australia and expand from payments into full banking products

Emerging Payments Association Asia (EPAA) launched an APAC working group with founding member HSBC to develop common standards for artificial intelligence (AI) agent-initiated payments.

Vietnam introduced a law, imposing fines up to $8K for crypto issuance, trading, and service violations during its pilot market phase.

Securities and Futures Commission (SFC) of Hong Kong and Securities Commission (SC) Malaysia signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to establish mutual recognition framework for funds and simplified dual Initial Public Offering (IPO) framework.

Paytm reported growing revenue by 28% YoY to ₹2,448cr ($253M) and EBITDA growth of 182% YoY in Q1 FY27.

PhonePe reported ₹7,920cr ($820M) revenue in FY26, growing 11.5% YoY, while consolidated net loss widened to ₹2,792 crore ($290M).

Punjab National Bank reported ₹5,253cr ($545M) standalone net profit in Q1FY27, up 213.6% YoY.

IDBI Bank reported ₹2,115cr ($220M) net profit in Q1FY27, growing 5% YoY, driven by 10% increase in net interest income.

Top Indian private banks lowered Foreign Currency Non-Resident (FCNR(B)) deposit inflow expectations from $60-80bn to $50-55bn.

Indian Overseas Bank is targeting ₹5,415cr ($560M) in foreign currency denominated deposits by end of Sep 2026, having secured deposits of ₹2,493cr ($258M).

Karur Vysya Bank reported ₹756cr ($78M) net profit, growing 45% YoY in Q1 2027, driven by 32% net interest income rise to ₹1,423cr ($147M), though gross non-performing assets increased to 0.74%.

Bandhan Bank reported ₹502cr ($52M) net profit in Q1 FY2027, growing 35% YoY, driven by 41% lower provisions.

CSB Bank reported ₹150cr ($15.5M) net profit in Q1 FY2027, growing 27% YoY.

AU Small Finance Bank reported ₹796cr ($82.5M) Q1 net profit, growing 37% YoY, driven by 32% net interest income growth.

Non-food bank credit grew to ₹5,05,152cr ($52.5bn) in Q1 FY27, rising 10x YoY, as corporate bond issuances collapsed 98% to ₹1,369cr ($142M).

Gross Non-Performing Assets (NPAs) of scheduled commercial banks declined to 1.73% in Mar 2026 from 2.75% in Mar 2024.

AGTech Holdings, a Hong Kong-based Alibaba subsidiary, partnered with Hong Kong Gold Exchange (HKGX) to build its electronic trading, clearing, and settlement platform.

Southeast Asian fintech startups raised $682M in H1 2026, down 3% YoY, with early-stage funding fell 23% YoY.