Apple has introduced Apple Pay in India in partnership with Axis Financial institution, bringing the contactless cost carrier to iPhone, iPad and Apple Watch customers throughout a marketplace that has been ruled for just about a decade by way of QR-code-based real-time bills. The transfer puts Apple in direct festival with UPI, the Nationwide Bills Company of India’s interoperable stack that already processes billions of transactions per thirty days and has made India some of the energetic real-time bills markets on this planet.
The release is notable as a result of India has traditionally been a troublesome marketplace for card-linked pockets merchandise. UPI’s zero-fee construction and deep service provider penetration have compressed the industrial house for competing cost rails. Whether or not Apple Pay features significant transaction quantity will rely closely on how Axis Financial institution and Apple value acceptance, and whether or not further financial institution companions are onboarded briefly. No additional issuing banks have been named within the announcement.
Hong Kong digital banks achieve profitability
Around the area, two of Hong Kong’s approved digital banks posted winning half-year effects for the primary time, a milestone the field has been running towards because the town’s regulator issued 8 digital banking licences starting in 2019. ZA Financial institution reported a 44% year-on-year upward thrust in web benefit to $7.2 million in H1 2026, with commission source of revenue attaining a file $12.5 million. Mox Financial institution posted a pre-tax benefit of HK$8.63 million, identical to more or less $1.1 million, on working source of revenue expansion of 69% yr on yr.
The consequences subject past Hong Kong. A number of Asian jurisdictions have issued electronic financial institution licences in recent times, and a chronic complaint of the fashion has been the lengthy runway to profitability. ZA Financial institution and Mox demonstrating sure returns in the similar reporting duration supplies a knowledge level that regulators and licence candidates somewhere else will reference.
Singapore crypto and stablecoin job speeds up
Singapore’s crypto financial system grew 55.4% to $284 billion within the first half of of 2026, in keeping with figures cited within the e-newsletter, with institutional job emerging 94% to $60 billion. StraitsX, the digital-assets subsidiary of Fazz, introduced XSGD and XUSD stablecoins on Monad, with XSGD described as the primary Singapore Greenback-denominated stablecoin natively issued at the Monad blockchain. The Financial Authority of Singapore finalised its stablecoin regulatory framework in 2023, and the marketplace is maturing in keeping with that framework, with approved issuers now construction on more moderen layer-one infrastructure.
Visa one after the other reported just about 200% year-on-year expansion in stablecoin-linked card bills globally, with trade and business programmes accounting for 17% of quantity within the monetary yr thus far. The determine issues to stablecoins more and more functioning as a agreement rail for institutional and business flows reasonably than a retail speculative software.
Swift and supply-chain finance lengthen cross-border achieve
Swift introduced a pay-by-alias initiative enabling cross-border bills the use of cellular numbers and e-mail addresses, with greater than 100 banks collaborating at release. The product mirrors the alias-based routing utilized in home real-time cost techniques reminiscent of India’s UPI and Australia’s PayID, carried out to correspondent banking flows.
Mizuho Financial institution and the Global Finance Company introduced a $1 billion supply-chain finance facility for Asia Pacific SMEs, a section that is still structurally underserved by way of conventional industry finance. In India, Moneyview indexed at the inventory change at a 76% top class after its IPO was once subscribed just about 98.5 occasions, valuing it above $1 billion. StockGro filed initial paperwork with SEBI to lift between $210 million and $260 million. The week additionally noticed the State Financial institution of Pakistan open its 2nd regulatory sandbox cohort for AI, bills and remittances, with programs due 30 November 2026, a sign that frontier markets within the area are actively competing for fintech funding and innovation.
AI degree 1 of five: written by way of Darlyn Ho; AI helped with tone, construction or wording; edited and signed off by way of Mark Walker, Editorial Director. What the levels mean