Singapore

Grab, Southeast Asia’s largest ride-hailing app, is kicking off a new digital wallet service in Singapore as it stakes a claim to the region’s burgeoning mobile payments sector.

Singapore and Thailand are in discussions about connecting their national digital payment systems to forge an unprecedented regional alliance, as officials step up efforts to curb the use of cash.

Menusifu receives a $3 million round to boost a system that integrates with Alipay and WeChat Pay, enabling Chinese travelers to make direct payments with renminbi from Chinese bank accounts and digital wallets.

Amazon.com Inc. is kicking off in Singapore with its most aggressive service yet, offering the Prime Now two-hour delivery service on everything from chilled Tiger beer to Samsung mobile phones.

Visa is developing its first international transaction processing centers — one in the U.K. and one in Singapore — on the heels of other moves to accelerate digital payments growth globally.

A recurring challenge for bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies is how to make them work in the real world. A Singapore-based startup says the answer is its Visa card.

Singapore’s Oversea-Chinese Banking Corp. (OCBC) will soon expand acceptance of its person-to-person mobile payments app to local merchants.

U.K.-based TransferWise has enabled online customer verification at its new Asia Pacific base in Singapore, so users need not visit an office to set up an account with TransferWise's cross-border funds-transfer service.

TransferWise Ltd., the London-based startup backed by investors including Peter Thiel’s Valar Ventures and Andreessen Horowitz, is bringing its international money transfer service to Singapore, aiming to shake up banks’ dominance of the market.

Singapore-based ride-sharing company Grab is looking to expand its reach in Indonesia through its acquisition of Kudo, an e-commerce platform for unbanked consumers who would be unable to use Grab's own digital payment platform.

Mastercard has named longtime exec Rama Sridhar to the newly created role of executive vice president, digital and emerging partnerships for the Asia Pacific region.

A broad pilot to test contactless open-loop payments on Singapore's trains and buses will go live March 20, according to local mass-transit authorities and Mastercard, which is sponsoring the initiative.

Hong Kong and Singapore have long been economic crossroads. China and India are economies with vast populations. And Shenzhen is bursting with innovative creativity. All of these contribute to the Asian fintech market being far ahead in adoption and ecosystem creation.

The deployment comes as Singapore is in the midst of a broad digital initiative for the entire city.

The recent history of mobile wallets includes a lot of crashes and failures, but the people behind those projects are still around and are wiser for their experiences.