South Asia

SFF 2025: AI-driven cyber and deepfake risks emerge as top threats in financial services

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.

November 15, 2025

Blackstone makes two deals in India

Blackstone has bought 9.9% of India’s Federal Bank and a stake in India’s Ace Insurance Brokers.

October 30, 2025

Five Bangladeshi banks set to merge after widespread loan defaults

After a deluge of defaults, a new state-owned bank called United Islamic Bank is set to emerge out of the five banks, with the plan to privatise them over time.

October 21, 2025

Srini Kannan to return to Citi in India

Citi Commercial Bank in India has appointed Kannan as head of digital, technology, communication, business & professional services and industrials; he will join in December and has worked at JP Morgan for over 15 years.

October 15, 2025

LG Electronics India and Tata Capital list amid strong IPO demand

The $1.3bn raise from the electronics giant and $1.75bn IPO from Tata Group's financial services arm attracted strong demand from institutional investors. Citi is seeing its largest Indian IPO pipeline on record.

October 14, 2025

Tradeweb appoints Rich Chun as head of Asia

Rich Chun is appointed managing director, head of Asia at Tradeweb, effective immediately; he joins from HPS Investment Partners.

October 14, 2025

Q&A: Wendy Cheong, Apac regional head, Moody's Ratings

On the ratings agency's 40th anniversary in the region, Singapore-based Cheong explained how transition finance and data centres are key growth areas, how the ratings agency is adopting AI, and the lessons learned from several financial crises.

October 03, 2025

Societe Generale opens India GIFT City branch

The new branch in the IFSC will be led by Mihir Baxi, and will support renewable energy and infrastructure in India, including roads, transmission, data centres, technology and telecommunications.

September 25, 2025

Bangladesh faces LDC graduation dilemma as businesses fear impact

Bangladeshi businesses and economists are pressing the government to defer the graduation from the UN’s least developed country (LDC) status. They argue the government needs to consider the impacts on exports, tariffs, loans and patents.

September 16, 2025

Citi hires Kaustubh Kulkarni from JP Morgan for Asia investment banking role

Kulkarni is set to join Citi in December in Singapore to become co-head, Citi investment banking for Japan, Asia North, Australia, and Asia South, serving alongside Jan Metzger.

September 03, 2025