The Central Bank of the UAE has approved Zand, a digital bank, to launch Zand AED, a multi-chain AED-backed stablecoin.

Despite criticism, Roushana Sjahsam, Asean senior board adviser at investment firm Zagga, argues private credit is an emerging asset class for defensive, yield-seeking investors, who want diversification, stable income, and portfolio resilience.

It is the group's largest public IABS issuance to date and its first in the Rule 144A/Reg S format with US onshore investors involved. Clifford Capital's group CEO told FA the deal "reflects the growing interest and appetite in infrastructure returns from institutional investors".

The structure of the bonds allows Chinese corporates to raise funds in multiple currencies with an onshore issuance. The Yulan bond market is still small.

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.

Beijing-based Jim Wang is leading the subsidiary of Standard Chartered Bank (Hong Kong).

Hong Kong’s financial secretary Paul Chan described the government's issuance of a third digital green bond as "reflecting the market support for tokenised products". The many times oversubscribed issuance had a large range of global investors.

Mutares is expected to acquire a majority stake in two manufacturing sites in China from Hwaseung; the signing of the deal is expected in Q4.

The Asia-based travel experience platform revealed adjusted EBITDA profits for the first time in its public filing to the SEC.

Jean-François Mastrangelo has joined the British bank in Hong Kong; he most recently worked at Societe Generale.