Hi fintech friends,

Please enjoy all the news and updates from the past week in today’s edition. If you feel TWIF brings you value, please share it with your friends (and maybe suggest they subscribe too).

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🦉🏆 Tweets of the Week

🇮🇳 India

📰 Market Updates

1. Indian mutual funds' collection through NFO drops 38% YoY to INR 62,000cr ($ 7.5bn) in 2022.
2. Insolvency cases in India rose by 25% while recovery was the lowest at 23.45% in Q3 (ended Dec, 2022).
3. Decentro, a banking and payments infrastructure startup, expanded to Singapore.
4. Banks and NBFCs have paused fintech partnerships under the first loss default guarantee (FLDG) structure.
5. Google enabled all Indian developers to use alternate payment methods to bill users for apps.
6. HDFC Bank is raising $570mm via dollar bonds to lend to domestic corporates expanding overseas.

🚀 Product Launches

1. India's UPI integrated with Singapore's PayNow and launched real time payments between the two countries.
2. IppoPay is launching micro-lending and co-branded debit cards.

📝 Regulatory Updates

• RBI (central bank): Released more details on inbound travelers using UPI for domestic payments.

💰 Financing Announcement

1. Mintoak, a small business payment acceptance startup, raised $20mm.

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🌏 Asia

📰 Market Updates

1. The Siam Commercial Bank (SCB) of Thailand unveiled its plans to become a fully digital bank.
2. Tazapay, a Singaporean cross border payments startup, received in-principal approval from MAS to operate a payments service.
3. DBS Bank in Singapore saw 80% increase in bitcoin trading volume.
4. Fintech Pulse, a report by KPMG, revealed that Singapore recorded $4.1bn in investments across 250 deals - its highest in three years.
5. Bank Fama, an Indonesian bank, rebranded to Superbank.
6. The Bank of Japan is kicking off pilot trials of a digital yen, after a two-year investigation phase.
7. FTX Japan resumed crypto and fiat withdrawals from February 21, 2023 through its crypto exchange Liquid Japan which it acquired in 2022.
8. Stripe launched Tap to Pay for Android devices in Singapore.
9. IceKredit, a Chinese AI-focused credit risk and management company, is exporting its AI-powered products to financial institutions in Southeast Asia.
10. KoinWorks, an Indonesian small business lender, reported revenues of $8.71mm (+~3x YoY) and net loss of $3.65mm (-43% YoY) for the year ended Dec 2021.
11. Maya, a Philippines-based fintech company, is looking to raise $150mm.

💰 Financing Announcements

• Ledgerowl, a back-office support startup for small businesses, raised an undisclosed amount.

ACQUISITIONS:

• FWD Group Holdings, a Hong Kong based insurance group, acquired 70% of Gibraltar BSN, a Malaysian Life Insurance co.

🌏 International

Please find our global coverage and consider subscribing.

• US and Global, written by Nik Milanovic.
• Europe and UK, written by Michael Jenkins.
• Latin America, written by Christine Chang.
• Africa, written by Emeka Ajene.
• China written by Ning Ye.
• Policy written by Mohammad Hamdy.

And of course, our podcast series - Beyond Two Percent and Hey Fintech Friends.

If you’ve made it this far - thanks! As always, you can always reach me at osborne@thisweekinfintech.com. I’d genuinely appreciate any and all feedback. If you liked what you read, please consider sharing or subscribing.

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