Author: Digital Trade Outlook

Eddid Financial, Ant Digital Technologies and SageRock Capital have signed a Memorandum of Understanding to build compliant green energy tokenisation products in Hong Kong. Each party has a defined role. SageRock Capital handles investment structuring and asset integration. Eddid Financial brings its licensed capital markets and wealth management business. Ant Digital Technologies supplies the blockchain infrastructure through its Jovay and AntChain platforms, already in use across green energy, tokenisation, supply chain finance and cross-border trade. The firms will work within the Hong Kong Securities and Futures Commission framework. The goal is to use blockchain traceability to make new energy assets…

Intellect Design Arena has won three customer deals for its eMACH.ai Custody platform, all at non-banking financial services (NBFC) institutions. The wins reflect a wider shift: non-bank financial institutions are moving beyond brokerage, wealth management and capital markets into custody and asset servicing. eMACH.ai Custody sits within Intellect’s Wealth and Capital Markets portfolio. Built on a composable, cloud-native, API-first architecture, it lets institutions establish and scale custody businesses, then extend into fund accounting, transfer agency, investor servicing and post-trade operations on the same foundation, rather than running standalone custody systems. The platform covers the full custody lifecycle: client onboarding, trade…

DBS has appointed Thuy Minh Lai as deputy general director of DBS Vietnam to lead its Global Transaction Services business. Announced on July 8, the appointment puts Lai in charge of cash management, payments and trade finance, reporting to CEO Abdul Raof Latiff. Lai joins from Citibank Vietnam, where she spent more than two decades in senior roles including country services head, Country Treasury and Trade Solutions head, head of Legal and interim country officer. At Citibank she led liquidity management, payments and trade financing. DBS Vietnam: What It Means “Vietnam continues to strengthen its role in regional trade, investment…

Sunrate has unveiled a global rebrand as it moves to strengthen its positioning in cross-border payments and treasury management. The update reflects the company’s focus on payments, foreign exchange, treasury and compliance services for businesses operating across multiple markets. Sunrate: What It Means “Our brand refresh represents far more than a new visual identity—it reflects the company we have become and the future we are building. Our vision is to power the digital evolution of the global economy by helping businesses operate seamlessly across borders. As we continue to engineer the future of global payments, we remain committed to combining…

M-DAQ Global, the Singapore-headquartered FX and cross-border payments group, has signed definitive agreements for a strategic integration with METech, the majority shareholder of PayME, a licensed payments service provider in Vietnam. The move advances M-DAQ’s plan to build a unified ASEAN Payments Hub covering collection, FX conversion, and payout across the region. M-DAQ now holds its own regulated payments infrastructure in Vietnam, enabling it to process local collections and payments directly in Vietnamese Dong, reducing reliance on third-party partners. The integration builds on earlier expansions through EasyPay in Malaysia and Wallex in Indonesia. With METech in the group, M-DAQ holds…

Citigroup has completed its first instant international payment in dollars with a partner bank, Thailand’s Siam Commercial Bank, marking an expansion of the US lender’s instant payments capability beyond its own network. Phillip Securities Thailand, a client of SCB, made an instant transfer of funds in dollars from a Citigroup account in the UK to a Siam Commercial Bank account in Thailand during the US July 4 holiday weekend, Citigroup said in a statement. SCB is among the 300 banks integrated with Citi’s international instant payments network, which serves multinational clients through the bank’s Services division. Siam Commercial Bank: What…

The most important thing happening inside BRICS has nothing to do with a common currency. It is the slow construction of financial plumbing that could carry a growing share of world trade outside the usual dollar channels. The dollar itself is not going anywhere. It still dominates trade and finance, sits on top of the deepest capital markets in the world, and benefits from a global banking network built around it over decades. No BRICS currency comes close. But close may not be the point, because the countries involved are not really trying to dethrone anything. They are building options.…

Turkey has formally signalled its ambition to join the European Union’s payments infrastructure, with Finance Minister Mehmet Simsek confirming that Ankara has sent a letter of intent to join the Single Euro Payments Area (SEPA). Simsek made the announcement on Thursday at a press conference following the Turkey-EU high-level economic dialogue meeting in Istanbul. Turkey and the EU have been in talks over accession to SEPA, the 41-country framework that makes cross-border euro-currency payments cheaper, faster and more secure. Letter of Intent: What It Means Joining SEPA would allow Turkish banks and businesses to send and receive euro payments under…

XTransfer, the B2B cross-border trade payment platform, and Societe Generale have signed a Memorandum of Understanding to enhance cross-border payment infrastructure and develop integrated financial solutions supporting international trade flows. The agreement, announced during Money20/20 Europe 2026 in Amsterdam, targets more efficient, seamless and cost-effective cross-border payment experiences, particularly for businesses operating from China across Europe and global markets. The MOU was announced by Neil Ni, Chief Strategy Officer of XTransfer, alongside Queenie Lo, Head of Global Transaction Banking Hong Kong, and Edwin Hartog, Head of Global Transaction Banking Netherlands, at Societe Generale. Despite growing trade flows, many businesses still…

India and Indonesia have announced plans to integrate their national payment systems, a move both governments say will simplify transactions for businesses and travellers and deepen economic ties between the two countries. The announcement came during Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s state visit to Jakarta, where he held a joint press conference with President Prabowo Subianto at the Merdeka Palace on Tuesday. “One of the greatest strengths of our relationship is people-to-people ties. We are very pleased to announce the plan that India’s digital payment system, UPI, will be integrated with Indonesia’s payment system. This will make transactions easier for…