Author: Digital Trade Outlook

The International Islamic Trade Finance Corporation (ITFC), a member of the Islamic Development Bank Group, and Uzbekistan’s Hamkorbank have signed a US$100 million syndicated financing facility. The agreement was signed on 20 July in Tashkent and Jeddah. It is the largest standalone Islamic trade finance transaction in Uzbekistan, giving Hamkorbank access to Shariah-compliant funding as private-sector demand for Islamic financing grows. Hamkorbank will primarily use the funds to support SMEs and projects tied to women’s entrepreneurship, green finance and food security. The facility broadens its Islamic product range and adds a channel to serve companies needing import financing, working capital…

Garanti BBVA has introduced a treasury solution using derivatives to help companies trading with the European Union hedge carbon cost risk from price swings in Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM) certificates. In the first application of its kind in Türkiye, the bank structured and executed a transaction for Medcem Cement Group. Medcem locked in the average EU Allowances (EUA) price over the reference period, reducing future carbon cost uncertainty and improving pricing visibility for the covered period. CBAM certificate prices mirror the EU ETS carbon price and can affect exporters’ cost structures, profitability and pricing strategies. The solution lets EU…

Freedom Holding Corp. has signed Memoranda of Understanding with Antom, Ant International’s merchant payment and digitisation arm, to build cross-border payment solutions for consumers in Kazakhstan. The agreement was signed on July 16, 2026, during a meeting between Freedom Holding Corp. CEO Timur Turlov and representatives of the global fintech market. Antom will promote Freedom Bank SuperApp as a supported payment option on China’s leading e-commerce platforms. Consumers in Kazakhstan will be able to buy Chinese goods and global brands using their local payment method instead of international credit cards or third-party processors. Antom supports over 300 local payment methods,…

Capital Layer, a digital asset orchestration layer for Asia, has partnered with Tokyo-listed Green Monster Inc. (TSE Growth: 157A) to build institutional stablecoin settlement infrastructure across Japan and Taiwan. The deal was announced at WebX Tokyo, one of Asia’s largest Web3 conferences. Green Monster will lead the Japan-side development. The company runs a consumer-fintech and financial-education business with more than 10 million app downloads and has a subsidiary in Hong Kong, extending the partnership’s reach across Asia. The aim is faster settlement on infrastructure institutions can trust, rather than relying solely on systems operated from the United States or Europe.…

Nuvion, the AI-powered global banking and cross-border payments platform built on fiat and stablecoins for businesses and fintechs, has partnered with Turnkey, the wallet infrastructure provider for secure key management and transaction signing, to strengthen embedded wallet and stablecoin infrastructure across its platform. The deal pairs Turnkey’s wallet infrastructure with Nuvion’s regulated financial rails, letting businesses launch and manage stablecoin-powered financial products without building or maintaining wallet infrastructure themselves. Stablecoins are moving into mainstream business operations, but most companies do not want to manage wallets, private keys, or blockchain infrastructure internally. Security, compliance, and operational complexity remain the main barriers…

Sunrate, the global payment and treasury management platform, and Mastercard have released a joint white paper, Beyond Automation: Defining Agentic Global Payments, at the 2026 World Artificial Intelligence Conference (WAIC) in Shanghai. The report is among the first in the payments industry to examine Agentic AI in B2B cross-border payments. Its central claim: payments are moving past digitisation and automation into autonomy, where AI agents with reasoning, planning, and execution capabilities orchestrate end-to-end payment and treasury workflows within defined governance frameworks. B2B cross-border payments remain hampered by fragmented workflows, disconnected systems, FX inefficiencies, rising compliance demands, and complex reconciliation. Traditional…

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. “Vietnam continues to strengthen its role in regional trade, investment and supply chains, creating new…

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. “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 trusted financial infrastructure with…