Asia-Pacific

The new gateway will reduce the setup costs required to access the NDID and enable financial firms to enable full digitisation of customer onboarding more quickly.

Phase 2 used smart contracts to automate bond lifecycle events, and introduced pre-validation to reduce error and fraud in funds transfers. Phase 3 will be a joint effort with the HKMA.

Third country benchmark administrators will need every bit of the additional time granted for BMR compliance to ensure their benchmarks get approved, say PwC’s Gregory Campbell and Daniela Bunea.

The rules specify capital requirements of PHP 100mn, plus 12 months of operating expenses, and allow digital asset exchanges in the Philippines to be set up by foreign-registered entities.

Digital asset exchanges will have to report all trades exceeding 5 million baht to commercial banks, which will then report the transactions to the Thailand's Anti-Money Laundering Office.

Indigenous virtual banks, global digital-only banks, and digitised traditional banks are all vying for market share, says a new report from S&P Global Ratings.

Foreign investors will be allowed to hold up to a 35% stake in Myanmar-listed companies, as stipulated in the new Companies Law, which entered into force in August 2018.

The Shanghai and Shenzhen bourses, as strategic partners, will provide technical support to help the Dhaka Stock Exchange develop the new indices.

The entrance of FinTech and BigTech firms into banking is forcing incumbents to adapt, but it should not come at a cost to compliance obligations, writes Claus Christensen at Know Your Customer Ltd.

The Philippines SEC has issued rules governing the operation and use of equity- and lending-based crowdfunding to help smaller firms access financing.