Hi fintech friends, I'm Osborne, investor in early stage startups.
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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📝 Posts of the week
🇮🇳 India
📰 Market Updates
SBI Cards sold ₹1,800cr ($190M) non-performing asset portfolio to Integro Finserv.
India's new-to-credit borrower base grew to 4.4 crore in 12 months ending Feb 2026, with women borrowers' share rising from 33% to 41% over five years.
India's consumer durables market is projected to grow 14% CAGR to ₹5.4 lakh crore ($57bn) by FY30.
Smaller Unified Payments Interface (UPI) firms planned to meet National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) to seek fair competition against dominant players.
PhonePe crossed 50 million merchants, expanding digital payments across 98% of India's postal codes.
AU Small Finance Bank filed final application for universal banking license after Reserve Bank of India (RBI) relaxed requirements.
India's microfinance sector grew 5.3% QoQ to ₹3.39 lakh crore ($35.7bn) in Q4 FY26, ending 11 quarters of contraction, with delinquency rates declining to 2.3%.
Reserve Bank of India (RBI) reported bank credit growth decelerated to 15% YoY in April 15, 2026, down from 15.96% in March, with overall credit contracting by ₹4.51 lakh crore ($47.5bn).
Go Digit General Insurance reported ₹2,736cr ($288M) gross written premium in Q4 FY26, up 6.2% YoY.
Indian Overseas Bank reported net profit of ₹5,209cr ($549M) in FY26, up 56% YoY.
India's Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) inflows grew to $88bn during April-February in FY26 and projected to cross $90bn FY26, driven by policy reforms and trade agreements.
🚀 Product Launches
Dhan launched Gold Vault, enabling retail investors to buy physical gold and silver at live MCX (Multi Commodity Exchange) prices with home delivery.
📝 Regulatory Updates
Bombay High Court ruled that United India Insurance cannot reject health claims based on policy time-bar clauses.
Reserve Bank of India (RBI) approved MobiKwik's Non-Banking Financial Company (NBFC) licence application, enabling the fintech to launch its in-house lending subsidiary.
India's Financial Services Secretary asked banks to adopt RBI's MuleHunter AI tool for identifying and preventing mule accounts involved in digital financial cyber frauds.
Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) introduced fast-track mechanism allowing Alternative Investment Funds (AIFs) to launch non-LVF schemes within 30 days.
Kotak Mutual Fund suspended subscriptions in four international funds effective April 30, 2026, capping monthly inflows at INR 1 lakh (USD 1,099) per PAN.
Reserve Bank of India (RBI) proposed increasing networth requirements of Prepaid Payment Instruments (PPIs) to ₹5cr ($530K) for non-bank issuers.
💰 Financing Announcements
Sahi, a stock broking startup, raised ₹313cr ($33M).
Kissht, a digital lending startup, raised ₹278cr ($31M) from anchor investors for its INR 950cr ($102M) Initial Public Offering (IPO).
Credilio, a consumer credit startup, raised ₹100cr ($10.5M).
Sahamati, a Account Aggregator ecosystem, raised ₹50cr ($5.3M) from 30+ financial institutions.
ACQUISITIONS:
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🌏 Asia
📰 Market Updates
Tazapay obtained Money Service Operator (MSO) license in Hong Kong to launch cross-border payment infrastructure.
Thai banks' profitability weakened in 2026 amid net interest margin compression, subdued loan growth, and elevated credit costs.
Askari Bank in Pakistan reported 8% YoY decline in profit after tax to PKR 658cr ($23M) in Q1 2026.
South Korea's stock market grew 45% to $4tn, surpassing the UK's market capitalisation.
Trust Bank, a Singaporean digital bank, achieved profitability.
JS Bank in Pakistan reported profit after tax fell 63% YoY to PKR116cr ($4.2M) in Q1 CY2026, driven by declining income and rising costs.
National Bank of Pakistan (NBP) reported a 26% YoY profit decline to PKR1,629cr ($58M) in Q1 CY2026, driven by 16% drop in markup income and 20% fall in non-markup income.
GXS Bank partnered with Funding Societies to launch GXS Biz Property-backed Loan offering Singapore SMEs financing up to SGD2M ($1.5M).
Western Union launched USDPT, a Solana-based US dollar stablecoin, as faster alternative to SWIFT for cross-border settlements.
Singlife revamped its dollarDEX digital investment platform with zero platform fees, offering access to over 1,500 funds.
OKX partnered with BlackRock and Standard Chartered to launch a tokenized collateral framework for institutional trading using BUIDL.
Bank Muamalat in Malaysia launched Atlas digital bank, onboarded 61% new-to-bank customers in first six months, matching 70 branches' performance.
Ripple partnered with Kbank in South Korea to launch an institutional digital asset wallet, enabling multi-blockchain management.
Philippines Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) proposed stricter guidelines for online lending platforms, introducing clearer market entry standards and stronger consumer protections.
Association of Banks in Singapore (ABS) removed PayNow nickname feature for retail customers from 6 June 2026 to reduce impersonation scams.
Singapore's banking sector reportedly upgraded cyber operations and coordinated threat monitoring amid concerns over Anthropic's Claude Mythos Preview AI model's vulnerability identification capabilities.
💰 Financing Announcements
ACQUISITION:
Daiwa Securities Group in Japan acquired Orix Bank for $2.3bn to expand lending operations.
If you’ve made it this far - thanks! As always, you can always reach me at [email protected]. I’d genuinely appreciate any and all feedback. If you liked what you read, please consider sharing or subscribing.
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