Singapore’s central bank has held discussions with Facebook about its upcoming libra cryptocurrency, Bloomberg reported on June 27. Ravi Menon, the managing director of the Monetary Authority of Singapore, reportedly acknowledged libra’s potential benefits — such as making payments cheaper or supporting the unbanked — but said the regulator needs to understand exactly how the tech giant’s system will work. As well as warning that it isn’t clear whether libra would offer a superior alternative to other electronic payment mechanisms, Menon said Singapore would be seeking assurances on security and privacy issues before making a regulatory decision. At a news …

Singapore-based cryptocurrency exchange KuCoin has announced that it is now listing the cryptocurrency Binance Coin (BNB) issued by the exchange Binance, according to a press release on June 19. KuCoin will reportedly offer BNB trading pairs with Bitcoin (BTC) and Tether (USDT). The announcement also notes that KuCoin will support projects based on Binance’s native blockchain, Binance Chain, in addition to its native coin BNB. The recent development shows that major trading institutions are putting trust in Binance’s token-vetting process on its initial exchange offering platform. At press time, KuCoin is the 46th largest cryptocurrency exchange on CoinMarketCap, with an …

MetLife subsidiary LumenLab is using blockchain technology to automate life insurance claims, according to a news release published on June 17. Known as “Lifechain,” the collaboration with Singapore Press Holdings and NTUC Income will enable bereaved families who place obituaries in a local newspaper to instantly trigger searches to see whether their loved one had a life insurance policy. This month, 1,000 Income policyholders will be randomly selected to take part in a pilot scheme. The technology works by submitting the deceased’s National Registration Identity Card to Lifechain as hashed data once consent from the family has been obtained. Families …

Singapore-based blockchain firm PLMP Fintech will participate in a multi-million logistics project in partnership with the government of Indonesia, according to a press release on May 29. The new initiative is made in partnership with the Ministry of Trade of Indonesia and intends to transform the country’s shipping industry starting from the Riau Province, which is located on one of the world’s busiest shipping lanes. The project is a result of a new memorandum of understanding (MoU) signed between PLMP Fintech and major industry-related entities in the Indonesian city of Batam, the largest city in the Riau Islands. The MoU …

Capital markets platform iSTOX has joined Singapore’s regulatory sandbox to launch digitized securities trading in late 2019, the firm announced in a tweet on May 24. Following its addition to the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS)’s FinTech Regulatory Sandbox on May 1, the Singapore-based company will start providing service for the trading of digitized securities starting from Q4 2019, according to an iSTOX official press release. Operated by ICHX Tech, a blockchain infrastructure firm incubated by major Singapore investment firm ICH Group, iSTOX expects to graduate from the sandbox and be fully operational by early 2020, the press release notes. …

BlockShow, an international blockchain conference, which will take place on Nov. 14-15 at Marina Bay Sands Expo in Singapore, says it changed its concept, moving from being a blockchain conference to becoming a Festival of Decentralized Technology. The event will include nine conferences: Investments & Startups, Development, Business, Gaming & DApps, Money, Trading, Regulations, Privacy & Security, and Marketing & PR. The team notes that by expanding each topic to its conference, BlockShow strives to bring more innovative thought to the surface. With an expertly curated program for each topic, it will engender an atmosphere in which everyone in the …

A senior executive at one of Asia’s biggest banks has said the $9 trillion trade finance industry needs to be digitized in order to tackle fraud, according to a Bloomberg article published on May 5. Ng Chuey Peng, managing director and head of global commodities finance at Singapore’s Oversea-Chinese Banking Corp Ltd. (OCBC), criticized the industry’s reliance on paper receipts, and warned forgeries have become so sophisticated that can be difficult to spot fake documents. Paper records are regularly used for everything from invoices to establishing the ownership of goods, and without them, banks are often unable to lend money …

Sopnendu Mohanty, Chief Fintech Officer of the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS), said that blockchain has potential for cross-border payments but the agency “does not see much” in retail bank digital currencies. Mohanty delivered his comments at MIT Technology Review's Business of Blockchain 2019 on May 2. Mohanty revealed that back in 2016, policy makers did not have a clear understanding of what blockchain is, so the MSA — Singapore’s central bank — decided to experiment with the technology to better understand it. The MSA has since learned a variety of blockchain-related use cases, including how to deploy the technology …

Students from 18 educational institutions in Singapore will receive blockchain-based digital certificates starting in 2019, local tech news agency Tech in Asia reports on May 3. The initiative is a part of a Singapore government-level project called OpenCerts, which was co-developed by the Ministry of Education (MOE), Government Technology Agency (GovTech), as well as national educational movement SkillsFuture Singapore (SSG) and higher learning institution Ngee Ann Polytechnic (NP). Powered by the Ethereum (ETH) blockchain, the OpenCerts open-source platform is expected to provide a reliable way to issue and verify certificates, boost the security of data, the efficiency of issuance and …

The Singapore and Malaysia division of Domino's Pizza has partnered with SingularityNET to implement its blockchain-powered artificial intelligence (AI) technology, the Domino’s division confirmed to Cointelegraph on May 2. Within the new partnership, SingularityNET will incorporate AI algorithms and solutions in Domino’s operations to improve its supply chain processes and logistics in Malaysia and Singapore, a SingularityNET press release shared with Cointelegraph notes. According to the announcement, the strategic partnership aims to improve the food industry giant’s business operations by conducting feasibility studies, running AI-focused workshops and developing new algorithms specific to the firm’s needs. New AI features are set …

The central banks of Singapore and Canada have successfully used their blockchain networks to send each other digital currency, a joint press release confirmed on May 2. As part of the distributed ledger technology (DLT) projects being pursued by both banks, the Monetary Authority of Singapore (BAS) sent funds to the Bank of Canada (BoC) without a third party. The process was made possible by linking up two DLT networks: MAS’ nascent Project Ubin platform and BoC’s Project Jasper. JPMorgan and accounting giant Accenture, which assisted in the development of the platforms, also partnered with the banks to make the …

More than 20 of the crypto market’s biggest traders gathered in January for talks on making digital assets and tokens part of the global financial architecture, according to a Bloomberg report published on April 25. The meeting was reportedly arranged by Standard Chartered executive Hoe Lon Leng — and representatives from Galaxy Digital, Coinbase and Binance were among those said to have attended the talks at a luxury resort in Singapore. Bloomberg reported that the meeting has resulted in plans for a clearinghouse for crypto derivatives that would reduce trading costs while increasing trading volumes. Reportedly known as the Liquidity …