SMEs form such a large part of the Singaporean business ecosystem and are entrusted with the personal details of such a large part of the population, that the cyber risks to SMEs are actually cyber risks to us all.

With the e-wallet economy in Asia set to have 2.6 billion users, involving over $7 trillion-worth of transactions by 2025, this revolution in digital finance is transforming how consumers and markets operate, empowering businesses, and boosting financial inclusion. Here’s how Asia’s wallet economy differs to the West’s, the opportunities for both and the three factors propelling its rise in Asia.

With Southeast Asia's digital economy projected to hit $300 billion by 2025, it's easy to get caught up in the headlines about the meteoric rise of e-commerce in Asia. Yet, for 55% of the world’s people who are not digitally connected, the pandemic worsened the digital divide, locking them out of the digital economy.

With the emergence of open finance including open banking, the way consumers and businesses can connect with and control their data, for everything from budgeting and payments to investing and borrowing, is being reimagined and redefined.

While cashless payments are becoming more popular in Japan, major credit card companies are expanding contactless payment cards around the world, spurred by measures to prevent the spread of COVID-19. In this new normal, Mastercard has set its sights on Japan, and has begun to push for sustainable, contactless payments with credit functions and versatility not found in other electronic payment systems.

The World Cities Summit brought industry leaders together to share sustainable city challenges and urban solutions. On the sidelines of the City Possible™-sponsored Smart Cities Workshop, Lim Kok Kee explains how smart infrastructure makes cities safer, offers aid to those in need and shortens your commute.

Use of digital payments in Asia has grown by 2.5 times in 2020, compared to pre-Covid times. The role of payments in Asia’s overall banking landscape has expanded as well, now representing 44% of aggregate banking revenues, compared with a third as recently as 2007.

The COVID-19 pandemic has pushed e-commerce technology ahead by two years and driven a revolution in how people pay for things. According to the Mastercard New Payments Index, 94 percent of consumers in the Asia Pacific region say they’ll consider using at least one emerging payment technology in the next year.

Mastercard's Ari Sarker joins executives from Airwallex, Klarna and PayPal to discuss the massive shift toward digital payments in 2020, and what's in store for 2021. Here’s what they had to say.

Data decency and consumer trust are the bedrock of open banking. Head of Services for Asia Pacific Matthew Driver says decency, transparency and consumer consent are required for long-term success, and shares why open banking, if done right, will change the world.

Collaborating with competitors – is it worth it? APAC CTO Gautam Aggarwal says technology is transforming how and why companies work together, and how competitors can make the most of it.

3 steps to building a competitive data strategy.

As digital payments become a mainstay in the next normal, SMEs can overcome the sustained impacts of COVID-19 and earn customer loyalty by embracing ecommerce and touch-free transactions – without compromising on cybersecurity.

The payments giant has been building new tech platforms that help increase access to credit for small businesses.

Imagine paying using only your face, voice or a wave of the hand. Soon biometrics and the integration of AI, technology tools, and social commerce will make passwords and pins things of the past. Ari Sarker and Sandeep Malhotra offer a peek into the future.

The shift from cash to a digital economy fuelled by real-time payments (RTPs) has accelerated. With financial inclusion via payments digitization at the core of most nation-building agendas, Asia now leads the world in RTPs. Asia Pacific Co-President Ari Sarker says the next challenge is connecting those infrastructures across borders.

Open banking can turn tedious processes into delightful transactions – as long as users share their data. As open banking takes off, businesses that ethically manage consumer data will see the greatest returns.

As COVID-19 wreaks havoc on businesses, those with the resources and know-how to use data and predictive analytics will have a supersized advantage over those that don’t.

Change is often a gradual process — not a big-bang event — as information, motivation and infrastructure take time to converge. But in the case of COVID-19, the need for social distancing has heightened demand for secure, quick transactions, creating ripe conditions for the rapid adoption of contactless payments which provide users with much-needed peace of mind.

While collaboration between big corporates and small fintechs isn’t always easy or organic, it’s important to focus on common goals—benefiting consumers and growing businesses. As millions emerge from COVID-19 more digitally-savvy and e-commerce-oriented, not investing in partnerships now could be costly in the long run.

Open Banking is accelerating the development of the digital financial economy. Learn how players need to adapt to the digital ecosystem to better serve the needs of consumers and SMEs.

As Asia’s banking scene makes way for more digital players, find out how we think they’ll change the game, why fintegration is the way forward and how we see the next five years playing out as digitization continues to revolutionize banking.

62% of consumers are concerned about fraud or identity theft, but only 43% of corporates are, according to a new survey conducted by Mastercard and Harvard Business Review. This perception gap is dangerous and potentially costly for companies

Globalization has carried us far but it will take more to uplift the billions that remain left behind. As technological change races on and governments grapple with innumerable challenges, it’s time for the private sector to step up.

Though women make up close to half of Singapore’s workforce, they account for little more than a quarter of all business owners. This not only holds women back, but also has consequences for the macroeconomy and society which may miss out on ground breaking ideas.

In a region of diverse financial systems, which is also home to an astonishing share of the world's digitally native population, here's what our Asia Pacific head of Data & Services sees as the three unifying factors that will transform the face of banking in Asia.

Discover the enabling factors that make the difference for women entrepreneurs in Asia. Knowing how inequalities can be expressed in various ways across the region is the first step in closing the gender gap.