Techcombank is upgrading a core platform that has fallen seven releases behind as it expands across banking, securities and insurance, but the larger transformation will come after migration as it decides what should remain in the core and what can move into more flexible data, pricing and customer services.

Temenos CEO Takis Spiliopoulos says banks are becoming more disciplined about the cost and returns from AI, while exploring whether the technology can reduce implementation and upgrade effort and change the economics that have made core modernisation slow, expensive and risky.

Financial Markets Weekly: Institutions globally advanced tokenisation and cross-border settlement infrastructure this week, as Broadridge scaled its $351 billion repo platform and China enforced variation-margin rules.

BPI president and CEO Jose Teodoro “TG” Limcaoco is seeking to reduce the bank’s historical dependence on institutional lending by growing consumer and SME businesses faster, while higher credit costs and a weaker economic environment are testing the economics of that shift.

Retail Finance Weekly: Banks and fintechs globally deepened embedded and digital-asset finance this week, as Affirm re-entered Australia and Better-Coinbase launched Bitcoin-backed mortgages.

TAB Africa Weekly Brief: African institutions diversified funding sources this week, with TDB, Rwanda and South Africa securing new facilities as SARB overhauled national payment system governance.

TAB Middle East Weekly Brief: CBUAE opens urgent Banque Misr examination, Saudi deposit growth outpaces credit and Qatar's economy contracts.

Risk and Capital Weekly: Swiss committee proposes UBS capital compromise, FDIC defeats SVB parent's claim, FSB flags frontier-AI cyber risk

Transaction Finance Weekly: UOB and HSBC complete tokenised deposit transactions, RBC unifies transaction banking and TD tests Agorá.

Wealth and Society tracks a week of consolidation in asset management and adviser infrastructure, as Victory Capital agrees a $7 billion deal for First Eagle Investments, Vanguard moves to acquire Altruist and SBI Holdings takes a stake in Jakarta's Ajaib Group.

CIMB’s second-quarter net profit rose 2.6%, while asset growth and client income helped cushion narrower margins. Wholesale banking accounted for 42% of first-half profit before tax as loans expanded, although the division’s operating income remained broadly flat and higher provision writebacks accounted for most of its profit increase.

Maybank’s second-quarter net profit rose 2.4% as stronger fees and lower impairment charges narrowed the first-half decline. Wealth fees and current and savings account deposits extended the gains identified at FY2025, while credit-cost normalisation and planned full ownership of Etiqa change the earnings and capital picture under ROAR30.

The Asian Banker Weekly Brief: Warsh reshapes Fed guidance, Treasury targets Banque Misr, China's banks post profit gains and rate hikes continue in Korea and Philippines.

Mobile banking development cycles fall from more than a year under traditional waterfall processes to only weeks as cloud infrastructure, modular architecture, configurable products and smaller teams reduce hand-offs and rework. But faster development does not always mean faster launches, as testing, security, data readiness, certification, partner coordination and customer adoption can still slow delivery.

Financial Technology Weekly: Sacombank reports performance and infrastructure gains from its hybrid-cloud core upgrade, while ANZ cuts customer scam losses in Australia by 24% year-on-year through payment warnings and fraud controls.