Every Friday we pull the top Asia headlines on digital-asset regulation, cyber & physical risk, industry moves and insurance signals — concise, sourced, and action-focused for insurers and corporate risk teams.
1) Regulatory
Hong Kong publishes consultation conclusions on licensing for VA dealers & custodians — FSTB/SFC released consultation conclusions that tighten licensing and operational proof requirements for virtual-asset dealers and custodians (impact: higher on-shore compliance and settlement evidence expectations).
Thailand’s TouristDigiPay sandbox — operator applications and timeline — Thailand’s SEC continues to run the TouristDigiPay pilot (operators accepted through Dec 26), a live payments sandbox converting crypto → baht that will affect PSP / AML / settlement controls for participants.
2) Hacking & Physical Risks
OAuth/device-code phishing campaigns surge (targets Microsoft365 & orgs) — Large-scale device-code phishing is being exploited in the wild to capture session/device codes and bypass MFA flows; security teams should assume this vector is active and urgently review app-authorization policies.
SIM / mobile-identity fraud warnings across APAC (user protections emphasised) — Regional reporting and advisories (Dec 25) urged users and firms to lock SIMs, strengthen telco identity checks and review eSIM issuance processes after rising SIM-swap incidents.
3) Industry & Markets
Banks and corporates piloting tokenised treasury / deposits — Standard Chartered went live with a tokenised deposit/treasury pilot (SGD/USD tokenised account flows), signalling real-world tokenisation moving into bank treasury operations and corporate liquidity use-cases.
CIMB and Malaysia national pilot for tokenised financial services — Regional banks (CIMB) announced development plans under national tokenisation pilots, showing national programs pushing tokenised rails beyond simple proofs of concept.
4) Insurance Spotlight
Captive & alternative risk funding momentum — Captive-insurance market coverage (Dec 19) shows growing demand for captives and alternative risk financing as firms seek insurer alternatives and bespoke funding for emerging exposures.
Insurers clarifying AI / tech liability coverage (explicit policy shifts) — Recent industry commentary shows carriers moving from “silent” AI exposure to explicit endorsements/exclusions and probing company disclosures — expect stricter model-governance evidence requests before capacity is offered.
