Industry News

Singapore’s retail landscape is seeing a positive shift as the islandwide retail vacancy rate decreased from 7.1% in the second quarter (Q2) to 6.9% in the third quarter (Q3) of this year, according to Savills’ latest report. This decline is attributed to a slight improvement in net demand for retail space, particularly in Orchard Road and the Downtown Core Planning Area, alongside steady demand in suburban areas.

The report highlights that landlords have become more flexible with lease terms, especially for less prime spaces, as core tenants seek early lease terminations. This flexibility has contributed to the improved occupancy rates. Savills estimates that the pipeline supply of retail space will be around 540,000 square feet this year, a decrease from 679,000 square feet completed in 2024. The supply is expected to taper off in 2026 and 2027, with major developments anticipated from 2028 onwards, such as the expansion of Marina Bay Sands.

Despite these positive trends, high operating costs and inconsistent spending patterns continue to challenge retailers, leading to higher tenant turnover. Suburban malls, supported by steady footfall and essential purchases, face limited rental growth due to cost pressures and competition from cross-border shopping.

Singapore remains a top luxury shopping destination in Asia, attracting international brands. Recent openings include Chinese jewellery label Laopu Gold at Marina Bay Sands and Swiss sportswear brand On at Jewel Changi Airport. American fast-food chain Chick-fil-A is set to open its first Asian outlet in December, with other international brands planning to follow suit.

Sulian Tan-Wijaya of Savills Singapore noted, “The influx of overseas brands, particularly from China, continues, although there is some push-back on rents in prime malls.” Alan Cheong, also from Savills, added, “We expect Orchard Road and suburban mall rents to rise by up to 2% in 2025.”

The Life Insurance Association, Singapore (LIA Singapore) has reported a 10.4% increase in total weighted new business premiums for the year-to-date third quarter of 2025, reaching S$4.76b. This growth reflects strong consumer confidence and a proactive approach by Singaporeans towards financial security. Financial Adviser Representatives, both independent and insurer-backed, played a significant role, securing S$50.8b in sum assured, which accounts for 44.3% of the total for the period.

The demand for annual premium policies surged by 19.9% compared to the previous year, totalling S$3.57b. Conversely, single-premium policies saw a decline of 10.8%, amounting to S$1.19b. LIA Singapore President Wong Sze Keed noted, “We are making steady progress in narrowing Singapore’s protection gap. Singaporeans are not just getting more financially savvy, they are also taking steps to become more adequately insured.”

Investment-linked policies maintained their popularity, comprising 43% of the total weighted new business premiums. Meanwhile, Integrated Shield Plans (IPs) continue to be a cornerstone of health insurance, with nearly 113,000 new IPs taken up in the first nine months of 2025. This brings the total number of lives covered by IPs to approximately 3 million, or 71% of Singapore residents.

Looking ahead, the industry remains optimistic, despite anticipated healthcare cost increases in 2026. The life insurance sector is committed to evolving its products to meet the community’s needs, ensuring sustainable and accessible healthcare for all.

Nium, a global leader in real-time cross-border payments, has announced its participation in Visa’s stablecoin settlement pilot. This initiative allows Nium to settle transactions using stablecoins, including Circle’s USDC, across supported blockchains. The collaboration aims to modernise Nium’s payment operations by offering faster, more secure, and programmable settlement capabilities.

The integration of stablecoin settlement is set to transform Nium’s cross-border money movement by shifting from traditional batch-based systems to blockchain-based stablecoin flows. This transition is expected to reduce friction, costs, and delays, addressing common issues such as weekend cutoffs and time zone discrepancies. Alex Johnson, Chief Payments Officer at Nium, stated, “By settling with Visa via stablecoins, we’re aligning payments to the speed of the internet, not the speed of traditional rails.”

Visa’s Head of Digital Currencies Asia Pacific, Nischint Sanghavi, highlighted the importance of stablecoins in modern money movement, noting that the pilot offers predictable settlement capabilities up to seven days a week. “We’re excited to expand our collaboration with Nium to bring these new capabilities to more participants in the ecosystem,” Sanghavi added.

Nium’s participation in the pilot leverages its existing real-time cross-border infrastructure, enabling customers and fintechs to access faster digital settlement rails without developing their own stablecoin infrastructure. This effort builds on Visa and Nium’s longstanding collaboration to enhance global money movement for enterprises worldwide. As stablecoins become increasingly integral to financial transactions, this partnership signifies a pivotal shift towards more efficient and adaptable payment solutions.

Thunes, a global payment network, has unveiled its Account Top Up and Withdrawal solutions, designed to streamline transactions for major digital asset platforms. These new offerings enable seamless integration with traditional finance, allowing digital asset companies to facilitate onramp and offramp transactions efficiently. The solutions are supported by Thunes’ Fortress Compliance Platform and SmartX Treasury System, ensuring regulatory compliance and improved liquidity management.

The Account Top Up solution offers direct local payment methods for onramp transactions, whilst the Account Withdrawal solution provides fast and transparent fiat payouts across 40 markets. This development is part of Thunes’ broader strategy to enhance its services, following innovations like stablecoin prefunding for 24/7 treasury operations and the Pay-to-Stablecoin-Wallets solution, which allows instant stablecoin payouts in over 130 countries.

Chloe Mayenobe, President and COO of Thunes, stated, “Thunes is connecting fiat and digital finance through one trusted Direct Global Network. Our new Account Top Up and Withdrawal solutions give digital asset platforms the infrastructure they need to operate globally with speed, compliance, and interoperability.”

Elie Bertha, Chief Product Officer at Thunes, added, “Digital asset companies are growing rapidly but are held back by fragmented payment systems and compliance barriers. By enabling stablecoin prefunding and global fiat access for account top-up and withdrawals in one unified solution, we’re delivering the flexibility and reach that leading digital asset companies need to operate and scale confidently across borders.”

These solutions are expected to help digital asset companies capitalise on the projected $10b growth in the digital assets market over the next year, offering a single integration to speed up time to market and reduce operational friction.

SGX Mainboard-listed Food Empire Holdings Limited has announced a significant 23.9% increase in revenue for the first nine months of 2025, reaching $426.7m. This marks the company’s fifth consecutive year of record-breaking financial performance. The growth was propelled by robust double-digit increases across all core segments, particularly in Russia and Ukraine, Kazakhstan and CIS, where revenue rose by 30.7% and 26.2%, respectively.

The company’s quarterly revenue also saw a notable rise, with a 28.3% increase to $152.6m in Q3 2025. This growth was largely attributed to consumer promotions and increased demand in key markets. The Southeast Asia segment, led by Vietnam, contributed significantly with a 20.8% increase to $114.5m, driven by consumer acquisition and brand investments.

Sudeep Nair, Food Empire’s CEO, stated, “Our outstanding performance in 3Q2025 and year-to-date 9M2025 is an outcome of brand investments and the ability to strategically allocate resources to markets where conditions are more favourable.”

In recent developments, Food Empire has invested $37m in expanding its coffee manufacturing facility in India, expected to boost capacity by 60% by 2027. Additionally, the company raised S$42.8m through a share placement to support growth opportunities and strengthen its balance sheet. With these strategic moves, Food Empire is optimistic about maintaining its growth trajectory and achieving another record financial year.

Gushengtang TCM, a leading Traditional Chinese Medicine group, is set to expand its footprint in Singapore by opening 30 clinics by 2026. The company plans to integrate its proprietary ‘Master TCM AI’ system, which was recently launched at GovWare 2025, to enhance patient care through data-backed, evidence-informed practices.

The expansion is part of a strategic partnership with August Global Partners, a Singapore-based fund management company. This collaboration aims to generate S$1b in revenue over the next seven years by focusing on clinic expansion, AI-powered clinical systems, and international product certification.

The ‘Master TCM AI’ system is designed to support physicians across eight specialities, including oncology and dermatology, by providing evidence-informed recommendations and tracking treatment outcomes. “Our collaboration with 1doc and August Global Partners marks an important milestone in integrating Traditional Chinese Medicine into Singapore’s healthcare ecosystem,” said Vicky Liem, Vice President of Gushengtang TCM Group.

Additionally, Gushengtang has partnered with 1doc, a subsidiary of IAPPS Health Group, to integrate TCM into Western family clinics. This partnership allows patients to access both TCM and Western medical care under one roof, aligning with Singapore’s TCM Integrative Sandbox Initiative.

Gushengtang’s expansion aligns with Singapore’s healthcare vision of integrating traditional and modern medicine, offering a coordinated, evidence-based approach to patient care. The company views Singapore as a gateway for international growth and a testbed for digital health integration.

Perennial Holdings has announced the sale of the former Caldecott Broadcast Centre site, acquired from Mediacorp in 2020, with a guide price exceeding $256m (S$350m). The site, spanning 752,014 square feet, is positioned as one of Singapore’s largest landed redevelopment opportunities in decades. Real estate advisers Savills Singapore and Delasa are managing the Expressions of Interest (EOI) exercise, which closes on 15 January 2026.

The site, zoned as ‘Civic & Community Institution’ under the 2019 Master Plan, could be transformed into over 60 two-storey bungalows, each with a minimum land area of 800 square metres, pending approvals. Located in the prestigious Caldecott Hill Good Class Bungalow area, the site offers a unique chance to develop a luxury bungalow enclave.

Perennial Holdings originally intended to build large Good Class Bungalows but has shifted focus to a healthcare-centric strategy. “We are availing the site for sale so that resources can be recalibrated to focus on our core business,” a spokesperson stated.

Karamjit Singh, CEO of Delasa, highlighted the persistent scarcity of detached houses in Singapore, despite the growing population and housing stock. “This scarcity, coupled with rising household wealth and the arrival of new ultra-high-net-worth residents, continues to support robust demand and pricing in the bungalow market,” he said.

Jeremy Lake, Managing Director of Savills, noted the site’s potential: “Few sites offer such a blank canvas to create an entirely new and distinctive landed development.”

The sale is expected to attract interest from both traditional developers and ultra-affluent Singaporeans seeking to create bespoke mansions.

ST Engineering has launched its latest enterprise-grade quantum-safe cybersecurity solutions at the Singapore FinTech Festival 2025. These innovations are designed to help financial services organisations in Singapore achieve cryptographic agility and integrate quantum security measures into their operations.

The Quantum-Safe Encryptor, developed with post-quantum cryptography (PQC), is engineered to protect sensitive data and communications from quantum decryption threats. It is designed to integrate with future third-party Quantum Key Distribution (QKD) systems, ensuring ultra-low-latency, high-assurance encryption for critical infrastructure, government, defence, and enterprise networks.

Additionally, the Quantizant PQC-readiness platform assists organisations in planning and implementing their multi-year migration to quantum-safe cryptography. It features an intelligent discovery engine for cryptographic inventory management and an AI-powered quantum risk engine for risk assessment. The platform also includes a PQC migration playbook, sandbox environments for testing, and modules for third-party integration.

Tan Bin Ru, President for Enterprise (Digital) at ST Engineering, stated, “As quantum computing approaches an inflection point, organisations will have to migrate to quantum-resistant cryptographic algorithms to secure their systems before adversarial quantum capabilities mature.”

ST Engineering’s showcase at the festival also included AI-powered solutions aimed at enhancing operational efficiency and cyber resilience. The company’s Cyber business has developed deep capabilities across hardware, solutions, and services, supporting customers in 19 countries and 11 critical sectors.

With these advancements, ST Engineering continues to position itself at the forefront of national and enterprise cyber resilience, aiding financial institutions in transitioning from proof-of-concept to real business deployments.

Mastercard has unveiled an ambitious plan to make online shopping across Asia Pacific password-free and number-free by 2030, with Singapore set for full adoption by 2027. Announced at the Singapore FinTech Festival, this initiative leverages tokenised payments and biometric authentication to combat card-not-present fraud, which is currently seven times higher than in-store transactions.

The move is expected to significantly benefit Singapore businesses by enhancing security, improving customer experience, and increasing revenue. Tokenised payments are projected to boost approval rates, potentially increasing merchant sales by billions. Mastercard is collaborating with banks, merchants, digital wallets, and technology partners to facilitate this transition, aiming for full adoption in Singapore, Malaysia, and Vietnam by 2027.

Sandeep Malhotra, Executive Vice President of Core Payments for Asia Pacific at Mastercard, stated, “The vision is simple: no passwords, no manual card entry, no friction.” He emphasised that by uniting the industry, Mastercard is accelerating the adoption of tokenisation and payment passkeys to create a secure, seamless payment experience.

The initiative builds on Mastercard’s successful implementation of tokenisation in India, where collaboration with regulators, banks, and merchants has led to near-complete adoption for e-commerce. This regional roadmap is part of Mastercard’s broader strategy to transform digital payments into intelligent commerce, powered by AI and connected networks.

As the e-commerce market in Asia Pacific is projected to exceed $7t by 2030, Mastercard’s initiative could redefine online shopping, offering a smarter, more secure future for consumers and businesses alike.

The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) and United Kingdom’s Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) have announced a strategic partnership to advance artificial intelligence (AI) in finance between Singapore and the United Kingdom. Revealed at the Singapore FinTech Festival, the UK-Singapore AI-in-Finance Partnership is set to promote safe and responsible AI innovation, allowing AI solution providers in both countries to scale their operations effectively across these key financial markets.

The collaboration will focus on joint testing of AI solutions, sharing regulatory insights, and hosting events to highlight best practices in AI. This initiative builds on existing programmes, MAS PathFin.ai and FCA AI Spotlight, to enhance AI collaboration between the two financial centres. Kenneth Gay, Chief FinTech Officer at MAS, emphasised the importance of this partnership, stating, “This new UK-Singapore AI-in-Finance Partnership with the Financial Conduct Authority creates an important bridge for our financial institutions, innovators and regulators to collaborate on trustworthy AI.”

Jessica Rusu, Chief Data, Information and Intelligence Officer at the FCA, highlighted the global influence of the partnership, noting that it will enable UK and Singapore firms to explore new cross-border opportunities and shape the future of responsible AI innovation in finance.

AI innovators from the UK and Singapore are encouraged to participate in future FCA-MAS AI Spotlight and PathFin.ai events by applying through the respective programmes. This partnership is poised to set global benchmarks for responsible AI use in the financial sector, strengthening connectivity between the UK and Singapore’s financial ecosystems.