Registration is open for Asia Fintech Forum 2026, a one-day Kuala Lumpur summit that will bring together regulators, banks, fintech companies and digital-asset specialists to discuss artificial intelligence, stablecoins, tokenisation and financial inclusion across Asia.
The Responsible Fintech Institute, a Singapore-based nonprofit organization, said the forum will take place on Friday, 2 October at the World Trade Centre Kuala Lumpur. It expects about 1,000 delegates and has scheduled 40 speakers across main-stage discussions, workshops and closed-door roundtables.
The event marks the institute’s first flagship forum outside Singapore, placing Malaysia at the center of a program designed around the region’s changing approach to digital finance. Remi Technology, a Singapore-headquartered cross-border settlement provider, is the title sponsor.
The agenda, themed “Architecting Asia’s financial frontier: AI, digital assets, and inclusive banking,” gives prominent space to the infrastructure and policy questions that increasingly shape whether blockchain-based financial products can move beyond pilots. Sessions are set to cover stablecoin clearing and settlement, real-world asset tokenisation, digital banks, Islamic fintech and the legal frameworks surrounding digital assets.
Stablecoins and tokenisation take center stage
The program’s focus on stablecoin settlement and cross-border payments reflects a practical concern for Asian financial markets: moving value between jurisdictions remains costly, slow and subject to differing compliance requirements. A stablecoin is a digital token designed to maintain a fixed value against an asset, commonly a national currency. Its usefulness in payments depends less on the token itself than on the rules governing issuance, redemption, reserves, identity checks and transaction monitoring.
That makes the inclusion of regulators and financial institutions particularly relevant. Discussions on stablecoin clearing could address the systems required to settle transactions between firms, while cross-border payment panels are likely to examine how digital money interacts with existing banking rails rather than operating separately from them.
Real-world asset, or RWA, tokenisation is another major theme. The term refers to representing claims on assets such as bonds, funds, property or invoices through blockchain-based tokens. Financial institutions have increasingly explored tokenisation as a way to streamline recordkeeping, transfers and settlement, but legal ownership, custody arrangements and enforceability remain central obstacles.
Asia Fintech Forum’s agenda specifically includes RWA tokenisation and legal frameworks, suggesting that the discussion will extend beyond technical demonstrations. Questions around which entities may issue tokens, how holders’ rights are recorded and how products are treated across borders will determine whether tokenised assets can be distributed at institutional scale.
ASEAN policy and banking modernization
The forum will also address ASEAN fintech and the Digital Economy Framework Agreement, known as DEFA. ASEAN has been working toward a regional digital-economy framework that could cover areas including digital trade, electronic payments, data flows and cybersecurity. For fintech firms operating in multiple Southeast Asian markets, regulatory fragmentation can create higher costs than the underlying technology.
A session on DEFA places digital-asset policy within that wider economic integration effort. Payment providers and digital banks do not only face blockchain-specific rules; they must also comply with national requirements for licensing, data governance, consumer protection and anti-money-laundering controls.
Islamic fintech and digital banking are included alongside the digital-asset sessions. Malaysia has a well-developed Islamic finance sector and has positioned itself as a regional center for Shariah-compliant financial services. Bringing Islamic fintech into the program could broaden the debate from crypto-market infrastructure to products designed for consumers and businesses underserved by conventional banking.
Mohammad Ridzuan Abdul Aziz, chief executive officer of Aeon Bank, is among the named speakers. Aeon Bank received approval from Bank Negara Malaysia to operate as a digital bank, making its participation relevant to discussions about how app-based banks can build customer trust and reach populations that may lack access to traditional branches or credit products.
Regulators and industry groups join the program
The Responsible Fintech Institute has also listed Affendi Rashdi, director-general at Labuan Financial Services Authority, and Ja’afar Rihan, the authority’s head of Islamic business development, as regulatory participants. Labuan is Malaysia’s international business and financial center, and the authority’s involvement gives the forum a direct connection to discussions of financial services regulation and Islamic finance.
Other announced speakers include Aaron Tang, general manager of Luno Malaysia; Kenneth Chan, chief executive officer of Webull Malaysia; and Victoria Wymark of PwC South East Asia. The organizer has posted its full speaker roster on the event website.
The forum’s partner list spans financial and industry organizations across the region, including the Labuan Financial Services Authority, International Digital Economics Association, Digital Assets Association, Thailand Fintech Association, Fintech Philippines Association and Hong Kong Fintech Industry Association. Groups from India, Malaysia and Taiwan are also listed as supporting partners.
NexStox is named as a strategic partner and venue sponsor, while RegTank, Sumsub and VerifyVASP are among the additional sponsors. Their involvement brings compliance, identity-verification and digital-asset infrastructure firms into an agenda where regulatory implementation is likely to be as prominent as product development.
AI and cybersecurity broaden the agenda
The event is not limited to blockchain. Its sessions include agentic AI in financial services, referring to AI systems able to carry out multistep tasks with some degree of autonomy. Banks and fintech firms are examining such systems for areas including customer support, operations, risk monitoring and compliance workflows, while regulators are increasingly focused on accountability, data security and decision-making controls.
Post-quantum cryptography, or PQC, is also scheduled for discussion. PQC refers to encryption methods designed to withstand attacks from sufficiently powerful quantum computers. The risk remains a longer-term one for most institutions, but banks handling sensitive customer and transaction data may need to begin planning system upgrades well before quantum computing poses a direct operational threat.
Another session, listed under “Project Pigeon,” will examine governance standards and institutional frameworks for permissionless blockchains in the Asia-Pacific region. Permissionless blockchains allow anyone to participate in a network without prior approval, creating governance and compliance challenges for institutions accustomed to controlled financial infrastructure.
By combining those questions with payments, digital banking and tokenisation, Asia Fintech Forum is positioning its Kuala Lumpur debut around the operational decisions facing Asian finance: which technologies can be deployed under existing rules, where new standards are needed, and how firms can build systems that work across national borders. Registration is available through the organizer’s website, asiafintech.org.
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