The ruling is subject to appeal. But for now, advocates for cryptocurrency trading in India have won the day: the Supreme Court of India has overturned a ban on cryptocurrencies that was issued by the Reserve Bank of India in 2018.

Specifically, the Reserve Bank forbade Indian banks from working with cryptocurrency exchanges out of concerns ranging from “consumer protection” to “market integrity.” And while India’s participation in the worldwide cryptocurrency market is modest (less than 5% when the ban was instituted), the reaction to the ruling was strong, with a number of cryptocurrency exchanges challenging the Reserve Bank in court. This week, the court sided with the exchanges, observing that no bank regulated by the Reserve Bank had been negatively affected by cryptocurrency trading before the ban, and that a complete ban was thus a disproportionate response.

That said, the ban is not yet a settled matter. The RBI plans to file a review petition with the Supreme Court, again citing systemic risk concerns for the country’s banking system should trading in cryptocurrencies be permitted. As of now, however, cryptocurrency exchanges and platforms in the country are free to operate, legal experts say.

FinovateAsia alum TurnKey Lender will help leading Cambodian financial services institution Sambat improve its loan application processing courtesy of a newly-announced partnership. Sambat, which serves both retail customers as well as micro, small, and medium-sized businesses, will use TurnKey Lender’s Unified Lending Solution to accelerate loan decisioning, increase portfolio profitability, and boost customer lifetime value.

TurnKey Lender CEO Dmitry Voronenko praised Sambat as one of Cambodia’s “early adopters of the fully digital approach to banking.” Managing Director for Sambat Harvey Poh called the deployment a “major milestone” and “a testament to our commitment to deliver digital financial services to our customers.”

Founded in 2014, TurnKey Lender has a U.S. headquarters in Austin, Texas, and maintains offices in Singapore; Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia; and the Philippines. The company was recognized by Frost & Sullivan’s Asia-Pacific Best Practices Awards at the beginning of the year, taking home top honors in the Singapore Fintech Industry New Product Innovation category.

Here is our weekly look at fintech around the world.

Latin America and the Caribbean

• Brazilian challenger bank Nubank launches its Nu credit card in Mexico.
• Chilean venture capital fund Magma Partners closes its $50 million fund, the largest ever raised by the firm.
• Peruvian fintech Ayllu announces project to map out of all the fintech startups in the country.

Asia-Pacific

• Turnkey Lender forges partnership with leading Cambodian financial institution, Sambat Finance.
• Huobi Thailand offers baht-to-crypto currency trading.
• Mastercard to play leading role in Series B investment for Indonesian fintech Digiasia.

Sub-Saharan Africa

• Cointelegraph takes a deep dive into the emerging fintech economies of Kenya, Ethiopia, and Ghana.
• A new payment license requirement may complicate life for Nigerian fintechs.
• FLASH International, based in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, announces an initiative to fund fintech startups in the country.

Central and Eastern Europe

• Wirecard partners with Estonia-based Xolo to serve the gig economy.
• Finovate’s sister publication, Fintech Futures, profiles Polish digital banking provider and Finovate alum Efigence.
• Polish asset manager Skarbiec TFI teams up with fintech solution provider NeoXam to enhance its portfolio management.

Middle East and Northern Africa

• The UAE’s National Bank of Fujairah to leverage the RippleNet network to provide real-time, cross-border fund transfers to India.
• Dubai International Financial Center announces a tripling of the size of its Fintech Hive.
• Monoco’s Privatam, which offers structured investment products, goes live in Dubai.

Central and Southern Asia

• Indian SME lender SMEcorner raises $30 million in Series B funding.
• Supreme Court of India overturns Central Bank’s ban on cryptocurrency trading.
• Leap Financial, a fintech platform that specializes in providing financing to Indian students studying abroad, secures $5.5 million in round led by Sequoia India.

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Will 2020 be the year of emerging markets fintech? From major investments in fintechs in Latin America and Africa to the challenger banking “space race” in Singapore, 2020 could turn out to be a breakout year for fintech in many growing economies around the world.

And while attention is deservedly shifting to exciting news in fintech in countries like Mexico, Brazil, and Nigeria, it is also worth considering which regions might have interesting fintech developments which, while flying under the radar now, could end up dominating international fintech headlines by mid-year.

With this in mind, we turn to Europe in general and the Central and Eastern Europe region in specific. Here’s a look at our conversation with Krzysztof Pulkiewicz, founder and CEO of the Belgian-based and “proudly developed in Poland” fintech innovator banqUP. We talked with Pulkiewicz on the latest developments with his company, as well as his outlook on open banking and the differences between business inside and outside the CEE.

This week on Finovate.com we also featured news about American Express and China, looked at the new partnership between Ripple and Thailand’s biggest bank, and reported on a nine-figure investment in a Latin American real estate marketplace.

Here is our weekly look at fintech around the world.

Middle East and Northern Africa

• Ziraat Participation Bank, headquartered in Sudan, to deploy the iMAL Islamic core banking system from Path Solutions.
• Emirates NBD announces completion of the third phase of its core banking systems upgrade.
• Abu Dhabi Investment Office leads Series A funding round for blockchain-based regtech firm, Securrency.

Central and Southern Asia

• Netherlands-based payments company PayU acquires majority stake in Indian fintech PaySense, plans to merge company with Indian consumer lender LazyPay.
• Royal Bank of India announces new rules to enable companies to participate in remote customer onboarding.
• Two U.K.-based credit unions, Voyager Alliance CU and Retail CU, go live on TCS Bancs, a core banking solution from Indian technology company Tata Consultancy Services.

Latin America and the Caribbean

• IBM partners with Argentina’s Chamber of Fintech to support digital transformation projects in the country’s fintech and banking sector.
• Central Bank of the Bahamas to launch digital version of its currency.
• Business Insider calls Mexico “a top neobank market to watch in 2020.”

Asia-Pacific

• What trade war? China unveils new regulations that make it easier for foreign lenders to access the Chinese market.
• Horizons Ventures leads Series A+ round for Hong Kong-based financial data and analytics provider MioTech.
• Lightnet, a Thailand-based blockchain company operating in the remittance market, has raised more than $31 million in new funding.

Sub-Saharan Africa

• fin24 features OkGo.live, The People’s Fund, Isiduli, and a non-profit, blockchain pilot program in its look at four South African fintechs to watch in 2020.
• Chipper Cash, a U.S.-based fintech that offers no fee, mobile P2P services in six African countries, raises $6 million in funding.
• Ventureburn lists 10 ways Africa’s fintech sector boomed in 2019.

Central and Eastern Europe

• Qonto, a challenger bank for SMEs launched in France two years ago, announces expansion to Germany.
• Lithuania’s biggest postal service provider extends cooperation agreement with payment card authorization firm Ashburn International.
• Insurance software solution provider Sapiens International acquires German-based insurtech firm, sum.cumo.

As Finovate goes increasingly global, so does our coverage of financial technology. Finovate Global is our weekly look at fintech innovation in developing economies in Asia, Africa, the Middle East, Latin America, and Central and Eastern Europe.

Top image designed by Freepik