About the Series #
SEA Weekly brings you an audio version of Chloe Tan’s SEA Weekly newsletter, analyzing the major events and developments reshaping Southeast Asia’s digital economy each week.
Rather than surface-level recaps, these episodes dig into the underlying patterns: the infrastructure being built beneath consumer apps, the regulatory frameworks governments are writing, the consolidation reshaping regional power dynamics, and the implications for founders, investors, and policy makers across the region.
Each episode connects this week’s news to bigger strategic questions: How is Southeast Asia’s fintech ecosystem maturing? What does governance mean when AI systems make financial decisions? Who controls the platforms billions of Southeast Asians rely on?
The audience is professional, analytical, and skeptical of hype. Expect insight over recap, specificity over generalization, and forward-looking analysis alongside reporting on what just happened.
Available on Spotify, Apple Podcast and LinkedIn
Episodes #
Episode 6: After Liberation Day #
April 5, 2026
One year after Liberation Day tariffs hit Vietnam at 46% and Cambodia at 49%, the region’s real response wasn’t in the factories — it was in the fintech stack. Vietnam’s 0.1% crypto transaction tax turns out to be a surveillance architecture, not a revenue measure. Revolut is in talks to acquire a major Asian bank, and the timing reveals how the tariff year accelerated the M&A calculus for every international fintech in the region. Bangkok’s Money20/20 agenda crystallises the question the whole industry now has to answer out loud.
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Episode 5: Clearing the Field #
March 29, 2026
Vietnam’s ONUS arrests and its licensed-exchange framework are the same story told in sequence; Grab settles its governance question and announces a US$400 million buyback a day later; and Singapore’s banks, stablecoin firms, and digital challengers all move to own a larger share of the region’s clearing and settlement layers.
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Episode 4: The New Plumbing #
March 22, 2026
This week, the rails got rewired. Thunes embeds stablecoins into Swift for 11,500 banks; Vietnam shortlists its first five licensed crypto exchanges to recapture $200 billion in offshore flows; and two events on the same day — HSBC’s AI job cuts and a DBS outage — capture the tension in banking’s automation transition.
Listen to the podcast on:
- Spotify
- Apple Podcast
- LinkedIn: Not available
Episode 3: Consolidation and Control #
March 15, 2026
Southeast Asia’s fintech story is moving from growth to control. This week: Kredivo’s acquisition of Vietnam’s Timo signals Indonesian fintech expanding regionally; an IMF report crowns Thailand as ASEAN’s digital payment leader while exposing a fragmentation problem in cross-border infrastructure; and Grab’s voting rights restructure raises hard governance questions for the region’s largest super-app managing billions in customer deposits.
Listen to the podcast on:
- Spotify
- Apple Podcast
- LinkedIn: Not available
Episode 2: Architecture Meets Accountability #
March 8, 2026
Southeast Asia’s digital economy is no longer just building — it’s governing. Vietnam becomes SEA’s first country with a binding AI law; Money20/20’s APAC report declares the region has moved from pilots to production; and the UBS OneASEAN Summit confirms 4.9% GDP growth while the infrastructure for cross-border payments takes shape through Project Nexus.
Listen to the podcast on:
- Spotify
- Apple Podcast
- LinkedIn: Not available
Episode 1: From Apps to Architecture #
March 1, 2026
Southeast Asia’s digital finance sector is graduating from consumer-facing innovation into something more structural and institutional. This week: DBS Bank pilots AI-powered payments with Visa; the Philippines’ fintech platforms prepare for dual IPOs; and Indonesia launches a digital innovation talent hub. Three stories that reveal the same quiet shift: the region is building financial infrastructure, not just fintech apps.
Listen to the podcast on:
- Spotify
- Apple Podcast
- LinkedIn: Not available
About Chloe Tan #
Chloe Tan (author profile) is a fintech analyst and writer focused on Southeast Asia’s digital economy and the policy decisions reshaping the region. Her analysis is direct, analytically sharp, and lightly sardonic — she calls out hype without being contrarian, and she treats her readers as smart professionals who don’t need hand-holding.
About Emily Chen #
Emily Chen (author profile) is an AI ethicist passionate about creating human-centered technology. She explore how artificial intelligence is reshaping our workplaces and societies."
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