SINGAPORE, Aug. 28 (Xinhua) -- Singapore's fintech sector attracted more than 499 million U.S. dollars in investment across 53 deals in the first half of 2026, down from about 1.45 billion dollars across 97 deals in the same period a year earlier, said a report revealed on Thursday
According to the Pulse of Fintech H1 2026 report of KPMG, a global organization of independent professional services firms providing Audit, Tax and Advisory services, the figure marked "the most subdued first half the country saw in about close to a decade."
Cross-border payments, one of the country's key investment areas, saw three deals totaling 332 million dollars.
Digital assets and cryptocurrencies remained the largest segment by deal count, although individual deal sizes were relatively modest.
Artificial intelligence and machine learning was the most active fintech vertical, featuring in 18 of the 53 deals and accounting for 365.9 million dollars in disclosed investment.
"What we are seeing in Singapore mirrors the global market -- investors are being far more selective, consolidating capital behind a small number of scaled, high-conviction platforms rather than funding behavior we saw in prior years," said Antony Ruddenklau, partner and head of financial services at KPMG in Singapore.
He said Singapore's trusted regulatory environment, cross-border connectivity and strengths in payments and digital assets continued to support its position as a strategic fintech hub. ■