Do you remember when open banking was going to be the revolution? In Europe it came with PSD2. In the US, years of debate on open banking rules. In Asia, regulators pushed banks to open their APIs. Banks would open up, and tech players would come in and own, at least, the digital relationship with the client. That was the promise. Then...

Everyone talks about compute and energy as the limits of this AI (or SI, if you prefer) boom. I think the weak link of the chain is another one: the ability to attract capital. I don't believe money will disappear, but it will become much more expensive, and this changes the game for many. Big Tech used to pay for its growth with its o...

I spent most of the week in Tokyo for the CRIF Forum 2026 — that deserves its own post, not least because after five stops (Manila, Jakarta, Taipei, Hanoi, Tokyo) I want to pull out the common threads before the last leg in Singapore. But it's been a week full of things more broadly — even here in Asia, with the Bank of Japan's histori...

There is a bet running through the markets right now. You can see it in the share prices — data centres, cloud, semiconductors, and increasingly software, all moving on a logic that has stopped being about earnings and started being about faith. The bet is simple to state: this innovation will deliver a productivity increase large enou...

Reflections from CRIF Forum Manila and CRIF Forum Taipei, June–July 2026 I walked into two CRIF Forums a few weeks apart carrying the same four numbers in my head: Philippines Q1 GDP growth of +2.8%, Taiwan's eye-popping +14.5%; Philippine inflation running at 6.4%, Taiwan's at a comparatively sleepy 2.6%. On paper, these looked like t...

I've written about dementia before. On The C-Athlete, a while back, I tried to understand Alzheimer's from the inside out — what actually forms it. I'd just finished a wonderful book on the subject, The End of Alzheimer's of Dale E. Bredesen, and what stayed with me was this: it's not really a disease that arrives from outside. It's an...

I'll be honest. Every time someone mentioned USDT, Tether or stablecoins, my brain switched off. I grouped it with Bitcoin, crypto, speculation. I thought: if you want dollars, just hold dollars. What's the point of a digital copy? Then I started digging. The trigger was a remarkable interview that Guido Maria Brera and Silvia Berzoni ...

Two years ago, Indonesia was without question the most promising market in Southeast Asia. I said so openly, more than once. That conviction still holds in the long run — the demographic fundamentals don't lie — but the near-term picture has become considerably more complicated, and on Tuesday, June 23, a verdict arrives that could red...

Yesterday I was reading a great article on FT about birth rates decline. And I learned something I really didn't know. Why am I interested in birth rates? Because I’m interested in growth. And there is probably no macroeconomic variable more important than demographics when trying to forecast the future trajectory of countries and econ...

Most people think inflation arrives with a bang. A war breaks out. Oil spikes. Petrol prices jump overnight. Headlines scream. Central banks react. That's not how the dangerous kind works. The dangerous kind is quiet. It starts upstream, deep in supply chains most people have never heard of, and it travels slowly — six months, a year, ...

People keep asking me how Asia is holding up. How are businesses reacting to the closure of the Strait of Hormuz? What are the effects on the ground? My honest answer, for now, is: it is quiet. Almost suspiciously quiet. But having spent the past weeks traveling in the region from Singapore to HK, Japan, Indonesia, Vietnam, and reading...

On May 1st, speaking to tens of thousands of workers gathered for Labour Day in Jakarta, Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto announced he had signed a regulation capping the commission that ride-hailing platforms — primarily Grab and GoTo — can charge drivers at 8%, down from a previous maximum of 20%. In practice, drivers will now r...

This morning I was watching an FT interview with Demis Hassabis of Google DeepMind, and it made me reflect on the different approaches to AI between China and the US. In China, the race is not primarily about building the best LLM model. The focus is much more on applications. In other words, the competition happens on the last layer o...

In the data industry, it is quite common to purchase credits for future consumption. You estimate how many reports or datasets you will need over the next 12 months—or even over a three-year period—and then negotiate a deal with data vendors such as CRIF. It’s a win-win. The client secures a better price and reduces friction when the n...

The Financial Times report on the “kill zone” in Ukraine is deeply impressive. It describes a battle fought to protect oneself from drones — by attacking with drones. Who would have imagined that flying objects originally designed to take photos would end up replacing jets, marines, and tanks? What strikes me most is the massive use of...

This afternoon I was watching a great Bloomberg Originals video on the Japanese economy and why, according to the authors, it is now at a real tipping point. The core idea is simple but powerful. If Japanese companies return to innovating with the same intensity that made them global leaders in the 1980s, the country can grow in a heal...

This morning I was reading Money Stuff by Matt Levine on Bloomberg, and it got me thinking about how risk can be hedged today in ways that simply didn’t exist in the past. For most people in developed countries, life is economically concentrated around two main assets: their job and their home. The first is exposed to cycles, technolog...

I was reading an article on Nikkei this afternoon about the impressive GDP growth of Vietnam 🇻🇳 in 2025. Vietnam is rapidly emerging as the third economic powerhouse in Southeast Asia, after Indonesia and Singapore. As already observed months ago, the country has been a clear beneficiary of reciprocal tariffs. In 2025, exports expanded...

Back from a few days off and intentionally restarting from the big picture before diving back into business details, I came across an insightful article in The Business Times on Indonesia. It reinforced a strong conviction: Indonesia is one of the most powerful growth stories in Asia over the next five years. In the short term, however...

This morning I was reading the Business Times of Singapore about EV sales figures, and I have to say I was genuinely impressed. In 2025, 43% of new car registrations in Singapore are electric vehicles, up from 33.8% in 2024. That’s a remarkable jump in just one year. Singapore is, after all, the perfect environment for EV adoption: sho...

One of the questions I’ve always asked myself is how AI will ultimately impact the BPO industry—especially in countries like India and the Philippines, where BPO is such a significant economic pillar. At first, I was convinced that this technology would inevitably lead to substantial job cuts. After all, BPOs typically handle the “dirt...

- SL

AI data-center investments are exploding, largely driven by FOMO. We can expect ASEAN governments to launch even larger AI funding programs in 2026. The real question is whether all this computing power will eventually exceed demand—or whether AI adoption will scale enough to justify the massive capacity now being built. If it does, se...

Today I was reading in The Straits Times about the investments Singapore is making to prepare for the next pandemic. PM Wong compares pandemic preparedness to “taking out an insurance policy.” And it’s true — it works exactly like insurance. When things are going well, the spending feels unnecessary; but when a crisis hits, the first q...

Today I was reading a comment by Louis Gallois — a veteran of French industry and former Airbus CEO — on how slow the European Union has become in making decisions, and how far behind China we are in technology, especially in the electric vehicle sector. What struck me most was his remark: “We are the emerging market,” he told BFM TV. ...

I was reading a very interesting article this morning on Nikkei. Vietnam maintains ‘strong demand’ as production base despite Trump tariffs – Nikkei Asia I had the confirmation on my thoughts: Vietnam is gaining momentum thanks to tariffs. They are shifting from low labour cost production to tech high margin powered by China and US dri...

AI-assisted coding or Vibe, cause driven more by creativity than technical skills, “it is like eating empty calories” You think to learn, but you stay at the surface. Super Episode of Lex with DHH interview: - SL

What’s not immediately visible, though, are the numbers — and they’re massive. The U.S. economy stands at about $29 trillion, compared to $2.3 trillion for Italy. Can it really sustain that scale of debt? There’s enough leverage there to shake entire nations. And yet, the system keeps working. Because America borrows in its own currenc...

Chinese autonomous vehicle brands are making decisive moves toward robotaxis. Rather than trying to dominate the entire ecosystem like Tesla, they’re advancing through strategic partnerships — linking ride-hailing platforms with car manufacturers. In my view, Tesla’s weak spot lies in its sensor philosophy. Musk insists on relying sole...

I was reading an article about Grab and its recent tech partnerships — including equity investments in the U.S. autonomous vehicle company May Mobility Inc. and the Chinese robotaxi firm WeRide Inc. The first autonomous cars are expected to arrive in Singapore by 2026. In the meantime, Grab has started reskilling programs to help drive...