Asia Pacific Financial Services Regulatory Updates, Quarter Three 2025

The Deloitte Asia Pacific Centre for Regulatory Strategy is pleased to share with you the key regulatory updates from the Asia Pacific (AP) region for Q3 2025. Over this quarter several regulators published their forward workplans and lookback reports.

In Australia and Japan, the financial services regulators released their strategic priorities for the year ahead. In Australia, key themes include resilience & crisis preparedness; addressing technology & AI risks; bolstering cyber security; safeguarding consumer outcomes with a focus on superannuation; and strengthening integrity across financial markets. These priorities are shaped by broader socio-economic factors, including geopolitical uncertainty, technological advancements, Australia’s ageing population, and the rapid expansion of private market investment. In Japan, priorities centre on strengthening financial resilience while driving sustainable growth and innovation. The regulator aims to reinforce Japan’s role as a global asset management hub, revitalise regional finance, and support household wealth building. Japan will also advance digital transformation, including oversight of crypto assets, stablecoins, and responsible use of artificial intelligence (AI) while enhancing governance, prudential supervision, and cyber and anti-money laundering resilience.

Meanwhile, Singapore released a lookback report on its 2024/2025 achievements, highlighting progress in financial resilience, digital innovation, and sustainable finance. The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) is advancing AI adoption through the Pathfinder programme and developing supervisory guidance on model, data, and third-party risks. Resilience has been further strengthened through collaborations with banks and technology firms to explore quantum key distribution, alongside guidance on managing generative AI cyber risks and thematic reviews of AI governance. The regulator has also proposed higher capital buffers for riskier crypto-asset exposures and introduced stronger anti-scam measures, including hardware tokens for two-factor authentication, money-lock features, cooling-off periods, and real-time fraud detection.

Overall, in the third quarter of 2025, financial risks remained a key theme across the region with proposed changes to capital and liquidity requirements across many regions. The insurance sector was an area of focus across several jurisdictions, China revised its rules regarding capital margin for insurance companies, removing restrictions on the types of commercial banks that can hold deposits, but raising eligibility thresholds including strengthening prudential requirements for depository banks. Singapore released two consultation papers on Risk-Based Capital 2 (RBC 2) requirements for licensed insurers, proposing reforms to the group capital framework such as an explicit risk charge for non-insurance entities and limits on recognising non-controlling interests in group resources. MAS also proposed a catastrophe risk charge, which would require insurers to hold additional capital against extreme events. Taiwan (China) published draft amendments to its rules signalling a shift to an internationally aligned Insurance Capital Standard (ICS) regime, expanding risk coverage and adopting a market-consistent fair value approach to asset and liability valuation. Japan also finalised revisions to introduce an economic-value-based regime for insurers, which aligns more closely with ICS, and published several related notices and consultation outcomes over this period. Effective March 2026, the new rules will require insurers to assess solvency using market-consistent valuations and more risk-sensitive capital calculations.

Data and technology were also a significant area of focus, Malaysia issued a discussion paper on AI in finance, emphasising responsible principles such as fairness, accountability, transparency, explainability, reliability, and security. Australia announced that Project Acacia has entered its live pilot phase, testing how various forms of digital money can settle tokenised assets across 24 industry use cases, with findings expected in early 2026. Hong Kong SAR launched a new stablecoin regulatory regime and warned of heightened volatility driven by licensing speculation, cautioning against irrational investor behavior. In addition, Indonesia issued a circular setting financial crime requirements for digital asset traders, covering senior management oversight, internal controls, and reporting.

For queries or more information on these updates or other regulatory topics, please get in touch.