FinTechOn 2026 and the Asia FinTech Alliance Summit wrapped up in Taipei after running from Sept. 2 to Sept. 3, with AFA Chair and Taiwan FinTech Association honorary chair Jaclyn Tsai saying the main takeaway was clear: Asian economies cannot face fast-moving technology shifts alone, and cooperation cannot stop at discussion.
In her closing remarks, Tsai said cross-border governance questions tied to stablecoins, AI, cybersecurity and anti-fraud, along with the supply chain’s need for digital finance, require governments, financial institutions and technology companies to act together on the basis of trust. She said the end of FinTechOn 2026 and the AFA Summit should be seen not as the end of a conference, but as the start of turning shared technology views into cross-border cooperation.
Officials from four ministries outlined Taiwan’s fintech policy direction
The summit brought together senior officials from four Taiwanese ministries and agencies: Financial Supervisory Commission Chair Peng Jin-lung, Deputy Minister of Digital Affairs Yang Chia-ling, Vice Minister of Economic Affairs Chiang Wen-jo, and National Development Council Deputy Minister Peng Li-pei.
According to the event summary, the officials discussed Taiwan’s policy direction and practical experience in fintech from several angles, including financial regulation, AI infrastructure and trusted governance, industrial digital transformation, and cross-border investment planning. The summit said government and industry participants broadly agreed that the next phase of innovation cannot be completed by any one market on its own.
That view extended to Taiwan and other markets across the region. Participants said innovation, security and trust need to be balanced while markets continue aligning with international standards and deepen cooperation in regulation, technology, capital and market access. AI, blockchain and fintech were presented as tools that can connect financial services, the real economy and global supply chains.
Regulators and specialists examined AI, stablecoin and payment risks
Regulators and specialists from several markets also shared their views during the summit. The list included Taiwan’s FSC, Bank Negara Malaysia, a former Indian official, and experts with regulatory experience in Hong Kong.
The discussions covered virtual asset and stablecoin regulation, AI governance in finance, risks in cross-border payments, and regional cooperation. The stated focus was how to support innovation while preserving market trust. The agenda also took in the needs of emerging markets in financial inclusion and technology-driven innovation, as well as the experience accumulated by mature financial markets in risk management, consumer protection and crisis response.
Across the two-day program, the sessions pointed to one common challenge: when capital, data and risk move across borders quickly, regulation cannot remain fragmented. The conclusion presented at the summit was that economies need stronger policy alignment, information sharing and joint response mechanisms if technologies such as AI and stablecoins are to be deployed safely in a more inclusive, resilient and credible Asian fintech ecosystem.
Taiwan’s AI supply-chain role featured heavily in the discussion
The summit also focused on Taiwan’s place in the global AI and semiconductor supply chain. Lo Chao-kun, standing director at the Taiwan Semiconductor Industry Association, said during the event that, based on National Development Council data, about 90% of the world’s AI servers are assembled and shipped by Taiwanese manufacturers, while Taiwanese companies account for about 76% of global foundry revenue.
That position, he said, shows Taiwan’s importance in the global AI economy. Business leaders speaking from the front line of the supply chain included Test-Rite Group founder and chairperson Lee Li-chiu, Wistron NeWeb chair and chief strategy officer Hung Li-ning, Pegatron chair T.H. Tung, Chenbro chief executive Chen Ya-nan, and Jovision Technology general manager Chang Hsiu-mei.
They described financing and payment needs arising from cross-border trade, AI infrastructure and electronics manufacturing. A shared point from that group was that data, production and logistics can already operate in real time, but mechanisms for capital, credit and trust have not fully kept pace with the speed of global supply chains.
Participants said fintech should no longer sit outside core business operations as a support function. Instead, it should be built into orders, production, logistics, financing and payments. The summit also discussed how AI, blockchain and stablecoins could improve cross-border clearing and settlement, supply-chain finance and information transparency, while also opening practical use cases in business-to-business transactions and real-world asset tokenization, or RWA.
At the same time, the discussion stressed that deployment still has to account for financial security, personal privacy, governance frameworks and monetary sovereignty. The proposed path was deeper cooperation across manufacturing, technology and finance to build the next generation of financial infrastructure for the global AI economy.
Legacy system integration was framed as the scaling challenge
The summit echoed remarks made by Peng Jin-lung in his opening speech, where he said Taiwan and global financial markets are moving toward a model in which traditional finance, digital finance and blockchain finance develop in parallel.
Participants from Taiwan included Cathay Financial Holdings and CDIB Capital, while international financial and payments firms included JPMorgan, SBI Holdings, Visa, Banking Circle and Rizal Commercial Banking Corp. of the Philippines, or RCBC. Their discussions covered digital asset custody and financing, bank-consortium stablecoin issuance, cross-border clearing and payment interoperability, and financial inclusion.
Sandra Ro, chief executive of the Global Blockchain Business Council, said stablecoins, tokenized deposits and bank-led digital currency models are all being developed and tested at the same time, and the market has not yet settled on a winner. In her view, the main issue is not simply launching new digital tools. It is how to connect those tools with existing treasury, payment and compliance systems so that trade confirmation, document verification, compliance review, goods delivery and fund settlement can work together within a trusted structure. That, she said, is what would allow separate experiments in different markets to become scalable cross-border financial infrastructure.
AFA was described as a trust network across 16 economies
From regulatory and governance discussions led by public-sector officials, to supply-chain executives focusing on efficiency and long-term cooperation, to financial firms and fintech companies examining how new systems can connect with old ones, the summit’s topics were broad. The shared theme was trust.
Speakers said technology can accelerate the movement of money, data and goods, but scaling innovation across markets still depends on workable regulation, interoperable rules and systems, verifiable and integrable information, and a shared understanding built through continued exchange and practical cooperation.
Tsai said the AFA Summit, which was held in Taipei for the second time this year, serves as an important platform for building cross-border trust. She described AFA as more than an international organization, calling it a trust network linking members from 16 economies, AFA Awards winners, and representatives from government, industry and academia who attended the summit.
She said AFA members do not meet only during the summit. They stay in contact throughout the year, bringing experience, needs and resources from different markets into a single framework for cooperation. The stated goal is to advance policy alignment, build consensus and convert discussion into concrete results that cross markets and economies.
Tsai added that the close of the summit does not mark the end of cooperation, but the start of the next phase of work. As technology and markets change quickly, she said, Asia needs to carry forward the trust and momentum built over the two-day agenda and turn consensus into action.
She closed with the line, 「Connect. Act. Empower Asia.」
About AFA and the Taiwan FinTech Association
The article said the Asia FinTech Alliance is a voluntary international cooperation platform created to promote regional financial innovation, policy dialogue and industry links. AFA was founded by 16 leading fintech associations and organizations in Asia, with one representative organization from each economy. The member economies listed in the article are Taiwan, South Korea, Singapore, Japan, the Philippines, Indonesia, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Thailand, Cambodia, Mongolia, Nepal, India, Vietnam, Sri Lanka and Uzbekistan.
It also said that, according to international reports, Asia is expected to become the world’s largest fintech market by 2030. AFA said it works through dialogue, joint advocacy, cross-border cooperation and matching efforts to promote a more inclusive, secure and sustainable fintech sector, while also encouraging regulatory consistency across the region.
The Taiwan FinTech Association, or TFTA, was described as a non-profit organization founded in 2017 to support fintech development and innovation in Taiwan. The article said TFTA advocates for domestic and international regulatory measures that support fintech innovation, maintains close ties with government agencies, industry stakeholders and international organizations, and serves as an important platform for connection, cooperation and development in Taiwan’s fintech sector.
It also said TFTA is a formal member of AFA, and that the strategic partnership between TFTA and AFA allows Taiwan to take a more active role in the wider Asian fintech community and expand its influence in global fintech.
Editor’s note: The source article stated that the piece was a press release written and provided by the Taiwan FinTech Association and does not represent BlockTempo’s position.