Welcome to Markets Desk, your midday read on the stories moving markets and making headlines.
State Bank of India, the country's largest lender by assets, is under pressure after an alleged cyberattack exposed customer personal data. SBI has launched an internal investigation, and the incident raises fresh questions about the resilience of financial infrastructure across emerging markets at a time when digital banking penetration is accelerating rapidly.
Shifting to the tech space, Singapore conglomerate Sea is planning to float its fintech arm, Monee, on the Singapore Stock Exchange. Sea has been restructuring aggressively since its post-pandemic valuation collapse, and a public listing for Monee would signal renewed confidence in the company's financial services vertical, which spans digital payments and lending across Southeast Asia.
And in the AI security space, a Chinese-developed AI agent called Artex has been linked to cyberattacks targeting around eighty Japanese companies. The Wall Street Journal reports the hacks bore distinct digital traces of the tool, which is raising alarms in Tokyo and adding another layer of tension to the already strained technology relationship between China and its regional neighbors.
That's the tape. Markets Desk, signing off the floor.
