KUALA LUMPUR, April 24 (Bernama) -- AM Best has affirmed the financial strength rating (FSR) of A (Excellent) and the long-term issuer credit rating (ICR) of “a+” (Excellent) of Taiwan’s Shinkong Insurance Company Limited (Shinkong Insurance), with a stable outlook.
The credit ratings (ratings) reflect Shinkong Insurance’s very strong balance sheet strength, strong operating performance, neutral business profile and appropriate enterprise risk management, according to AM Best in a statement.
AM Best expects the insurer’s risk-adjusted capitalisation, as measured by Best’s Capital Adequacy Ratio, to remain at the strongest level in 2025 and prospectively, supported by strong earnings generation, consistent capital management, prudent reserving, and a conservative investment strategy.
The insurer’s operating performance remained robust, underpinned by a five-year weighted average return-on-equity of 14.8 per cent and a net combined ratio of 87.5 per cent from 2021 to 2025. In 2025, the company posted favourable results with its net combined ratio edging down to a record low of 82.2 per cent, driven by solid underwriting profitability.
The global credit rating agency said stable investment returns, strict underwriting discipline and effective expense management are expected to continue supporting Shinkong Insurance’s performance over the intermediate term.
Shinkong Insurance is Taiwan’s third-largest non-life insurer by gross premiums written, with a moderately diversified underwriting portfolio led by motor insurance, while its developed risk management framework and stable distribution mix were also viewed as supporting factors in the ratings assessment.
-- BERNAMA
Friday, 24 April 2026
ICEKREDIT CALLS FOR STRONGER ASEAN ALIGNMENT ON AI GOVERNANCE, ADOPTION
KUALA LUMPUR, April 24 (Bernama) -- IceKredit Chief Growth Officer Kong Chinang called for stronger regional alignment across policy, industry and education to support sustainable and responsible artificial intelligence (AI) adoption in Southeast Asia.
Speaking at the inaugural AI Forward: Southeast Asia Policy Summit, hosted recently by Grab and ASEAN BAC in Jakarta, Kong said ASEAN has strong potential to play a leading role in the global AI landscape but requires coordinated action across sectors as AI evolves rapidly.
“ASEAN stands at an exciting inflection point for AI. To fully realise its transformative potential, we need deeper regional engagement and alignment among the tripartite pillars of policy, industry, and education.
“Equally critical is embedding sustainability and responsibility into every stage of AI adoption, ensuring technology benefits people, businesses, and economies inclusively,” he added in a statement.
During the panel session “Empowering the next phase of AI transformation in SEA”, Kong joined speakers including Timothy Yap of McKinsey, Dau Anh Tuan of the Vietnam Chamber of Industry and Trade, Gunish Chawla of Amazon, and Yann AitBachir of Google to discuss the current state and future trajectory of AI adoption in Southeast Asia.
The summit, held alongside Grab’s flagship GrabX product event at Shangri-La Jakarta, gathered senior policymakers, global technology leaders and industry experts to discuss the future of AI development and deployment across ASEAN.
The day-long event featured addresses from Grab Group Chief Executive Officer and Co-founder Anthony Tan, Indonesian government ministers and sector leaders, alongside demonstrations of Grab’s latest AI-powered innovations.
As AI moves from concept to large-scale implementation across Southeast Asia, cross-sector collaboration and responsible innovation have emerged as key priorities to unlock inclusive growth and strengthen the region’s global competitiveness.
-- BERNAMA
Meltwater Expands YouTube Integration to Improve Creator Decisions and Campaign Performance
New integration brings first-party, authenticated YouTube data across discovery, evaluation, and campaign measurement into Meltwater’s unified platform
SAN FRANCISCO, April 24 (Bernama-GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Meltwater, a global leader in media, social, and consumer intelligence, today announced an expanded partnership with YouTube, bringing verified YouTube data into the Meltwater platform, powered by YouTube’s Creator Partnerships API. This integration builds upon Meltwater’s existing capabilities to give customers access to new, verified YouTube insights, enabling confident creator decisions and clear performance measurement for more effective, data-driven creator campaigns on YouTube.
From Discovery to Activation, All in One Place
As brands increase investment in YouTube, managing creator campaigns across disconnected tools can be time-consuming and make it harder to execute efficiently and track results. Meltwater’s integration brings the entire workflow into one place, from creator discovery and evaluation to activation and measurement.
With access to verified YouTube performance and audience data through the Creator Partnerships API, teams can more easily identify the right creators and launch campaigns faster without switching between tools. This gives teams a clearer understanding of who they’re reaching and how content performs.
Bringing Clarity to Campaign Performance
Meltwater also helps brands better understand what’s driving results on YouTube. Teams can track performance across creators and content, understand what’s resonating with audiences, and make more informed decisions for future campaigns. With consistent, trusted data in one place, brands can clearly measure impact and continuously optimize their YouTube strategy.
Reinforcing Meltwater’s Commitment to Comprehensive Insights
“Creator marketing on YouTube is growing quickly, but many teams are still piecing together tools to make it work,” said Chris Hackney, Chief Product Officer at Meltwater. “We’re focused on simplifying that experience, so our customers can spend less time managing workflows and more time understanding what actually drives results.”
This partnership further strengthens Meltwater’s ability to deliver a unified view of brand and market intelligence across news, social, and other key channels, helping customers connect insights and make more informed, strategic decisions.
For more information, please contact:
Stacy Slayden
Communications Manager
pr@meltwater.com
About Meltwater
Meltwater empowers companies with a suite of solutions that spans media, social and consumer intelligence. By analyzing ~1 billion pieces of content each day and transforming them into vital insights, Meltwater unlocks the competitive edge needed to drive results. With 27,000 global customers, 50 offices across six continents, and 2,200 employees, Meltwater is the industry partner of choice for global brands making an impact. Learn more at meltwater.com.
SOURCE: Meltwater
SAN FRANCISCO, April 24 (Bernama-GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Meltwater, a global leader in media, social, and consumer intelligence, today announced an expanded partnership with YouTube, bringing verified YouTube data into the Meltwater platform, powered by YouTube’s Creator Partnerships API. This integration builds upon Meltwater’s existing capabilities to give customers access to new, verified YouTube insights, enabling confident creator decisions and clear performance measurement for more effective, data-driven creator campaigns on YouTube.
From Discovery to Activation, All in One Place
As brands increase investment in YouTube, managing creator campaigns across disconnected tools can be time-consuming and make it harder to execute efficiently and track results. Meltwater’s integration brings the entire workflow into one place, from creator discovery and evaluation to activation and measurement.
With access to verified YouTube performance and audience data through the Creator Partnerships API, teams can more easily identify the right creators and launch campaigns faster without switching between tools. This gives teams a clearer understanding of who they’re reaching and how content performs.
Bringing Clarity to Campaign Performance
Meltwater also helps brands better understand what’s driving results on YouTube. Teams can track performance across creators and content, understand what’s resonating with audiences, and make more informed decisions for future campaigns. With consistent, trusted data in one place, brands can clearly measure impact and continuously optimize their YouTube strategy.
Reinforcing Meltwater’s Commitment to Comprehensive Insights
“Creator marketing on YouTube is growing quickly, but many teams are still piecing together tools to make it work,” said Chris Hackney, Chief Product Officer at Meltwater. “We’re focused on simplifying that experience, so our customers can spend less time managing workflows and more time understanding what actually drives results.”
This partnership further strengthens Meltwater’s ability to deliver a unified view of brand and market intelligence across news, social, and other key channels, helping customers connect insights and make more informed, strategic decisions.
For more information, please contact:
Stacy Slayden
Communications Manager
pr@meltwater.com
About Meltwater
Meltwater empowers companies with a suite of solutions that spans media, social and consumer intelligence. By analyzing ~1 billion pieces of content each day and transforming them into vital insights, Meltwater unlocks the competitive edge needed to drive results. With 27,000 global customers, 50 offices across six continents, and 2,200 employees, Meltwater is the industry partner of choice for global brands making an impact. Learn more at meltwater.com.
SOURCE: Meltwater
ACCERTIFY REPORT FINDS UNEVEN AIRLINE BOOKING FRAUD RISKS ACROSS REGIONS
KUALA LUMPUR, April 24 (Bernama) -- Accertify, in its Global Air Travel Fraud Report: Q1 2026 unveiled that airline booking fraud risks vary significantly by route origin, with higher concentrations of prevented fraud in parts of Latin America, Africa, the Middle East, and South and Southeast Asia.
The quarterly report, based on more than 180 million airline booking transactions processed between January and March 2026, analyses fraud rates by departure city as a proxy for route origin, offering airlines insight into where fraud prevention systems intervene most frequently at the booking stage.
“By looking at fraud rates by route origin, airlines can better see where controls are intervening most often and how fraud prevention maturity differs across markets,” said Accertify Director, Strategic Risk Services, Theodore Esser in a statement.
According to the report, routes originating in North America and Australia continued to show relatively low fraud rates, generally remaining below one per cent even among high-volume departure cities.
By contrast, several regions such as Latin America, parts of Africa, the Middle East, and South and Southeast Asia show materially higher concentrations of prevented fraud, with certain origin cities recording fraud rates multiple times higher.
The report said the figures represent prevented fraud, or transactions denied for fraud reasons before travel occurred, rather than realised fraud losses.
It also found fraud trends across Asia were mixed, with East Asia showing relatively low and improving fraud rates, while parts of South and Southeast Asia faced higher and more uneven fraud pressure.
Latin America and the Caribbean recorded some of the highest concentrations of prevented fraud, particularly across several Brazilian and Colombian origin cities.
The report said lower fraud rates tended to emerge in markets where airlines have invested in layered and consistently applied fraud controls over time.
-- BERNAMA
Wednesday, 22 April 2026
CellCarta Eliminates 9-Hours-Per-Week Regulatory Bottleneck with RegASK’s AI-Driven Intelligence Platform
Global contract research organization (CRO) transforms its regulatory affairs and unlocks efficiency gains and greater compliance confidence.
NEW YORK & SINGAPORE, April 22 (Bernama-BUSINESS WIRE) -- In a move to address the growing complexity of global regulations, CellCarta, a globally recognized provider of CRO laboratory services for pharmaceutical research and development, and RegASK, the Agentic AI platform redefining regulatory intelligence, today announced the results of a year-long collaboration to modernize CellCarta’s regulatory intelligence operations. By automating regulatory monitoring and intelligence generation, the partnership has reduced research cycles that previously took up to 9 hours per week to near real-time delivery.
Over the past year, CellCarta has worked closely with RegASK to accelerate the digital transformation of its regulatory affairs function. As regulatory complexity continues to increase, CellCarta, like many life science organizations, faced challenges with fragmented information sources, manual tracking of regulatory change, and limited capacity to scale monitoring across multiple geographies.
“Strengthening our regulatory intelligence capability has been a key priority for CellCarta,” said Todd Chermak, SVP and Global Business Head of Immunology and Proteomics at CellCarta. “With RegASK, we now have access to curated, AI-driven insights and automated workflows that have streamlined how we capture, interpret, act on, and share regulatory intelligence to keep teams aligned and respond to regulatory change.”
Today, CellCarta’s processes are anchored by a centralized regulatory intelligence hub, a single source of truth that consolidates regulatory signals across markets. The platform automatically captures and validates unstructured content from regulatory agencies, standards bodies, and legislative databases, transforming it into contextual updates and actionable follow-ups. Automated notifications provide immediate access to critical developments, while AI-driven summaries enable faster, better-informed decision-making across research, clinical development, and quality teams.
“Our collaboration with CellCarta shows what becomes possible when AI, automation and vertical expertise are applied to transform a regulatory affairs function over time,” said Caroline Shleifer, Founder & CEO at RegASK. “CellCarta’s teams now save time, gain clarity faster on relevant regulatory information, and act with greater coordination and confidence. In clinical research and precision medicine, this level of accuracy and responsiveness is critical because delays or gaps in regulatory intelligence directly impact drug development and market access.”
Looking ahead, CellCarta plans to deepen its use of AI across the regulatory lifecycle. The next phase involves deploying agentic AI, enabling multiple specialized AI agents to work in parallel on day-to-day regulatory tasks such as content curation and triage, impact assessment, translation, and stakeholder collaboration. As global regulations continue to expand in volume and complexity, organizations that successfully deploy AI to automate routine tasks and surface critical insights will define the next generation of regulatory excellence. They will be best positioned to remain agile, compliant and competitive in every market they serve.
About CellCarta
CellCarta is a leading global CRO laboratory to the biopharmaceutical industry. With CAP accreditations and CLIA certifications for specific testing methods and facilities in Canada, USA, Belgium, Australia, and China, CellCarta provides a wide range of biomarker testing services and customized solutions to world-renowned pharmaceutical companies. By integrating analytical platforms in immunology, histopathology, proteomics, and genomics, along with sample management and logistics services, CellCarta supports the entire drug development cycle from discovery to late-stage clinical trials. Visit cellcarta.com and connect with us on LinkedIn and X.
About RegASK
RegASK is the AI-driven regulatory operating system for global life sciences and consumer products companies. Powered by agentic AI and a global community of more than 1,800 subject matter experts across 160+ territories, the platform detects regulatory change, assesses portfolio impact, and orchestrates compliance workflows - enabling organizations to move from passive monitoring to proactive, autonomous regulatory operations. RegASK is the first company in its category to achieve ISO/IEC 42001 certification for AI Management Systems and holds six independent certifications. To learn more about RegASK visit regask.com.
View source version on businesswire.com:
https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20260421772109/en/
Contact
Media Contact
Stéphanie Bussières-Marmen, PhD
Director, Global Marketing
media@cellcarta.com
Reuben Chen
Head of Marketing
reuben.chen@regask.com
Source : RegASK
NEW YORK & SINGAPORE, April 22 (Bernama-BUSINESS WIRE) -- In a move to address the growing complexity of global regulations, CellCarta, a globally recognized provider of CRO laboratory services for pharmaceutical research and development, and RegASK, the Agentic AI platform redefining regulatory intelligence, today announced the results of a year-long collaboration to modernize CellCarta’s regulatory intelligence operations. By automating regulatory monitoring and intelligence generation, the partnership has reduced research cycles that previously took up to 9 hours per week to near real-time delivery.
Over the past year, CellCarta has worked closely with RegASK to accelerate the digital transformation of its regulatory affairs function. As regulatory complexity continues to increase, CellCarta, like many life science organizations, faced challenges with fragmented information sources, manual tracking of regulatory change, and limited capacity to scale monitoring across multiple geographies.
“Strengthening our regulatory intelligence capability has been a key priority for CellCarta,” said Todd Chermak, SVP and Global Business Head of Immunology and Proteomics at CellCarta. “With RegASK, we now have access to curated, AI-driven insights and automated workflows that have streamlined how we capture, interpret, act on, and share regulatory intelligence to keep teams aligned and respond to regulatory change.”
Today, CellCarta’s processes are anchored by a centralized regulatory intelligence hub, a single source of truth that consolidates regulatory signals across markets. The platform automatically captures and validates unstructured content from regulatory agencies, standards bodies, and legislative databases, transforming it into contextual updates and actionable follow-ups. Automated notifications provide immediate access to critical developments, while AI-driven summaries enable faster, better-informed decision-making across research, clinical development, and quality teams.
“Our collaboration with CellCarta shows what becomes possible when AI, automation and vertical expertise are applied to transform a regulatory affairs function over time,” said Caroline Shleifer, Founder & CEO at RegASK. “CellCarta’s teams now save time, gain clarity faster on relevant regulatory information, and act with greater coordination and confidence. In clinical research and precision medicine, this level of accuracy and responsiveness is critical because delays or gaps in regulatory intelligence directly impact drug development and market access.”
Looking ahead, CellCarta plans to deepen its use of AI across the regulatory lifecycle. The next phase involves deploying agentic AI, enabling multiple specialized AI agents to work in parallel on day-to-day regulatory tasks such as content curation and triage, impact assessment, translation, and stakeholder collaboration. As global regulations continue to expand in volume and complexity, organizations that successfully deploy AI to automate routine tasks and surface critical insights will define the next generation of regulatory excellence. They will be best positioned to remain agile, compliant and competitive in every market they serve.
About CellCarta
CellCarta is a leading global CRO laboratory to the biopharmaceutical industry. With CAP accreditations and CLIA certifications for specific testing methods and facilities in Canada, USA, Belgium, Australia, and China, CellCarta provides a wide range of biomarker testing services and customized solutions to world-renowned pharmaceutical companies. By integrating analytical platforms in immunology, histopathology, proteomics, and genomics, along with sample management and logistics services, CellCarta supports the entire drug development cycle from discovery to late-stage clinical trials. Visit cellcarta.com and connect with us on LinkedIn and X.
About RegASK
RegASK is the AI-driven regulatory operating system for global life sciences and consumer products companies. Powered by agentic AI and a global community of more than 1,800 subject matter experts across 160+ territories, the platform detects regulatory change, assesses portfolio impact, and orchestrates compliance workflows - enabling organizations to move from passive monitoring to proactive, autonomous regulatory operations. RegASK is the first company in its category to achieve ISO/IEC 42001 certification for AI Management Systems and holds six independent certifications. To learn more about RegASK visit regask.com.
View source version on businesswire.com:
https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20260421772109/en/
Contact
Media Contact
Stéphanie Bussières-Marmen, PhD
Director, Global Marketing
media@cellcarta.com
Reuben Chen
Head of Marketing
reuben.chen@regask.com
Source : RegASK
Tuesday, 21 April 2026
KIOXIA UNVEILS AFFORDABLE CLIENT SSD LINEUP FOR PC APPLICATIONS
KUALA LUMPUR, April 21 (Bernama) -- Kioxia Corporation, a leader in memory solutions, has unveiled KIOXIA EG7 Series solid state drives (SSDs), its first client solution to adopt BiCS FLASH generation 8 4-bit-per-cell, quadruple-level cell (QLC) technology.
The QLC-based drives deliver performance comparable to triple-level cell (TLC) solutions while offering improved total cost of ownership for value-orientated slim laptops, as well as commercial and consumer notebooks and desktops.
According to Kioxia in a statement, the drives bring the performance and power efficiency advantages of its generation 8 QLC 3D flash memory to mainstream computing workloads for personal computer original equipment manufacturers (OEMs).
The new drives deliver random read and write performance of up to 1,000 KIOPS, sequential read speed of up to 7,000 megabytes per second (MB/s), and sequential write speed of up to 6,200 MB/s.
The drives incorporate NVMe 2.0d support, giving PC OEMs greater flexibility in system design and device management, and are available in M.2 Type 2230, 2242 and 2280 form factors, allowing flexibility across different system configurations and space constraints.
Positioned within Kioxia’s value-orientated client SSD portfolio, the DRAM-less KIOXIA EG7 Series leverages mature Host Memory Buffer technology, utilising a portion of system memory to help improve total cost of ownership and power consumption.
Additional features include PCIe 4.0 compliance, self-encrypting drive support based on TCG Opal 2.02, and capacities of 512 gigabytes (GB), 1,024 GB, and 2,048 GB.
The KIOXIA EG7 Series is currently sampling to select PC OEM customers, with PC shipments equipped with the SSD expected to begin from the second quarter of 2026.
-- BERNAMA
WOLTERS KLUWER: APAC CFOS ACCELERATE AI ADOPTION IN FINANCE
KUALA LUMPUR, April 21 (Bernama) -- Chief Financial Officers (CFOs) in Asia‑Pacific (APAC) are accelerating their adoption of artificial intelligence (AI), recognising its growing influence on the finance function while pursuing implementation in a deliberate, value-driven manner, according to the 2026 Future Ready CFO Survey – APAC Regional Insights by Wolters Kluwer.
The survey found that 83 per cent of APAC CFOs view AI adoption and implementation as a key force reshaping finance, closely aligned with the global average of 85 per cent.
This near parity highlights the rising importance of AI across regions, while APAC finance leaders continue to prioritise disciplined execution shaped by governance requirements and return-on-investment considerations, according to a statement.
The report, which surveyed 1,672 respondents across more than 20 markets, also found that 72 per cent of APAC finance leaders expect AI to have a significant impact on finance operations within the next three years, reflecting strong confidence in its potential to enhance insight, agility and decision-making.
Rather than viewing AI solely as an automation tool, CFOs in the region are focusing on use cases that strengthen control and strategic foresight. Key areas expected to be most impacted include financial planning and analysis, forecasting and scenario modelling, as well as risk management and compliance monitoring.
Despite strong adoption momentum, APAC finance leaders cited several barriers to AI investment, including cost relative to expected returns (58 per cent), concerns over loss of human judgement and oversight (55 per cent), and data quality and governance challenges (53 per cent).
These factors underscore a measured approach to AI adoption in the region, with an emphasis on governance, transparency and regulatory alignment.
The survey also noted that APAC CFOs are expected to take on an expanded role at the intersection of technology, and enterprise risk, particularly in areas such as digital strategy, enterprise risk management and strategic decision support.
Wolters Kluwer said this evolution positions CFOs as key stewards of both innovation and resilience, as organisations balance AI-driven transformation with governance and control.
It suggested that APAC CFOs may gain a long‑term advantage by aligning AI investment with strong controls, talent readiness, and regulatory confidence, as those who are able to balance innovation with governance are best fit to navigate the next stage of finance transformation.
-- BERNAMA
The survey found that 83 per cent of APAC CFOs view AI adoption and implementation as a key force reshaping finance, closely aligned with the global average of 85 per cent.
This near parity highlights the rising importance of AI across regions, while APAC finance leaders continue to prioritise disciplined execution shaped by governance requirements and return-on-investment considerations, according to a statement.
The report, which surveyed 1,672 respondents across more than 20 markets, also found that 72 per cent of APAC finance leaders expect AI to have a significant impact on finance operations within the next three years, reflecting strong confidence in its potential to enhance insight, agility and decision-making.
Rather than viewing AI solely as an automation tool, CFOs in the region are focusing on use cases that strengthen control and strategic foresight. Key areas expected to be most impacted include financial planning and analysis, forecasting and scenario modelling, as well as risk management and compliance monitoring.
Despite strong adoption momentum, APAC finance leaders cited several barriers to AI investment, including cost relative to expected returns (58 per cent), concerns over loss of human judgement and oversight (55 per cent), and data quality and governance challenges (53 per cent).
These factors underscore a measured approach to AI adoption in the region, with an emphasis on governance, transparency and regulatory alignment.
The survey also noted that APAC CFOs are expected to take on an expanded role at the intersection of technology, and enterprise risk, particularly in areas such as digital strategy, enterprise risk management and strategic decision support.
Wolters Kluwer said this evolution positions CFOs as key stewards of both innovation and resilience, as organisations balance AI-driven transformation with governance and control.
It suggested that APAC CFOs may gain a long‑term advantage by aligning AI investment with strong controls, talent readiness, and regulatory confidence, as those who are able to balance innovation with governance are best fit to navigate the next stage of finance transformation.
-- BERNAMA
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