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Sean Yu is the Vice President of Commercial for APAC at EBANX. Based in Shanghai, Sean leads EBANX’s commercial strategy and merchant success across the Asia-Pacific region, supporting global enterprises as they expand into high-growth digital economies. With over a decade of experience in cross-border payments, digital commerce, and financial technology, Sean plays a key role in bridging APAC companies—particularly from China, South Korea, and Southeast Asia—with consumers in emerging regions through localized payment solutions. Sean holds a Master of Business Administration (MBA) from the University of Pittsburgh Katz Graduate School of Business and a Master of Arts in Economics from the Maxwell School at Syracuse University.
Below is our interview with Sean following the announcements at EBANX Payments Summit.
At the EBANX Payments Summit 2025, we shared the results of our proprietary, AI-driven anti-fraud and smart routing systems. These are in-house innovations designed to make payments in emerging markets faster, safer, and more reliable by boosting approval rates and reducing operational risks.
Our approach to AI is very intentional. We built it specifically for the complexities of emerging economies, where every country has its own payment habits, banking structures, and regulatory frameworks. Generic global models don’t work here. That’s why our region-native intelligence engine is developed and continuously refined within these markets, combining advanced machine learning with insights from our local specialists who know the ground reality inside out.
This blend of technology and local expertise allows EBANX to improve approval rates, reduce risk, and deliver meaningful insights that help business leaders grow sustainably in fast-changing environments.
In addition to fraud prevention and routing, we’re also using AI to help merchants make smarter business decisions. Through our internal platform, they can access both raw transaction data and AI-generated insights, which offer practical, data-backed guidance on how to adapt to local market behaviors, improve approval rates, and optimize operations.
In the meantime, there’s growing evidence that AI-driven, alternative-data credit models have real potential to expand access. For instance, the World Bank estimates 1.3 billion people remain unbanked globally. Researchers have shown that models incorporating utility, mobile, behavioral, and transactional data outperform traditional models on predictive metrics.
Of course, the promise comes with caveats: bias mitigation, regulatory guardrails, data quality, and local infrastructure all matter. But the trajectory is clear: AI + alternative data can move the needle on financial inclusion in ways standard credit models couldn’t.
Stablecoins are still a new payment option in many of the regions where EBANX operates. But what gave us confidence to move forward now is that we’re seeing real, measurable adoption happening on the ground, the actual use in commerce and financial flows beyond curiosity.
Across Latin America, the momentum is undeniable. According to Fireblocks, 71% of financial institutions in the region already use stablecoins for cross-border transactions, compared to a global average of 49%. That’s a clear sign that stablecoins have moved from theory to infrastructure. In Brazil, for example, stablecoin transaction volumes grew 208% year over year (between July 2022–June 2023 and July 2023–June 2024), based on Chainalysis data, while in Argentina, 62% of total crypto transaction volume already comes from stablecoins. These numbers tell us the region is leading the global adoption.
From our perspective, the timing aligns perfectly with EBANX’s mission. For over a decade, we’ve built bridges between global companies and local consumers in emerging markets. Stablecoins now represent the next bridge: a way to make cross-border payments faster, more transparent, and more inclusive. They complement, not compete with, local systems like Pix in Brazil or SPEI in Mexico, creating a truly interoperable payment ecosystem.
As for regulation and trust, EBANX’s approach has always been compliance-first. We operate under local and international standards, and in markets like Singapore, we’re now a fully licensed Major Payment Institution (MPI) under the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS). That same commitment to regulatory excellence applies to how we’re integrating stablecoins: we only work with regulated, fiat-backed stablecoins that meet strict transparency and liquidity requirements.
On the consumer side, trust comes from usability and reliability. We make stablecoins as easy to use as any local payment method, allowing users to pay at checkout directly in digital dollars while giving them the choice to continue using Pix, cards, or wallets. Our goal is to add a faster, borderless option that empowers both consumers and merchants.
The key for us has always been to build globally, but think locally. Emerging markets are incredibly diverse. What works in Brazil might not work in Kenya or the Philippines. So our platform is designed to be both scalable and deeply adaptable.
From a technical standpoint, we built a single global infrastructure that supports more than 200 local payment methods across over 20 markets with more than 500 enterprise merchants, such as Canva, XTransfer, Gravity Game Vision, and Uber. But within that framework, every country has its own logic, its own acquiring rules, consumer habits, and compliance layers. Our system can dynamically adjust to those nuances without requiring merchants to rebuild or reintegrate. A company that integrates with EBANX once can automatically reach customers using Pix in Brazil, M-Pesa in Kenya, or GCash in the Philippines, all through the same API.
On the regulatory side, our model is rooted in local compliance and strong partnerships. We work hand in hand with central banks, acquirers, and regulators in every market to ensure that our products meet the highest operational and data security standards. That’s also why we pursue licensing where it matters most, such as our MPI license in Singapore, which serves as our global settlement and compliance hub for Asia.
And then there’s the human side, which is just as important. Our teams are based in the regions we serve: Latin America, Africa, and Asia. They’re product experts who understand local consumer behavior and cultural nuances. That’s how we’ve been able to build products that feel local to the end user while being fully integrated into a unified global platform for our merchants.
In short, we see EBANX as a global platform with local DNA. This balance between scale and localization is what allows us to help global companies reach emerging market consumers in a way that’s compliant, efficient, and truly resonant.
The Philippines is an incredibly exciting market for us, with rapid digital adoption, a young population, and strong government support for financial inclusion. In comparison with other emerging markets with similar factors, the Philippines is also evolving on its own terms, with digital wallets like GCash and Maya shaping a payment ecosystem that’s already very advanced in its use of digital money.
One big lesson we’ve brought from Latin America is that financial inclusion and innovation go hand in hand. In Brazil, for example, Pix transformed access to digital payments by making transfers instant, free, and available to everyone—and it now reaches more than 170 million users. That same logic applies in the Philippines, where wallets like GCash and Maya are driving inclusion by making digital payments accessible to millions who don’t have credit cards or bank accounts.
Another lesson is the importance of local partnerships and regulatory collaboration. In Latin America, our success came from working closely with regulators and local players — we bring in global solutions while building around local systems. In the Philippines, we’re doing the same: integrating with the most trusted wallets and following the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas’ digital payment roadmap to ensure full compliance and local relevance.
In terms of user behavior, Southeast Asia differs in that it’s even more mobile-first. The Philippines, for instance, has one of the highest rates of mobile payment usage in the region—98% of Filipinos have internet access, but credit card penetration is only around 3%, according to the World Bank. That means the opportunity lies in mobile-native, frictionless payment experiences, similar to what we saw when Pix started taking off in Brazil.
To sum up, we’re applying our Latin American playbook — deep localization, strong partnerships, and an inclusion-first mindset — while adapting to the unique pace and mobile culture of Southeast Asia. It’s a market that’s ready for the kind of global-local bridge EBANX was built to provide.
We designed EBANX Payout to help global companies send instant disbursements to partners, users, and creators across Latin America and other emerging regions, all in local currency and through local rails, like Pix in Brazil or Nequi in Colombia, without the need for a local entity. This opens the door for platforms that work with hundreds or thousands of small merchants, influencers, or service providers to pay them easily, instantly, and at scale.
The platform is built for high-volume operations, combining over 97% approval rates with near-instant processing times. Just to give you an idea of its scale, in September 2024, EBANX Payout processed more than 15,000 transactions in under 30 seconds. It’s fully automated, available via API or Dashboard, and supports flexible funding methods, including settlements from incoming pay-ins or external bank transfers.
Compliance and trust are built in from day one. EBANX takes care of all local regulatory requirements, handling recipient verification in the background so that the process remains fast and secure while ensuring full adherence to each country’s rules. This has made the solution particularly attractive to social media and digital platforms, which are already using it to pay creators and contributors in key markets across Latin America.
In the bigger picture, EBANX Payout lays the groundwork for embedded-finance models in emerging markets. It allows companies to both collect and distribute funds seamlessly within one unified system — a capability that’s becoming essential for global platforms operating in these high-growth economies. For us, it’s another step toward building the financial infrastructure that powers global digital ecosystems — fast, compliant, and inclusive.
