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The Vietnamese electric-vehicle maker said the proposed outlets would span Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao, extending its reach beyond major centres such as Metro Manila and Cebu into markets including Cagayan de Oro, Tacloban and Subic Bay. The sites are expected to combine vehicle display, customer consultations, sales and after-sales services under VinFast’s global showroom standards.

The agreements, announced on September 11, bring together Elite North Auto Cars Inc., MG Gateway Mantrade Corp., Grand Canyon Multi Holdings Inc., Britannica United Motors Incorporated, VF Auto Sto Tomas Inc., GR8 Marketing Motors Inc., ARCMA Motors Corporation, Autonomics Motor Corp., Gershom Car Trading Corp., Areza Motor Sales Inc., Central Auto Resources Inc., Autolink Global Motors Inc. and Greenport Mobility Inc.

VinFast said the partners’ distribution experience and regional networks would help accelerate expansion and improve access to its electric cars and support services. The company did not disclose investment values, opening dates for individual locations or how many of the 27 sites would provide full workshop facilities.

Antonio Zara, chief executive of VinFast Southeast Asia, said the Philippines remained a key market in the company’s longer-term regional and global plans. He said VinFast was seeking to develop not only its retail footprint but also products, services, infrastructure and the wider electric-vehicle ecosystem, working with local partners to make battery-powered mobility more accessible.

The latest dealer push builds on a network expansion already under way. VinFast said in April 2025 that it had reached agreements with six Philippine dealers to establish more than 60 new showrooms, including planned locations in Metro Manila, Quezon City and other urban centres. Its third-quarter 2025 financial disclosure later said the company had nine showrooms operating nationwide, underscoring the gap between announced development plans and sites actually opened.

That distinction remains important for the new programme: the 27 outlets are covered by memoranda of understanding and are expected to be developed, rather than being newly opened locations. VinFast’s stated target is to develop a total network of 60 dealerships in the Philippines in 2026.

The company has also been adding after-sales and charging capacity as it seeks to reduce practical barriers to electric-vehicle ownership. VinFast previously signed an agreement with Motech aimed at bringing up to 63 service workshops into its authorised repair, warranty and maintenance network. It has also worked with other service partners and has promoted charging infrastructure through V-Green, the charging-network business associated with the wider Vingroup ecosystem.

VinFast entered the Philippine passenger-vehicle market with a battery-electric range that has included the VF 3, VF 5, VF 6, VF 7 and VF 9. At the Philippine International Motor Show in June 2026, the company displayed its broader mobility offering and highlighted programmes combining vehicle access, charging and transport services.

Its expansion comes as carmakers compete for position in a Philippine electric-vehicle market supported by government measures intended to encourage cleaner transport. The Electric Vehicle Industry Development Act established a national policy framework for EV adoption, charging infrastructure and industry development, while tariff measures have lowered import costs for qualifying electric vehicles and components.

Dealer coverage is a central challenge for newer entrants because buyers expect servicing, spare parts and warranty support alongside vehicle sales. VinFast has increasingly used local dealer partnerships across Southeast Asia and other markets rather than relying solely on company-owned retail outlets, allowing it to add sales points faster while drawing on established operators’ local knowledge.

The 13 new partners are expected to help VinFast reach customers across several island groups, where distribution and after-sales logistics can be more complicated than in a single contiguous market. VinFast has separately worked with logistics providers in the Philippines to support vehicle inspection, distribution and servicing as its product range expands.

The move comes as the National Payments Corporation of India develops protocols for identifying and authorising AI agents on the Unified Payments Interface, creating infrastructure that could let software complete selected payments under rules and limits set by customers.

Super. money founder and chief executive Prakash Sikaria has said the emerging architecture could allow agents representing merchants and consumers to interact directly, reducing the number of steps between product discovery and payment. The company is seeking to use that shift to extend its role beyond routine UPI transfers into commerce, credit and investment-related transactions.

Agentic payments differ from conventional chatbots because the software can act after interpreting an instruction rather than merely provide information. A user could, for example, ask an agent to find an eligible product within a budget or execute a purchase when specified conditions are met, subject to the permissions built into the payment framework.

NPCI is working on a registry to verify and monitor AI agents conducting transactions through UPI. Its proposed Unified Agent Protocol is expected to support controls including spending limits, identity checks and audit trails. The initial focus is on small, frequent purchases, while more complex conditional transactions could follow as safeguards and liability rules develop.

The payments body has already extended UPI Circle, its delegated-payments framework, to software profiles including AI profiles for limited users. Under the broader system, account holders can delegate payment authority within predefined limits while retaining visibility over transactions. Reserve Pay, another UPI mechanism, can block funds for authorised payments that may be debited later.

Super. money’s push builds on products added this year as it tries to broaden engagement beyond person-to-person and merchant payments. Its splitStore service, introduced in July, lets eligible customers browse products listed on Flipkart and either pay in full or use a pay-later facility provided by regulated lending partners.

The company’s terms state that Flipkart and its sellers remain responsible for the underlying sale, fulfilment, invoicing, cancellations and returns, while Super. money provides the shopping and credit interface. The platform does not hold inventory or set product prices.

Super. money has also added digital gold. Its customer-support documentation describes purchases, sales and reconciliation procedures involving a vault partner, while the app has promoted cashback on gold purchases. The service includes a post-purchase selling lock-in and applies the tax and market spread associated with digital-gold transactions.

Those products give the company potential use cases for agents that can move from a customer instruction to a transaction without requiring the user to navigate several separate screens. The central challenge is ensuring that delegated authority remains narrow enough to prevent unwanted or mistaken purchases.

That concern is shaping the wider industry’s approach. Razorpay, NPCI and OpenAI have been testing agentic payments using UPI Reserve Pay, with an earlier pilot allowing users to shop through a conversational AI interface and complete purchases from participating merchants after confirmation. Razorpay says its system is designed to support pre-authorised transactions within customer-approved spending limits.

Competition is intensifying as payments companies decide how extensively to integrate AI. PhonePe co-founder Rahul Chari has cautioned that not every existing payments experience becomes better merely by adding artificial intelligence, signalling a more selective approach than platforms seeking to make autonomous agents central to commerce.

Super. money remains smaller than the dominant UPI applications, giving it an incentive to pursue newer transaction categories rather than compete solely on basic payments. Its app combines UPI with credit, deposits, bill payments, shopping and other financial products, while the company has used cashback and embedded credit to encourage repeat usage.

  By R. Suryamurthy India’s trade with BRICS has expanded dramatically, but the numbers reveal an uncomfortable imbalance beneath the rhetoric about a multipolar world and alternative financial architecture. Between FY2021 and FY2026, India’s total merchandise trade with the 11-member grouping more than doubled, from $203.1 billion to $417.5 billion. Yet the expansion was overwhelmingly […]

The article Bricks cannot de-dollarise its way out of India’s huge trade imbalance appeared first on Latest India news, analysis and reports on Newspack by India Press Agency).

Lam admitted one count of participating in a racketeering conspiracy before US District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly on Tuesday, September 8. Prosecutors said he organised a network that targeted cryptocurrency holders through social engineering scams, online intrusions and, on some occasions, break-ins at victims’ homes.

The US Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia said the criminal enterprise operated from at least October 2023 until May 2025 and included participants based in California, Connecticut, New York, Florida and overseas. Lam, who also used several online aliases, identified targets and coordinated roles among members of the group.

One of the organisation’s largest thefts occurred in August 2024, when Lam and associates obtained more than 4,100 bitcoin from a victim in Washington. Court records say conspirators impersonated representatives of trusted companies, including Google and cryptocurrency exchange Gemini, and persuaded the victim to provide access information and authentication codes.

Those details allowed the group to gain control of the victim’s cryptocurrency holdings and transfer the bitcoin. Prosecutors have placed the value of that theft at more than $245 million for the purposes of the case, while earlier court filings valued the same 4,100 bitcoin at about $263 million at the time of the alleged transaction.

The broader racketeering case involves 18 defendants, with Lam becoming the 11th to plead guilty. Prosecutors described him as an organiser who played several roles in the enterprise and directed associates involved in obtaining credentials, moving stolen assets and laundering cryptocurrency through exchanges and other channels.

The plea marks a step in the prosecution of a network that authorities say grew out of contacts made through online gaming communities. Investigators allege members specialised in different parts of the operation, including identifying wealthy holders, impersonating corporate security staff, gaining account access and converting stolen cryptocurrency into cash or goods.

Federal authorities have pursued the case under the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act, a statute more commonly associated with organised criminal enterprises. The charge allows prosecutors to treat coordinated fraud, laundering and related acts as part of one conspiracy rather than as isolated offences.

Court documents also describe occasional home invasions or break-ins used to obtain information from cryptocurrency holders. The Justice Department said the group combined those physical intrusions with deceptive calls and other social engineering methods designed to gain passwords, seed phrases, security codes and related information needed to access digital wallets.

The stolen proceeds financed extensive spending by members of the group. Authorities said the conspiracy paid for private jets, rental properties in Miami, Los Angeles and the Hamptons, luxury clothing, handbags, watches, private security and a fleet of exotic cars. Some vehicles were valued at as much as $3.8 million.

Nightclub spending was another major outlet for the proceeds. Court records cited services costing as much as $500,000 per evening, while Lam was linked to a $569,000 bill during one night at a Los Angeles club. Luxury watches purchased by members of the group were valued from about $100,000 to more than $500,000.

Lam was arrested in Miami after the August 2024 bitcoin theft. The guilty plea followed months of negotiations over whether he would accept an agreement or proceed to trial. Several alleged co-conspirators had indicated they were prepared to testify if the case went before a jury.

At the plea hearing, Lam acknowledged the prosecution’s account and entered his guilty plea to the RICO conspiracy charge. The offence carries a maximum prison term of 20 years, although the sentence will be determined later under federal law and sentencing guidelines.

Judge Kollar-Kotelly scheduled a status hearing for December 8, when the court is expected to address the next steps towards sentencing. Lam and other participants have also been ordered to repay more than $245 million in stolen funds to victims.

The Philippines AI+ Infrastructure Masterplan 2026-2033, launched by the Department of Information and Communications Technology on September 8, sets an initial goal of deploying about 400 megawatts by 2030 from a baseline of roughly 50 MW. The programme is designed to combine public infrastructure spending with substantially larger private investment in computing capacity, power, connectivity, water systems and workforce development.

Information and Communications Technology Secretary Henry Aguda said two unnamed US hyperscale cloud companies are conducting due diligence on locations within the Bataan-Clark and Batangas-Aurora corridors. Each is considering about 200 MW of capacity over five years, but officials have stressed that the figures represent projects under evaluation rather than committed investments.

Aguda said the corridor approach is intended to shorten a site-selection process that can take hyperscalers six to nine months by mapping available land, electricity, connectivity and other requirements before investors make final choices. He said the companies have so far focused on Luzon, and no timetable has been disclosed for investment decisions.

The masterplan estimates that $13.5 billion, or 39 per cent of total funding, would come from public sources and about $21 billion, or 61 per cent, from private capital. Government officials said roughly $18.2 billion is already linked to existing national programmes, mainly in connectivity and energy, leaving an additional requirement of about $16.3 billion. AI compute and data centres account for the largest component, estimated at about $14.6 billion. No project auction has started, and Aguda said the masterplan itself is not funded under the 2027 national budget, though enabling power and water infrastructure may already be covered by broader government programmes serving the grid.

Gemma Baysic, officer-in-charge director of the National ICT Planning, Policy and Standards Bureau, said the strategy is intended to enable the country to build, host, power and support a larger AI ecosystem rather than remain principally a consumer of the technology.

Energy supply is a central constraint. Department of Energy Undersecretary Maria Francesca Del Rosario said planners estimate the infrastructure could support about 152,000 graphics processing units. The department expects natural gas to meet immediate additional electricity needs while aiming for renewable sources, including solar and geothermal power, to provide 40 per cent of the energy used by AI infrastructure by 2033.

Officials said additional generation must be developed without diverting electricity from households. The government is also examining nuclear energy as a longer-term option under the Philippine National Nuclear Energy Safety Act, although no nuclear capacity has been committed specifically to the data centre programme.

The roadmap identifies Clark-Bataan as the primary anchor for large-scale AI infrastructure, with Batangas-Aurora serving as a strategic international gateway. Subic and Calabarzon are designated supporting hubs, while Cebu, Iloilo, Davao and Cagayan de Oro are listed as future regional nodes as capacity expands beyond Luzon.

The plan also links infrastructure investment to labour-market objectives. It calls for reskilling 1.3 million workers in the information technology and business process management sector for AI-enabled services. Government projections envisage more than 500,000 AI-related jobs and a further 175,000 positions associated with AI infrastructure projects by 2033.

Those employment and economic estimates remain targets rather than assured outcomes. The masterplan projects that AI-linked productivity gains and new digital services could increase gross domestic product by 10 to 12 per cent by 2033, dependent on investment, infrastructure delivery, workforce adaptation and wider adoption.

The Asian Development Bank supported preparation of the masterplan. Winfried Wicklein, an ADB director general, described AI infrastructure as a national competitiveness and productivity priority, while emphasising that the launch marks the start of implementation rather than completion of the programme.

The currency came under pressure after Brent crude held above $100 a barrel amid continuing tensions in West Asia, reinforcing worries about higher energy costs for a country that imports more than three-quarters of its crude oil requirements. The rupee had settled at 95.1050 against the dollar on Wednesday after touching 95.2250 during the session.

Dealers said demand for dollars from oil importers, corporate debt repayments and hedging activity added to the pressure. State-run banks were also seen supplying dollars during trading, an action market participants associated with efforts by the Reserve Bank of India to limit excessive volatility in the foreign-exchange market.

Brent crude traded around $101-$102 a barrel during Asian hours after crossing the $100 mark on Wednesday. The move followed renewed military tensions involving the United States and Iran and heightened concern about shipping and energy supply through the Gulf, including routes linked to the Strait of Hormuz.

Higher oil prices are particularly significant for the rupee because petroleum imports are paid largely in dollars. A sustained rise in crude can widen India’s trade deficit, increase demand for foreign currency from refiners and add to inflationary pressure, creating a less favourable backdrop for the local currency.

The rupee has lost roughly 0.7 per cent over the previous two sessions, with traders saying the effect of higher oil prices has become more visible after the currency had initially shown resilience. The movement has also coincided with caution across Asian markets and pressure on domestic equities.

Benchmark share indices were subdued on Thursday after suffering sharp losses in the previous session. The Sensex had dropped 813.35 points, or 1.08 per cent, on Wednesday to close at 74,764.23, while the Nifty 50 fell 203.60 points, or 0.86 per cent, to 23,431.50. The sell-off reflected concern that expensive crude could complicate the inflation and growth outlook.

The Reserve Bank has intervened intermittently in the currency market during periods of sharp rupee weakness. Traders said dollar sales by state-run banks helped the currency recover from Wednesday’s intraday low, although market participants expected central-bank support to restrain volatility rather than reverse pressure created by oil prices and capital flows.

Foreign-exchange dealers were also monitoring overseas portfolio movements. Expectations of capital outflows and demand linked to corporate payments have increased near-term dollar requirements, while the dollar index remained close to 99 against a basket of major currencies, offering only limited relief to emerging-market currencies.

The rise in crude has revived concern over India’s external balances. A higher oil import bill can feed into the current-account deficit if export earnings and other inflows do not offset the additional cost. It can also increase costs for transport, manufacturing and other energy-intensive sectors, depending on the extent to which international prices are passed through domestically.

Domestic fuel prices have so far remained comparatively insulated from the latest jump in international crude, but refiners and oil-marketing companies face greater pressure when global prices rise sharply while retail prices are unchanged. That gap can affect corporate margins and, if sustained, increase the broader fiscal and inflationary policy challenge.

Bond and equity markets are also watching the oil move for its implications for monetary policy. Higher imported energy costs can make inflation management more difficult, while weaker risk appetite may intensify foreign portfolio selling. Traders said those factors could keep the rupee volatile even if the central bank continues to provide dollar liquidity during periods of disorderly movement.