Former Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS), Sygnum, and BPI Financial executive joins TRM to lead policy engagement with regulators, law enforcement, and industry across Asia-Pacific

SINGAPORE, Aug. 27, 2026 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- TRM Labs (TRM), the company building AI-first solutions to disrupt criminal networks, counter national security threats, and support compliant financial institutions, has appointed Ziqing Ang as Head of Policy, APAC.

In this role, Ang will work with regulators, policymakers, law enforcement agencies, and private institutions across Asia-Pacific to advance efforts against illicit networks and to strengthen the region's collective response to emerging threats.

Asia-Pacific has become one of the most consequential regions in the world for digital asset and AI policy, and criminal networks are leveraging this transformative technology to move at unprecedented speed and scale.

TRM tracked adjusted crypto crime volume rising from approximately USD 123 million in 2020 to more than USD 103 billion in 2025, with investment scams, including pig butchering, driving 62% of last year's fraud inflows. Generative AI is compounding the problem. TRM has tracked a 40% increase in AI-enabled scam activity, from deepfake recruitment videos to fabricated account dashboards, as these tools move from experiment to operational infrastructure.

APAC regulators are building digital asset and AI governance frameworks at the same time, giving the region a real opportunity to write enforcement and compliance tools directly into them from the start. Policy has to keep pace with criminal actors who are using technology to operate at unprecedented speed and scale.

Ang brings more than a decade of experience at the intersection of policy, financial markets, digital assets and institutional business development. She began her career at the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS), spending more than eight years across financial markets development and reserve management, where she worked alongside industry and public-sector stakeholders to shape strategic initiatives advancing Singapore’s capital markets ecosystem and its position as a global financial centre. She went on to manage fixed income portfolios and contribute to macroeconomic and investment research for Singapore's official foreign reserves.

From MAS, Ang moved into the digital asset industry, joining Sygnum, the world's first regulated digital asset bank, as Vice President of Business Development, where she supported digital asset adoption among institutional and accredited investors. Most recently, she served as Chief Business Officer at Bright Point International Digital Assets (BPI Financial Group), where she led the development of the firm’s OTC brokerage, spanning licensing and institutional infrastructure.

"This is a moment when the public and private sectors must come together to get ahead of the threats emerging in this region," said Ari Redbord, Global Head of Policy at TRM Labs. "Ziqing brings deep expertise and experience working across both the public and private sectors, and the credibility to bring regulators and industry together around this work."

"Asia-Pacific is at an important stage in how it regulates technology in the age of AI, and the decisions made over the next few years will shape the safety of the ecosystem," said Ziqing Ang, Head of Policy, APAC at TRM Labs. "I've spent my career moving between regulators and the institutions they oversee, and I've seen how much good regulation and strong partnerships between the public and private sector can do. TRM's focus on building a safer world is the kind of work I want to be part of, and I'm looking forward to working with regulators, law enforcement, and industry across the region to support responsible innovation."

Ang's appointment reflects TRM's continued investment in Asia-Pacific and the growing importance of local policy expertise as governments and institutions build the frameworks for a compliant digital asset economy. It follows last month's appointment of former MAS regulator Claudia Hui as Head of Compliance Advisory, APAC, part of a broader expansion of TRM's policy, compliance, and go-to-market presence across the region. TRM is headquartered in San Francisco and is a distributed-first company with hubs in Los Angeles, San Francisco, New York, Washington D.C., London, and Singapore. The company is hiring across all functions, including applied AI, machine learning, engineering, data science, go-to-market, and operations.

About TRM Labs

TRM Labs is the intelligence platform for public safety and national security, built to detect and disrupt the criminal networks that exploit emerging technologies, including cryptocurrency and AI. Combining proprietary intelligence, AI-native investigations software, and disruption network infrastructure, the platform is built for high-consequence environments where accuracy, auditability, and security are essential. TRM is trusted by 600+ government agencies and financial institutions across 75 countries to counter fraud, scams, cyber crime, child exploitation, money laundering, and sanctions evasion. To learn more, visit www.trmlabs.com.

For media enquiries, please contact press@trmlabs.com.

A photo accompanying this announcement is available at https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/297ffbd3-b7e3-4b58-b33b-259cb27a3a1f