Author: Company Announcement

Aleta Planet, a fast-growing Singapore-based fintech, has partnered with Discover Global Network, the international payments brand of Discover Financial Services, to enable merchants in Asia Pacific to expand e-commerce payment acceptance and grow their customer volume. Starting from Q2 2021, Aleta Planet, as an acquirer for Discover Global Network, will begin enabling merchants in Singapore to accept online transactions from cardholders using cards issued by Discover and Diners Club International, as well as their network alliance partners including RuPay in India, BC Card in South Korea, Troy in Turkey, and many more alliances around the world. Besides Singapore, Aleta Planet…

Interactive Brokers Group, a global brokerage firm, announced the addition of a Singapore entity Interactive Brokers Singapore Pte Ltd and the opening of an office located in the Marina Bay Financial District. With the addition of Singapore, the global brokerage firm now has nine entities around the globe in the US, Australia, Canada, Hong Kong, India, Japan, Luxembourg and the UK, serving over 876,000 clients accounts in more than 220 countries and territories. “As our client base continues to rapidly increase in Singapore, it was important to create a presence on the ground to support and service active traders and…

Mastercard and EedenBull have extended their strategic partnership from Europe to the Asia Pacific region to support the fintech company’s launch of a new digital platform for banks and businesses to process spending and payments more efficiently. New regulations, new technologies and new players are changing the way consumers and businesses think about payments. Around the world, organizations face many of the same challenges when buying and paying for goods and services, so they need the right tools to enable cost-efficient processes, policy compliance, spend control and improved cash flow. Building on a partnership in Europe, the expanded relationship with…

Huawei Mobile Services (HMS) collaborates with UnionPay to launch the Huawei Pay in Thailand. Huawei Pay is a mobile payment tool that provides contactless, cashless payment service for HUAWEI device users. In Thailand, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (Thai) Public Company Limited is the first bank to support this service. First introduced to the China market in August 2016, Huawei Pay is a mobile payment service rooted on HUAWEI Wallet, which provides contactless, cashless payment service for HUAWEI device users, as part of the Huawei Mobile Services (HMS). “We are pleased to extend our partnership with UnionPay and Industrial…

MatchMove, the Singapore based ‘Banking-as-a-Service’ platform and JustLogin, a Singapore based Human Resource cloud platform provider, will launch the JustLogin branded payment solution which encompasses an e-wallet with a prepaid card and remittance capabilities to help Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) across the region on JustLogin’s platform digitise and enable their employees to adopt digital payments. JustLogin provides a holistic platform for enterprises to address all their HR needs, including payroll, benefits, productivity and engagement. Today, they have over 2,000 SMEs on their platform spread across Singapore, Hong Kong and Myanmar, servicing more than 60,000 employees across the region. The…

UnionBank recently rolled out more cash-out options for customers via 11,000 remittance counters across the Philippines, including in rural areas where most of the unbanked and underserved population are located. Recognizing that sending funds to families and relatives living in provinces has been challenging, especially in far-flung areas where ATMs and bank branches are scarce or unavailable, UnionBank said that the best course of action to address this concern was to enable customers to send money from home via its app to remittance counters in underserved areas. The Bank leveraged existing partnerships with top Philippine fintechs such as Dragonpay and…

The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) announced today that 14 of the 21 digital bank applications have met the eligibility criteria required for the application to be considered. These eligible applicants, comprising five digital full bank (DFB) applicants and nine digital wholesale bank (DWB) applicants, will progress to the next stage of assessment. In January 2020, MAS updated that it had received 21 digital bank applications, comprising seven DFB applications and 14 DWB applications. MAS has reviewed all the applications received against the eligibility criteria announced on 29 August 2019. In the next stage of assessment, MAS will invite the…

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is no longer just a catch phrase, but is slowly becoming a new type of general computing technology. Inevitable it is one of the key drivers of technological innovation and thus social and economic revolution. Huawei never stops investing in AI research and development of such capacities to support ground-breaking cooperation among 5G, cloud, edge, and devices, reshaping various industries, such as financial services, transportation, power supply, manufacturing and more. Such technologies usually require collaboration to obtain fruitful results. For that, Huawei has been spending a whole lot of efforts in building an ecosystem which include academia,…

TransferWise,  announced today that its customers are currently holding £2 billion in deposits in the multi-currency accounts. TransferWise’s account has seen rapid adoption year-on-year by millions of expats, travellers, freelancers and businesses across the world looking for a cheaper, faster, transparent way to send, spend and receive money across borders at the real-exchange rate. The multi currency account and debit card were launched in Singapore last year. To mark the milestone, the company announces its latest feature: TransferWise customers with a multi currency account will now be able to send domestic and cross-border transfers instantly between themselves, in more than…

OVO , a leading payments and financial services app in Indonesia, announced that its lending arm, Taralite, a peer-to-peer (p2p) lending services provider, has obtained a business license from the Indonesia Financial Services Authority (OJK). This decree elevates Taralite from its previous “Registered” status given by OJK. With this business license, OVO and Taralite said it will continue to support the government’s efforts to implement Indonesia’s digital vision and mission, particularly bringing people, especially in the MSMEs sector, closer to digital financial services. Through these financial service innovations, users and MSMEs players will have an expanded access to untapped services,…

Cloud has taken over the enterprise with now 90% of organizations using cloud-based services, according to Deloitte’s Tech Trends 2020 report. Investment in the field is set to boom with the consulting firm expecting cloud investments to double as a percentage of IT budget over the next three years. Forrester, meanwhile, forecasts that revenue from public cloud infrastructure, platforms, and applications, will grow to a healthy CAGR of 21% between 2018 and 2022, reaching US$411 billion over the next two years. Huawei, the Chinese multinational tech firm is betting big on cloud computing, a field it believes will fuel future…

Finastra has appointed Margaret Franco as Chief Marketing Officer. Joining from Dell Technologies, she is based at Finastra’s London headquarters and takes responsibility for leadership of the global marketing organization, including corporate communications, brand, digital, solutions and field and partner marketing. Margaret brings a wealth of marketing and product management expertise from her career in the technology industry. Most recently she was Senior Vice President, EMEA Marketing, Dell Technologies, where she oversaw marketing and demand generation activities across Europe, Middle East and Africa. During her 13-year tenure at Dell Technologies, she held a number of executive global roles in North…

IMTF, the Leading Swiss provider of RegTech solutions in the financial service industry since 1987, has reinforced its APAC focus and presence with the nomination of Jordan Lo to the company’s management team. Jordan Lo will take over as APAC General Manager on June 1st, 2020 and will focus his activities both on the successful implementation of ongoing and challenging projects in the APAC region and the increasing demand for IMTF RegTech solutions. Jordan Lo is Singaporean and comes with extensive experience in the financial sector, banking technology, and management consulting. For the last 2 years, Jordan has already been…

Huawei Cloud announced a campaign recently where the cloud service provider will be offering US$ 200 cash coupons that can be redeemed for any purchase amount. This coupon is applicable when purchasing pay per use, monthly, and even yearly packages. There are daily limits to the amount of tickets offered and it will be given on a first come first serve basis — if there are no more coupons, you can always try again the next day where they will make new ones available by 9.am Beijing time (GMT +8.00) every day. They said that the coupon can be used…

Previously known as AsiaCollect, Flow, the credit management company announced today its Series A funding of US$6 million. The round is led by global institutional investors DEG, a development finance institution and a subsidiary of KfW Group of Germany; Dymon Asia Ventures; SIG Asia; and SCB10X, the venture arm of Siam Commercial Bank. This round of financing will fund Flow’s growth initiatives including the company’s geographical expansion and the ongoing development of Artificial Intelligence (AI) models such as predictive analysis of borrowers’ behaviours and speech recognition enhancement. Since 2016, Flow has achieved growing recovery rates and consumer engagement through its…

Huawei recently announced the launch of their webinar series targetted helping businesses to better cope with the COVID-19 pandemic. Happening every Thursday at 3.00pm Huawei’s webinars aim to tackle different issues and realities brought on by the health crisis. As an added bonus participants of the webinar will also be given a US$ 200 voucher which can be applied when you are purchasing Huawei Cloud products. Below are the webinars that the telecommunications giant has lined up over the next few weeks that you can join: Staying safe while working remotely with Sage 300 on HUAWEI CLOUD Time: May 14,…

The Saudi G20 Presidency and the Bank for International Settlements (BIS) Innovation Hub today launched the G20 TechSprint Initiative to highlight the potential for new technologies to resolve regulatory compliance (RegTech) and supervision (SupTech) challenges. The BIS Innovation Hub, through its Singapore Centre, and the Saudi G20 Presidency have published high-priority RegTech/SupTech operational problems and invite private firms to develop innovative technological solutions. The problem statements identify challenges in regulatory reporting, analytics, and monitoring and supervision, and have been developed from submissions received from Financial Stability Board (FSB) member jurisdictions. The hackathon-style competition is also supported by the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS), the…

Oriente, a lending startup headquarted in Hong Kong and operating in the Philippines (via Cashalo) and Indonesia (via Finmas), announced today that they have secured a fresh capital injection of approximately $50 million in its on-going Series B funding round. Dr. Peter Lee, Co-Chairman of Henderson Land, a leading property developer in Hong Kong, has made a significant commitment as the lead new investor. Wix.com, a leading cloud-based website development platform, has also participated, along with funding from other existing investors. This new capital will be used to fuel growth in Oriente’s existing markets and drive expansion into new markets such…

Union Bank of the Philippines through its UShare platform, is enabling non-government organizations (NGOs) in the country digitize with some recording up to 30-fold increase in daily online donations after an Enhanced Community Quarantine was imposed on March 17. With the quarantine extended until end-April, NGOs in the largely cash-based country are turning to digital channels for support of their COVID-19 programs aimed at flattening the curve. Through UShare, foundations, non-profits, and academic institutions, are empowered to receive donations and payments online, and can easily integrate the platform on their respective websites. UShare has been making significant impact for Philippine…

The Bank for International Settlements (BIS) today announced two key appointments to the BIS Innovation Hub, a new initiative designed to support central bank collaboration on new financial technology. Andrew McCormack, Chief Information Officer at Payments Canada, will head the BIS Innovation Hub Centre in Singapore. Morten Bech, Head of Secretariat for the Committee on Payments and Market Infrastructures (CPMI), will head the Hub Centre in Switzerland. “I am pleased to welcome Andrew and Morten to the Innovation Hub team. Their knowledge and experience will greatly enhance our efforts to make the global financial system safer, more efficient and inclusive,” said…