Author: Fintech News Singapore

The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS), together with the financial industry, will establish the Singapore Sustainable Finance Association (SSFA) to build a vibrant ecosystem for green and transition finance. The Association of Banks in Singapore is leading the coordination and setting up of the SSFA. It will initially focus on initiatives to scale voluntary carbon markets, transition finance, and blended finance. The SSFA will include representatives from financial institutions, financial industry associations, relevant corporates and service providers such as ESG rating agencies. MAS will also set supervisory expectations to steer financial institutions’ transition planning processes to facilitate credible decarbonisation efforts…

Standard Chartered has begun the process of cutting more than 100 jobs across its Singapore, London and Hong Kong offices to trim costs by more than US$1 billion by 2024, according to a Bloomberg report. Previously, the bank had aimed for US$1.3 billion in savings from 2022 to 2024. Standard Chartered has already begun the layoffs which has so far affected middle office roles including human resources and digital transformation in Asia in the last few weeks. On top of that, several managing directors in financial markets and junior staff were also axed. However, the exact number has yet to…

In today’s rapidly evolving economic environment, businesses need to be able to adapt quickly to changing market and consumer demands. This is especially true for traditional banks and financial institutions experiencing pressure to offer the same level of agility as their digital competitors. The use of next-gen cloud native platforms is not exclusive to fintechs or neobanks – traditional banks can also harness these super agile platforms to supercharge operational agility and ensure there is no disconnect between front and back-end systems. Across the globe, banks are choosing to migrate and gain an advantage with Mambu’s SaaS cloud native core,…

Antler, a Singapore-based business incubator and startup accelerator, has closed a US$285 million emerging growth fund to support founders across its global footprint. The Antler Elevate fund, which will be managed from its offices in London, Singapore, and New York, will provide scale-up capital from Series A onwards. Some of these companies were supported in Antler’s early-stage funds, which cover 20 ecosystems. Others are startups new to the portfolio, having raised seed investments outside Antler’s early-stage funds. The Antler Elevate fund led by Martell Hardenberg, Teddy Himler, and Fady Abdel-Nour has thus far already invested over US$70 million in companies.…

Visa study found that nearly nine in 10 Singapore consumers consider cashless payment methods, including cards, mobile wallets and mobile banking, to be the most eco-friendly The Visa Consumer Payment Attitudes study highlighted the increased importance consumers in Singapore place on sustainability, environmental values and societal causes. It revealed that a significant proportion of Singaporeans are actively taking steps (33%) or planning to take steps (41%) to expand their knowledge on responsible consumption. Six in 10 consumers (61%) are keen to see physical cards made from sustainable materials given it is a more eco-friendly option. Nearly half of Singapore consumers…

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has filed an emergency action application seeking a temporary restraining order to freeze the U.S. assets of cryptocurrency exchange Binance. The SEC said that it wants to ensure that Binance.US customers’ assets are protected and remain in the United States through the resolution of the SEC’s pending litigation of this matter. The motion comes on the heels of the thirteen charges filed by the regulator on Monday (June 5) over Binance’s ‘web of deception’. Binance attempted to reassure its U.S. customers that their “assets remain safe and secure and the platform continues to be…

Sequoia Capital (US/Europe), Sequoia China as well as Sequoia India and Southeast Asia have decided to become independent firms with distinct brands. Since inception, Sequoia Capital (US/Europe), Sequoia China and Sequoia India/SEA have been built as separate businesses with independent investment decision making, they said in a press statement Over the years, the strategies for each business have diverged and the scale and market leadership across different geographies has started to result in brand confusion and portfolio conflict. Moving forward, Sequoia India and Southeast Asia will now be known as Peak XV Partners (pronounced Peak Fifteen). Over the last 17…

Circle Singapore, a peer-to-peer payments technology company that manages stablecoin USDC, has secured a Major Payment Institution (MPI) license from the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS). The license allows Circle Singapore to offer digital payment token services, alongside cross-border money transfer services and domestic money transfer services in the island state. This includes the Circle Account which allows institutional customers access to USDC that is available 24/7. Circle Singapore officially opened its office in May 2023. In February 2023, Circle Singapore collaborated with Tribe, the country’s first government-supported blockchain ecosystem builder, on a novel training and support programme aimed at…

Global cross-border payments firm Thunes has raised more than US$60 million during its Series C funding round led by hedge fund Marshall Wace with support from Bessemer Venture Partners and a newly raised Southeast Asian private equity firm 01Fintech. Reports of Marshall Wace’s US$30 million investment in Thunes broke out earlier in March. Prior to that, Thunes had managed to bag US$60 million in a Series B funding round in May 2021. Peter De Caluwe, CEO of Thunes said, “With the backing of our current investors, reinforced by Marshall Wace, Bessemer and 01Fintech, we will be able to further scale…

Razer Merchant Services (RMS), the B2B arm of Razer Fintech, has secured Visa’s Direct Acquiring license in Malaysia, Singapore and the Philippines, as part of a regional partnership. Simultaneously, RMS is now certified with the Visa Token Service (VTS) to provide a secured and encrypted card payment service, deployed during card payment transactions for merchants. Through this partnership with Visa, RMS aims to expand the card scheme to these countries across different industry verticals, including hawkers, e-hailing, market traders, on-demand services, e-sports, government, and education. The other Visa solution in the full suite offered by RMS to its merchants is…

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has charged crypto exchange Binance and its founder Changpeng Zhao with a variety of securities law violations. The regulator alleged that while Zhao and Binance publicly claimed that U.S. customers were restricted from transacting on its platform, they had in reality subverted their own controls to secretly allow high-value U.S. customers to do so. The SEC added that while Zhao and Binance publicly claimed that Binance.US was created as a separate, independent trading platform for U.S. investors, they had secretly controlled the platform’s operations behind the scenes. One of the more concerning charges levied against…

Singapore’s B2B fintech Aspire announced that it has achieved profitability three months after closing an oversubscribed US$100 million Series C round co-led by Lightspeed and Sequoia Capital SEA. Headquartered in Singapore, Aspire serves over 15,000 businesses, including over 5,000 businesses in Indonesia and thousands across the rest of Southeast Asia and APAC. Its product offerings range from corporate cards, multi-currency business accounts and FX payments, to payroll and expense management. The company has been expanding its client list, which includes the likes of AirAsia, Carousell, Endowus and more. In the past 12 months, the company tripled its yearly revenues, hitting…

Amazon Web Services (AWS)’ Head of India and South Asia Puneet Chandok has resigned with effect from 31 August after having served in the company since June 2019. According to a TechCruch report, Chandok has plans to join a rival firm but no official announcement has been made so far. Vaishali Kasture, Head of Enterprise, Mid-Market and Global Businesses at AWS India and South Asia will step up as the interim leader of commercial business at the unit effective immediately. The news comes on the heels of AWS’ announcement that it plans to invest INR 1,05,600 crores (US$12.7 billion) in…

The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) and Elevandi announced that the theme for the upcoming Singapore Fintech Festival (SFF) 2023 would be ‘Applications of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in Financial Services’. Held from 15 to 17 November at the Singapore EXPO, the SFF 2023 is organised by MAS and Elevandi, in partnership with Constellar and in collaboration with The Association of Banks in Singapore. SFF 2023 will examine how technologies such as AI and Web3, and digital public goods, can help to accelerate the transition to a low-carbon future and re-imagine the financial system architecture to better address the needs of…

Cloud banking platform Mambu announced that its CEO and Co-founder Eugene Danilkis will be stepping down effective immediately. Mambu said that Eugene made the decision to step down after thirteen years at the company for personal reasons. He will continue to play an important role in the future of the business as a member of the board. In the meantime, current Chief Product and Technology Officer Fernando Zandona will take on the role of interim CEO. Mambu has started a search for a successor. Fernando is a technology and product leader with more than 20 years of experience in various…

Singapore’s emerging technology sector is expected to continue on its growth path, driven by supportive government initiatives and policies. This will be despite a challenging macroeconomic environment that’s marked by rising inflation, interest rate hikes and a looming global recession, a new report by SGInnovate says. The latest Singapore Early-Stage Emerging Tech Startups 2022 Report, released in April by the government-owned innovation platform, looks at the current state of Singapore’s emerging tech sector, highlighting trends among local startups that are applying physical sciences, life sciences and engineering to address market needs in the industry verticals of advanced manufacturing, agrifood, sustainability,…

India’s neobanking market has been growing at a fast pace, driven by rapid change in technology, growing levels of Internet and smartphone penetration and supportive government initiatives. Accounting and consulting firm Grant Thornton estimates that the Indian neobanking market was valued at US$3.42 billion in 2022, a growth the company attributes to the country’s young population, with more than 50% of the population being below the age of 28, and which it says was facilitated by the India Stack, a set of application programming interfaces (APIs) spanning unique identification, digital documentation and finance. This digital infrastructure has played a central…

Most digital challenger banks around the world are struggling to turn a profit, hampered by high customer acquisition costs, burdensome regulatory compliance requirements and limited revenue streams. Boston Consulting Group (BCG) estimates that a mere 5% of over 450 global digital challenger banks were profitable in 2022. Of these 20 digital challenger banks, 11 are located in Asia-Pacific (APAC), eight are located in Europe and one is located in Latin America. These figures imply that APAC digital challenger banks have been relatively more successful than their European or American counterparts, a success which analysts and industry observers often attribute to…

Money and crime have coexisted forever. Robbing a bank is the ultimate staple for robberies since it always makes headlines. Hollywood has made bank heists popular, but that’s not what the financial sector needs to be afraid of. Money is going digital, and banks don’t like to deal with a lot of cash. They give out loans with the click of a button. That’s exactly what hackers were hoping for – stealing money with the click of a button. One of the most popular exploits happened to SWIFT a few years ago, and hackers tried to grab hold of one…

Crypto.com, a leading cryptocurrency platform, has announced that it has been granted the Major Payment Institution (MPI) license for Digital Payment Token (DPT) services by the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS). This development follows Crypto.com’s previous in-principle approval from MAS in June 2022. The issuance of this license enables Crypto.com to continue offering its Digital Payment Token services to customers in Singapore. Kris Marszalek, the CEO of Crypto.com, expressed his satisfaction with the recognition received from the globally renowned regulator, the Monetary Authority of Singapore. Kris highlighted the regulator’s dedication to responsible innovation within the digital assets sector. He stated,…