The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) has re-appointed Ravi Menon as its Managing Director despite earlier reports that he would be stepping down this year. Menon, who turns 59 this year, has served for 12 years at MAS. The official statement from MAS said that Menon will serve as Managing Director until 31 May 2025 or his retirement, whichever is earlier. Menon will also continue to be a member of the MAS Board during this period. MAS had also announced the re-appointment of another two existing members to its Board of Directors including Attorney-General Lucien Wong and Chaly Mah, Chairman of…
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Southeast Asian SME financing platform Validus announced the appointment of Anshul Johri as its Group Chief Technology Officer (CTO), effective 5 April 2023. Anshul brings over 17 years of technology expertise in driving growth and scale for startups and large companies across various industries, and is responsible for leading the technology strategy across the region to propel Validus into its next phase of growth. Prior to joining Validus, Anshul spent 6 years as Head of Engineering at Indonesian unicorn Traveloka. At Traveloka, he scaled its financial services products such as payment platform, digital wallet, buy now pay later (BNPL), insurance…
The London Stock Exchange Group (LSEG) will be collaborating with the National University of Singapore (NUS) Business School through its Workspace platform. Workspace provides students an enriched and interactive learning and teaching experience, and efficiently delivers expertly vetted, reliable, and meaningful data. The collaboration aims to strengthen the education and research capabilities of NUS Business School by leveraging Workspace’s comprehensive financial data and analytics. Students and academic staff will have access to real-time financial market data, reports, economic indicators, and accounting data of publicly traded companies. They will also be able to examine historical data dating back to the 1960s,…
Singapore-based early-stage venture fund Integra Partners announced the final close of its second fund, Integra Partners Fund II, which closed late last month at US$90 million. This brings the total committed capital managed by the firm to over US$140 million. Integra Partners said that the new fund is targets fintech, insurtech and digital health opportunities that leverage synergies across sectors to drive financial and healthcare inclusion. Integra Partners Fund II is anchored by global institutional investors including Germany’s development finance institution DEG, the US International Development Finance Corporation (DFC), Norwegian Investment Fund for Developing Countries Norfund, European alternative asset management…
Banking software company Temenos has expanded its relationship with Amazon Web Services (AWS) to offer its core banking solutions as Software-as-a-Service (SaaS). Running Temenos Banking Cloud composable banking services on AWS enables retail, commercial and private banks – incumbents and challengers – to gain greater agility, higher performance, scalability, and security. Temenos said that it will be making full use of AWS to provide high-availability across various regions and accommodate data sovereignty requirements, without expensive (on-site) redundant infrastructure. Additionally, Temenos Banking Cloud’s integration on AWS also helps banks reduce their carbon footprint and support them in achieving their ESG goals…
Vietnam’s startup sector has grown tremendously over the past years, driven by increased venture capital (VC) activity, favorable government policies and a youthful and motivated community of entrepreneurs looking to bring the domestic startup sector to the next level. But despite an ecosystem that might be perceived as conducive, local startups are facing a number of challenges that are hampering their growth, including human resources challenges with a limited local talent pool, as well as a regulatory framework that’s lagging behind innovation, a new report by Dezan Shira & Associates, a pan-Asia professional services firm, says. The report, which looks…
UOB has added another 15 branches to its network across Malaysia, Thailand and Vietnam, bringing the total number to over 200 following its acquisition of Citi’s consumer banking businesses in those three countries. This has pushed UOB’s retail customer base in the region to over seven million as of 31 March. Once UOB completes the acquisition of Citi’s consumer business in Indonesia, the bank will then have close to eight million customers. Currently, UOB has already rebranded all of Citi’s branches in Thailand and Vietnam, while the Malaysian ones are still ongoing. The four markets combined is expected to boost…
The Singapore parliament has passed the Monetary Authority of Singapore’s (MAS) bill to establish the COSMIC platform. COSMIC is a secure digital platform for financial institutions to share with one another, information on customers who exhibit multiple “red flags” that may indicate potential financial crime concerns. Short for “Collaborative Sharing of ML/TF Information & Cases”, COSMIC will make it easier for financial institutions to detect and thereby deter criminal activity. The bill amends the Financial Services and Markets Act 2022 to permit this sharing of information and provides the legal framework for it. It has incorporated feedback from MAS’ public…
Digital transformation has become the most important strategic initiative for many financial services firms, with innovative technologies underpinning core business strategies. The third-annual Broadridge Digital Transformation and Next-Gen Tech study surveyed 500 C-level executives and direct reports across the buy- and sell-sides from 18 countries to understand where they stand today, and what they expect in 2023 and beyond. The findings of the report highlight how digital transformation is changing the business landscape in Asia Pacific. Firms classed as leaders in Broadridge’s digital maturity framework were 11 times more likely than other companies to be at an advanced stage of…
Banking software company Temenos has added several new investment advisory features to its Digital Wealth solution, enabling banks and wealth management firms to grow their High-Net-Worth user base. With the new features, Private Wealth Managers (PWMs) will be able to give clients instant, real-time visibility into their portfolio and streamline engagement with digital workflows. They will be able to easily track their portfolio health against investment objectives across a range of key metrics such as asset allocation, risk, and investment constraints. This enables the clients to review their investor profile and adjust their target strategy. Clients can also receive and…
Moomoo Financial Singapore, an investment platform and wholly owned subsidiary of Futu Holdings, has partnered with online money transfer service Wise to offer its users a cost-effective and faster way to deposit money into their trading accounts. Singapore users can now choose to deposit through Wise which enables them to convert their local currency to Singapore Dollars at the real mid-market exchange rate, enabling them to save more money on transfer fees. Additionally, users will also able to see the real mid-market exchange rate as reflected on the Bloomberg Index, Google and Yahoo Finance websites. Moomoo Singapore is an all-in-one…
DBS Bank’s CEO Piyush Gupta said that the financial firm is mulling expansion plans in Dubai, according to a Bloomberg report detailing his interview with Yousef Gamal El-Din at the Dubai Fintech Summit. He added that the bank is “revisiting the thesis that there is real opportunity to do more stuff out of Dubai and this region”. DBS’ presence in the Middle East is currently limited and the bank sees this as an “opportunity to scale it up”. Gupta went on to remark that “hubs like Dubai can act as a neutral player in a multipolar world, being able to…
Digital technology is increasingly transforming financial services. In the era of mobile devices, digital services through mobile apps have become part of our daily lives. The question now is whether one can trust the system to manage their assets and money via virtual services? With a zero trust architecture, the internet is never trusted, and digital financial services aim to always verify and authenticate information. Authentication is the most significant element of a digital service structure. TOPPAN IDGATE, a Taiwan-based company, joined the TOPPAN group in 2020 and has focused on digital identity authentication for more than 10 years. Part…
Tenity, a fintech accelerator formerly known as F10, announced that it has become the first programme partner of the XRP Ledger (XRPL) Accelerator in Asia Pacific with the launch of a Singapore-based cohort. The XRPL Accelerator in Singapore run by Tenity and supported by Ripple, an enterprise blockchain and crypto solutions provider. This will be the second cohort of this new initiative to support blockchain and crypto tech founders globally, with the first cohort starting in June 2023 in New York. The 12-week hybrid programme will run primarily virtually, with on-site components, such as the Demo Day in early November.…
In 2022, usage of digital wallets and account-to-account (A2A) payments continued to grow in Asia-Pacific (APAC), carrying on a trend that was accelerated by the COVID-19 pandemic and the expansion of real-time payment systems, a new report by global financial technology leader FIS says. Consumers eagerly embraced alternative credit products, including buy now, pay later (BNPL) arrangements and point-of-sale (POS) financing, showcasing a broadening of consumer credit demand. At the other end of the spectrum, usage of cash continued to decline, encouraged by cashless policies and governments’ efforts. These are the main findings drawn from this year’s Worldpay from FIS…
In Thailand, usage of e-wallets continues to gain in popularity, driven by infrastructure enhancements, real-time payment efforts and a push from the government to promote a move towards cashless transactions. Usage of cash carried on its decline last year, accounting for 56% of point-of-sale (POS) transaction value. The figure represents a 7 percentage point decline compared with 63% in 2021, according to FIS’ Global Payments Report 2023. E-wallets, meanwhile, saw increased traction, making up for 25% of e-commerce and 23% of POS transaction value. The shares make e-wallets the second most used payment method for both e-commerce and POS transactions…
Singaporeans will be able to pay local businesses right from their WhatsApp chat from today onwards. This will enable customers and businesses buy and sell directly on WhatsApp without having to go to a website, open another app or pay in person. Supported by WhatsApp’s payments service provider partner Stripe, the new feature will enable Singapore residents (those with a WhatsApp number registered here) to pay using credit, debit cards or PayNow. WhatsApp said that it will begin rolling out this feature to a small number of local businesses today, and it will be available to many more in the…
Thailand’s fintech sector has historically lagged behind that of ASEAN counterparts such as Singapore or Vietnam, but recent regulatory efforts by the Bank of Thailand as well as booming adoption of digital payments are set to pave the way for strong growth in the financial startup scene. With the Thai fintech industry poised to enter a new era of development, a number of industry events are being scheduled to take place in the country in the coming months, aiming to showcase the sector’s latest innovations and hottest players. Today, we look at 11 fintech conferences and networking events to attend…
The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) and Bank for International Settlements (BIS) has jointly launched the fourth edition of the G20 TechSprint Initiative, a global technology competition to promote innovative solutions aimed at improving cross-border payments, under India’s G20 presidency. The 2023 TechSprint is open to developers from around the world and will focus on three problem statements on cross-border payments. Details of registration and problem statements are available here. Shortlisted teams will be invited to develop their solutions over a six-week period and each team will be eligible for a stipend of INR 8,00,000 (approximately US$ 10,000). The shortlisted…
MUFG Innovation Partners (MUIP), a corporate venture capital fund and a wholly owned subsidiary of Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group (MUFG), has invested in Indian lending platform Lentra. The sum of the investment was undisclosed. MUIP co-invested with MUFG in Lentra to support the company’s growth journey in India and outside. Through the investment, MUIP said that it will support Lentra to further explore synergies with MUFG Group including its partner banks in Southeast Asia. Founded in 2018, Lentra is a cloud lending platform empowering banks and Non-Bank Financial Companies (NBFCs) to lend faster. Lentra has a robust presence across India…