Author: Fintech News Singapore

Early-stage venture fund and seed accelerator 500 Global has appointed Saemin Ahn, Martin Cu, and Shahril Ibrahim as new Partners to lead its initiatives across Southeast Asia. Saemin brings a decade of experience in growth investing. He was the Founding Managing Partner at Rakuten Ventures, where he led investments in more than 25 technology companies, including GoTo Group, Carousell, Epic, and Coda Payments. He also has deep expertise in advising companies on public listings and acquisitions. Prior to that, he held management roles at Google in Korea and Singapore. Martin was previously Philippines Country Head of Ninja Van. He grew…

The real-time payments linkage between Singapore’s PayNow and India’s Unified Payments Interface (UPI) has officially gone live today. This will enable customers of participating financial institutions in Singapore and India to send and receive funds between bank accounts or e-wallets across the two countries in real-time. They can do this using just the mobile phone number, UPI identity, or Virtual Payment Address (VPA). The Singapore participants are DBS and Liquid Group. Meanwhile, India participants are Axis Bank, DBS India, ICICI Bank, Indian Bank, Indian Overseas Bank and State Bank of India. Liquid Group is the first non-bank financial institution to…

Southeast Asian proptech company PropertyGuru announced that its CTO Manav Kamboj will lead its fintech business as Managing Director (MD) with immediate effect. Manav will lead the business, leveraging technology, data, and analytics to drive further digitisation of the home loan process and operational excellence. He has been working closely with PropertyGuru’s fintech team since its inception, focusing on its technology systems and infrastructure. Manav joined PropertyGuru Group as CTO in 2017 and since then has grown the technology team to double its size. He has more than two decades of extensive experience in the consumer internet industry across e-commerce,…

Okta, a publicly traded identity and access management firm, has appointed information technology industry veteran Neville Vincent as Vice President for Asia. In his new role, Vincent will oversee Okta’s business operations, deepen partner links, and lead the company’s expansion in this region. Vincent has over two decades of experience in the technology industry, leading and providing strategic direction to drive business growth and capture emerging opportunities throughout Asia Pacific. He recently served as Vice President, Enterprise, Asia Pacific and Japan for Nutanix and has held senior sales leadership roles at Oracle, Hitachi Vantara, and Adduce Technologies. Ben Goodman, Senior…

The Siam Commercial Bank (SCB) has unveiled its plans to become a fully digital bank in wealth management through its “Digital Bank with Human Touch” vision. The bank will be doubling down on its efforts to create “cutting-edge digital products and services that cater to a wide variety of demographics”. SCB has also revamped its management structure where the digital banking, information technology, and operations departments will now be reporting directly to the bank’s President and Chief Technology Officer. In terms of its wealth management service offerings, SCB has formed a network of relationship managers, an array of investment products,…

Cross-border payments firm Tazapay announced that it has secured an in-principle approval for a Major Payment Institution (MPI) license from the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS). This will enable Tazapay to offer account issuance, merchant acquisition, cross border money transfer, domestic money transfer and e-money issuance services. Tazapay provides a full-stack API for cards and local payment methods globally with buyer and seller protection. The company now has global card coverage and 85 markets for local payments collection coverage with embedded protection for buyer and sellers. More than a week ago, Tazapay had raised US$ 16.9 million in its Series…

In Asia, the wealth of affluent and mass-affluent customer segments is growing rapidly, bringing about new opportunities and growth prospects for banks and wealth managers alike in the region. But to tap into this opportunity, services providers will need to embrace technology and digital platforms to not only provide customers the services they expect, but also gain in productivity and efficiency, a new report by global consultancy McKinsey says. The report, titled Digital and AI-enabled wealth management: the big potential in Asia and released on February 02, looks at the region’s fast growing household wealth and shares how wealth managers…

Fintech investments in Singapore witnessed a three-year-high of US$4.1 billion across 250 deals according to the KPMG Pulse of Fintech H2’22. 2022’s total deal value here saw a 22 percent increase, up from US$3.4 billion in 2021, and a 75 percent increase from 2020’s total deal value of US$2.3 billion. The 2022 figure is also the second highest fintech investment achieved by Singapore in the past decade, after investments peaked at US$5.62 billion in 2019 just before Covid-19. Singapore’s 2022 positive showing comes against the backdrop of falling global fintech investment which dropped to US$164.1 billion. The top three areas…

The DBS Digital Exchange (DDEx) reported that its Bitcoin (BTC) trading volume had grown by 80% in 2022 despite the ongoing crypto winter. DDEx had also doubled its customer base in 2022 with close to 1,200 participants registered on the exchange as of 31 December 2022. The number of BTC custodised with the bank’s digital asset custody solution had doubled while the number of Ether (ETH) traded on DDEx was nearly 65% higher. The exchange said that it did not note any major selloffs in 2022 and the exchange had a net buy position for its customers throughout the second…

India, a world leader in digital payments and fintech innovation, is entering the next phase of its digital finance transformation, now eyeing the prospects of digital banking to address the credit gap faced by micro, small and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs). The government is said to be readying a framework that would allow MSMEs to more easily and securely obtain digital credit, information technology minister Ashwini Vaishnaw said on February 09, 2023, quoted by the Financial Express. “We are working on a Reserve Bank of India (RBI)-regulated framework so that digital credit also becomes secure and reliable like the country’s digital…

In Singapore, c-suite and senior finance executives are planning to invest significantly in embedded finance, environmental, social and governance (ESG) frameworks, and blockchain-related innovations in 2023, confident that these technologies will create new growth opportunities and provide them with an edge over competitors, a new study by Fidelity National Information Services (FIS), an international provider of financial services technology and outsourcing services, found. The inaugural 2023 Global Innovation Report, released on January, shares findings of a global study of 2,000 executives which sought to uncover finance executives’ top areas of investment in 2023 and the years onwards. Results from the…

Crypto payments platform Wirex has partnered with Visa to directly issue its crypto-enabled debit and prepaid cards to over 40 countries. Wirex will also become a member of Visa in APAC and the UK. The partnership will support further collaboration in major markets, including APAC, UK, Europe and the USA. Wirex said that it will continue working closely with Visa to expand its services and roll out its card programme worldwide. Meanwhile, the membership enables Wirex to offer new innovative crypto products, improve user-experience and pilot new blockchain initiatives. In 2015, Wirex had developed a crypto-enabled card allowing users to…

Indian digital payments company PhonePe has raised an additional US$100 million following the recent US$350 million financing round that closed on 19 January 2023. The latest raise from Ribbit Capital, Tiger Global and TVS Capital Funds places PhonePe’s pre-money valuation at US$12 billion. PhonePe started its latest fundraise with a target of raising up to US$1 billion in capital following its domicile shift from Singapore to India. PhonePe had to fork out INR 8000 crores (approximately US$18.35 million) in taxes for the move. The company said that it expects further investments from leading global, as well as prominent high net worth Indian…

Valued at over US$ 1 Trillion the payments space in South East Asia is a hotbed for innovation. What are some biggest trends shaping payments in the region and where is the industry headed? Special thanks to the following thought leaders for sharing their views: Alain Yee, Head of ShopeePay Malaysia Praful Morar, Global Expansion Officer, Nuvei Hiroko Michishita, Managing Director, JCB International Asia Pacific Pte. Ltd. Andrew McCormack, Centre, Head BIS Innovation Hub Singapore Centre

Indian insurtech firm InsuranceDekho has raised US$150 million in Series A funding round consisting of a mix of equity and debt. The round was led by Goldman Sachs Asset Management and TVS Capital Funds with participation from Investcorp, Avataar Ventures and existing investor, LeapFrog Investments. InsuranceDekho will be using the funds to scale up its product and technology functions, expand to new markets, and launch new innovative products in the health and life categories. Additionally, the insurtech is also seeking to grow its Micro, Small & Medium Enterprise (MSME) insurance business and strengthen its leadership team. Founded in 2016, InsuranceDekho…

A survey conducted by Edelman Data and Intelligence has found that trust in the Singapore banking industry has increased for a second straight year since 2020. The third annual Banking Trust Index for Singapore (BTIS) survey was commissioned by the Association of Banks in Singapore (ABS). 15 banks included in the scope of the survey include Bank of China, Bank of Singapore, Citibank, Credit Suisse, DBS, Deutsche Bank AG, HSBC, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China Limited Singapore Branch, JP Morgan, Maybank, Nomura Singapore, OCBC, Standard Chartered Bank, UBS AG, and UOB. Findings from the report Respondents attribute their trust…

DBS Bank has made several senior-level rotations that will take effect on 1 April 2023 following the retirement of Sim S. Lim, Group Head of Consumer Banking (CBG)/ Wealth Management. He will continue to stay on as a senior advisor. Shee Tse Koon, Country Head of DBS Singapore, will be succeeding Sim as the new Group Head of CBG/ Wealth Management. Meanwhile, Han Kwee Juan, Group Head of Strategy and Planning, will assume the role of Singapore Country Head. Taking over from Han is Lim Him Chuan who is currently the CEO of DBS Bank Taiwan. He will be returning…

Singaporean fintech Aspire announced today that it has closed an oversubscribed US$100 million Series C round co-led by Lightspeed and Sequoia Capital SEA. The round was also joined by Paypal Ventures, LGT Capital Partners, and existing backers Picus Capital and Mass Mutual Ventures. Aspire said that it plans to use the funding to further enhance its product offering, expand its regional presence as well as expand its team. The Y-Combinator-backed firm had announced that it had secured an oversubscribed US$158 million Series B funding round just last year in September. Founded in 2018, Aspire offers businesses a unified suite of…

Workforce Singapore (WSG) has partnered with Singapore Fintech Association (SFA) to launch a Fintech Talent Programme (FTP). The Attach-and-Train Career Conversion Programme (CCP) aims to re-skill mid-career individuals to develop capabilities in key technology roles within the fintech industry. Through the programme, individuals are provided with structured training and work attachments prior to job placement with participating companies over a nine-month duration. Participants will have the chance to learn the fundamentals of Python programming, software testing, Scrum and quality assurance. They will also learn from industry experts and get dedicated mentorship through their attachment with their host company. During this…

Dell Technologies has appointed Peter Marrs as President of its Asia Pacific and Japan (APJ) region to succeed Amit Midha, effective immediately. In his new position, Marrs will lead the region’s growth and development across the company’s extensive technology portfolio. He will be responsible for driving the corporate strategy and sales in Dell Technologies’ APJ region which includes Australia, New Zealand, India, Japan, Korea and Southeast Asia. Based in Singapore, Marrs will report to John Byrne, President of Sales, Global Theatres and Dell Technologies Select. Marrs has more than 30 years of experience in the IT industry, 23 years of…