Aimed at simplifying personal budgeting, Seedly is an app that lets you track your money in a simply and convenient manner. Based in Singapore, Seedly provides a solution that works in three simple steps. First, you need link your bank or credit cards via a secure channel. The software then analyzes and aggregates your transactions historic. Finally, you can communicate with Seedly’s artificial intelligent chatbot to receive insights, patterns and recommendations. The app utilizes behavioral machine learning to learn about your spending habits and let you know about discrepancies. According to Kenneth Lou, co-founder and CEO of Seedly, the app…
Author: Fintech News Singapore
Author
EZ-Link Pte Ltd, Singapore’s largest issuer of CEPAS-compliant cards, welcomes the full launch of the new unified Point of Sale (POS) system in Premier Taxis that accepts ez-link and other contact and contactless modes of payment including MasterCard, American Express, Diners Club, JCB, Union Pay and NETS, and soon Visa cards. EZ-Link’s integrated POS system provides more payment choices Replacing the current payment system in over 2,000 taxis under Premier Taxis Pte Ltd, this latest integrated payment solution offers high level of transactional security combined with contactless, magnetic stripe and Chip & PIN, allowing taxi commuters to choose from a wider…
As a country where cash is still the king of currency, the current state of implementation of Blockchain technology solutions in Vietnam is still very new. A few Vietnam fintech startups have been working on providing basic infrastructure layers in order to enhance the local ecosystem around these technologies, yet there has not been attempts yet to implement any advanced use cases of Blockchain technology in order to improve the efficiency and unforgeability of data & documents in the local economy. On January 25th , Bitcoin Vietnam Co. Ltd. – Vietnam’s first bitcoin exchange – and Coinify ApS – the…
The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) today released a consultation paper on proposed guidelines for a “regulatory sandbox” that will enable financial institutions (FIs) as well as non-financial players to experiment with financial technology (FinTech) solutions. The FinTech landscape is fast evolving, with a proliferation of technological innovations and solutions. MAS encourages FIs to test and introduce these innovations if they are relevant, and do their own due diligence. However, there may be circumstances where it is less clear whether a particular FinTech solution complies with regulatory requirements or poses unacceptable risks. The uncertainty may stifle promising innovations, and may…
The Philippines has one of the highest population growth in Southeast Asia and remains a strong economic performer in the region, despite slow global growth. That shouldn’t last too long, though, as HSBC predicts that in 2050, the Philippines should rank as the 16th largest economy in the world, the 5th largest in Asia, and THE largest in Southeast Asia. The future seems bright given the country’s fast growing economy, and yet 69% of the Philippines’ adult population remains unbanked, according to the World Bank. Malik Khan Kotadia, Global Banking Group senior vice president, believes that fintech companies will play…
With a population of over 90 million people, mostly composed of Millennials who are increasingly plugged in, Vietnam’s Internet economy has got great potential, and yet, fintech still remains a relatively untapped opportunity. In an updated Fintech Vietnam Startup report, Fintech Meetup Vietnam explores the current state of fintech in Vietnam and highlights the key factors that are making Vietnam an attractive market for financial technologies. Vietnam’s fintech ecosystem Vietnam’s fintech industry is still in its infancy with a little more than 30 players who are mostly tackling the payments market. Two thirds of Vietnam’s fintech startups are providing consumers…
Bambu launches market leading B2B Robo Advisor. Revenue positive within two months from incorporation; secures market leading partners. Asia’s premier B2B Robo Advisor Bambu gains 1st revenue contract Bambu announced that it has secured it’s first revenue contract within two months from it’s initial launch. While Robo Advisory, the name given to managing investors’ money in a digital environment, is still in it’s infancy in Asia, Bambu has created a product and team that brings world leading solutions to this region. Bambu has built a savings and investing mobile application that will enable companies around the region to offer their client’s the best of breed solutions. Bambu…
Southeast Asia (SEA) is the world’s fastest growing Internet region and is expected to grow to more than US$200 billion by 2025, a trend mostly driven by the growth of first-hand e-commerce market, online media and online travel, according to a new research report by Temasek and Google. The report, entitled ‘E-Conomy SEA: Unlocking the $200 billion digital opportunity in Southeast Asia,’ suggests that the total first-hand e-commerce market in SEA is expected to reach ~US$88 billion by 2025, significantly outpacing the growth of offline retail. The number of transactions should be the biggest growth driver as more people will…
In an exclusive Interview with the CEO of Vietnams first Digital Bank Timo, Claude Spiese is telling Fintechnews about their business model, the scalability and about some future plans. He explains why his mobile only bank is targeting 50 Millions Vietnamese and claims to be sexy and secure. Moreover this Vietnamese “Bank” is even more functional than US Bank Simple.
Leonteq the FinTech provider for investment and pension solutions, announces the launch of its Teqlabs innovation lab facility in Singapore’s Central Business District at Asia Square. The innovation lab will foster its FinTech research and development for the benefit of the financial services sector. The Singapore-based Teqlabs was opened in partnership with Singapore’s Economic Development Board . Teqlabs gathers the best to foster more FinTech innovation The new partnership intends to foster and grow the best minds from Singapore’s FinTech university ecosystem with the support of EDB. It enables Leonteq to add graduates of Singapore’s leading universities such as the National University of Singapore (NUS)…
Vietnam’s first digital bank Timo – which stands for “time is money” – has on-boarded 4,000 customers since launching earlier this year, highlighting the appetite of Vietnam’s millennial generation for all things mobile. Their story reminds of successful US digital only banks such as Moven and Simple- but is even more. Timo has neither branch nor offices. Instead, its only physical presence is a cafe in downtown Ho Chi Minh City. Dubbed the Timo Hangout, the place is where newcomers are introduced to the digital bank’s products and services, and where the company conducts all required KYC checks and formalities for on-boarding new…
The mobile payments industry is expected to become a US$142 billion market by 2019, according to PricewaterhouseCoopers, a trend that has led to the emergence of a great number of mobile payments systems. Apple Pay, which launched in the US over a year ago, is attracting one million new users per week, reports the Conversation. The service allows users to register credit cards on mobile devices and pay for goods and services by swiping the devices over contactless payment terminals. The service has been gaining great traction and according to Apple CEO Tim Cook, transaction volumes on Apple Pay are…
After a significant pullback in funding in Q4’15, mega-rounds lifted quarterly investment into VC-backed FinTech companies by over 150 percent, according to the Pulse of FinTech, the quarterly global report on FinTech VC trends published jointly by KPMG International and CB Insights. According to the new report, global investment in private FinTech companies totalled US$5.7 billion in Q1’16, with US$4.9 billion specifically invested in VC-backed FinTech companies across 218 deals, a 96 percent jump compared to the same quarter last year. The rise in funding was tempered by the fact that three mega-rounds accounted for 54 percent of VC FinTech…
Design thinking is a methodology used during the process of designing and a problem-solving protocol which consists in, first, defining the problem, and then, implementing the solutions, always with the needs of the user demographic at the core of concept development. User centric: design to solve an issue Design thinking is essentially about understanding the challenges that face customers and working with, observing and iterating with them to find a solution. It is also about taking a ‘human experience first’ approach to problem solving, and a customer-centered approach to end-to-end process fulfillment. In a new report released last week, Lightbulb…
Totaling 80 million individuals who are commanding US$1.3 trillion in direct annual spending in the US alone, Millennials are the largest generation in world history. The demographic represents a diverse financial services segment completely different from their predecessors and an “immense opportunity for banks,” according to a new report by Oracle Financial Services and Wharton Fintech. The document, entitled ‘The Millennial Migration: How Banks Can Remain Relevant In Their Decision-Making Eco-System,’ shares findings of a survey on over 4,500 respondents across nine markets and dives into the emergence of what it calls a “new model for lifestyle banking.” Findings suggest…
Although blockchain holds many promises for the financial services industry, the technology will need to overcome many challenges before reaching wide adoption, according to a new paper by SWIFT and Accenture. The paper, which aims at formalizing SWIFT’s position on distributed ledger technologies, highlights eight key requirements in order for the technology to fulfill the needs of the financial community: Strong governance, with clearly defined roles and responsibilities of the parties involved; Data controls in terms of access and availability to preserve confidentiality; Compliance with regulatory requirements; Standardization at all levels to guarantee straight-through processing, interoperability and backward compatibility; Identity…
Fintech has gaining more and more attention from not only industry experts but also those who are active in finance and technology. It is quite surprising that how many events related to Fintech, Bitcoin & Blockchain, Mobile & Online Payment, or Remittance have been planned for 2016 (Please refer to our Events section for details). In Southeast Asia, noticeably Singapore, Fintech has been “blooming” pretty steadily and those Fintech events are great opportunities for everyone to network, update the latest trends or exchange knowledge. From now until September, Fintech News Singapore has selected 5 outstanding Fintech events in Southeast Asia that you should…
As technology is playing an increasing role in the banking and financial world, businesses, universities and organizations have started offering seminars, masterclasses, and courses covering the emerging fintech ecosystem. Today, we’ve listed the most exciting educational events to come, and some of the most popular university courses available out there covering FinTech and its ecosystem: Oxford University Oxford Saïd Business School: FinTech Lectures Oxford Said Business School has been hosting a series of FinTech-focused lectures since the beginning of the month. The lecture series has been curated by Huy Nguyen Trieu, a Resident Expert and friend of the Entrepreneurship…
Gemalto (Euronext NL0000400653 GTO), the world leader in digital security, will provide its LinqUs Mobile ID solution to the Electronic Transactions Development Agency (ETDA) – A public organization, part of the Ministry of Information and Communication Technology (ICT), Royal Thai Government, Kingdom of Thailand. This aims to develop secure online services nationwide. Gemalto mobile ID authentication leads Thailand to highly-secured online services. The solution will allow mobile users to perform any online transaction on the go, with the highest levels of security and convenience. They will be able to access internet banking, confirm payments, and digitally sign documents for…
In Vietnam, mobile is driving Internet penetration and is changing the habits of online consumer, significantly impacting two key consumer groups: users in rural areas, and consumers aged over 35 years, according to a new market research. The study, conducted by Cimigo, found that in 2015, mobile phone and smartphone penetration reached 69% in Vietnam amongst those aged 15 years and over, while Internet penetration reached 48%. In 10 years, mobile penetration grew by over 30% and Internet penetration by 35%. These figures show that Vietnamese consumers are increasingly more connected as mobile phones and smartphones are spreading across all…