Oversea-Chinese Banking Corp (OCBC) is partnering with Singaporean personal finance portal MoneySmart.sg to offer a lower rate mortgage package. The deal, a limited offer running for only 15 days starting today, consists in a fixed deposit-linked interest rate plan at 36-month fixed deposit mortgage rate of 1.63% (OCBC 36FDMR: 0.65%, plus 0.98%) for the first three years on a loan of S$500,000 and above. In comparison, Singapore’s DBS Bank currently offers a fixed deposit home rate of 1.95% for a two-year lock-in period, based on its prevailing 18-month fixed deposit rate for amounts from S$1,000 to S$9,999. The OCBC Bank’s…
Author: Fintech News Singapore
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UK native entrepreneur is looking to provide a solution for micropayments in Southeast Asia, starting with the Philippines. With Tagcash Ltd. Inc., founder and president Mark Vernon is offering a platform and ecosystem that combines social media and payment functionalities. “We started by creating a rewards business with the idea that merchants would offer incentives to share ads on Facebook and social media based on results,” Vernon told Fintechnews in an email communication. “Small amounts of money would go into users wallets which would then be spent with other merchants etc. Traction was hard to achieve, so we took a…
Fintech in Thailand: The Bank of Thailand (BOT) is looking to boost the use of electronic and e-payment as the governor believes that these methods will be crucial to the competitiveness of the Thai economy since they will reduce transaction cost while boosting good governance. E-payment can also be used by the government to provide welfare to low-income groups more efficiently and with transparency, according to BOT governor Veerathai Santiprabhob. A report from the Nation suggests that Thailand’s central bank will announce today a new three-year strategic plan to boost the sector. “There will be many new players [in the…
With the global economy increasingly showing signs of weakness, more people are considering gold as a safe haven. Thankfully, with platforms such as BullionVault and Bitgold now available, gold is no longer a reserve of the rich and literally anyone can invest in the commodity. Founded in 2014, BitGold is a Canadian fintech company that aims to reintroduce the concept of commodity money. It provides users with a vault account to purchase and hold gold, the ability to make and receive instant gold payments, and a debit card for spending gold at traditional points of sale. BitGold currently serves some…
Payoneer brings in one place a number of payment options and allows online marketplaces and global companies to transfer fund and pay service providers located in various parts of the world in a faster manner, at lower fees and with greater flexibility. This New York-based financial services firm provides businesses with an all-in-one solution that allows them to send out payments to other companies and working professionals from all around the world more efficiently and at a cheaper cost. Payouts can be done via prepaid debit card, bank transfers, checks and local e-wallets to 200 countries and in 150 currencies.…
Lenddo, a startup that has developed an algorithm that pulls and analyzes social media data to determine credit worthiness, has teamed up with consultancy firm FK BCG to tap into the South Korean market. The two companies officially announced the debut of their collaboration on January 25, during a seminar on the reinvention of consumer finance using non-traditional data for credit scoring and social verification. The team that made it all happened! #LenddoKorea #ThankYou #Milestone pic.twitter.com/sFlK2XlfIM — Lenddo (@lenddofriend) January 26, 2016 The partnership with FK BCG, a leading consulting group in credit scoring, will allow the startup to introduce…
Asia Pacific’s e-commerce industry has been “explosive,” generating over US$567 billion in total transactions in 2014 with China contributing US$440 billion, surpassing the US with US$140 billion. In the next five years, the region will most likely set the agenda for the global online retail market, according to MasterCard Asia Pacific. Asia Pacific (APAC), which hosts 60% of the world’s population, is twice as likely to buy online rather than other groups in the world. In two to three years, MasterCard expects that the region’s middle class will expand to over 1.7 billion people in 2020 with China, India and…
Vietnam’s nascent fintech sector has a prosperous future lying ahead. While the ecosystem is still relatively small with about 30 players, the sector is one of the hottest investment trends for startups in the country. In August 2015, OnOnPay, a Hanoi-based fintech startup that allows users to top up talk time via mobile, closed “a six-digit amount” in seed funding from Captii Ventures. The deal marks the first investment from the Singaporean fund into a Vietnamese venture. According to a report from DealStreetAsia, over US$7.8 billion will be poured into the fintech market in 2020. So far, the most active…
Singapore, which started as an independent, separate country in 1965, quickly grew from being a tiny underdeveloped country to becoming one of the 20th century’s most successful development story. How did that happen? Well, firstly, because the city-state knew how to take advantage of its strategic location and nature harbor. And thanks to its highly developed market economy and business-friendly legislation, Singapore has managed to attract literally thousands of foreign firms and capital. Today, Singapore is located at the heart of one of the world’s most dynamic regions, and is considered as being among the most competitive, dynamic and innovative…
With only 27% of Southeast Asia’s 600 million population having bank accounts, the region represents an untapped opportunity for fintech companies, in Cambodia these ventures that are leveraging technology to provide more efficient and cheaper banking and financial services. In country such as Cambodia, the high mobile phone penetration rate – the Asia Foundation suggests that 94% of Cambodians own a mobile phone – has led startups and banks develop innovative ways to send and receive payments from and to all parts of the world using these devices. According to Eric Duflos, regional representative for East Asia Pacific at…
Like many others, DXMarkets is a company that is applying the blockchain, the record of asset ownership that underpins bitcoin, to financial markets with the promise to increase efficiency and reduce infrastructure costs. Distributed ledgers, in contrast to today’s networks, eliminate the need for central authorities to certify ownership and clear transactions. For financial markets, this means that blockchain technology has the potential to save millions in collateral and settlement costs, while enabling banks and institutions to automate their old and expensive back office systems. Santander InnoVentures, Anthemis and Oliver Wyman estimate that blockchain technology could help them save as…
Tired of crawling the Internet to find the hottest fintech events in your region? Need not worry. Today we’ve compiled a list of the 20 most important upcoming fintech and digital banking events and conferences in Singapore and Southeast Asia, so you don’t need to waste your time browsing the entire Internet to be aware of the next gathering of the world’s leading visionaries, decision makers, and startups. IMPORTANT: This Article is out of date: Check this link for current upcoming Fintech Events Startupbootcamp Fintech Singapore January 15, 2016 (corrected: new Date Feb 4th) On Feb 4th, 2016, Startupbootcamp Fintech will hold a…
500 Startups, a renowned venture capital seed fund and startup accelerator based in San Francisco and Silicon Valley, is diving deeper into fintech announcing a batch exclusively dedicated to financial technology startups set to start on January 19, 2016, according to reports from Let’s Talk Payments. The fintech batch, which will be composed of eight companies, is in accordance with its interest in the sector. In April 2014, 500 Startups announced that its third investor syndicate would be dedicated to financial services and bitcoin startups, an initiative that aimed at opening up additional funding avenues for these startups within the…
South Korea’s tech giant Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. is expanding its mobile payment system to Singapore, Australia and Brazil, the firm announced yesterday at its CES 2016 press conference. #SamsungPay will be coming soon to Australia, Singapore and Brazil in addition to the U.K, Spain and China. #CES2016 pic.twitter.com/anLDhVJcjJ — Samsung Mobile (@SamsungMobile) January 5, 2016 In December 2015, a report from Zing suggested that the mobile payment system “is expected to appear soon in Vietnam,” Lê Khôi Nguyên, the head of Samsung Vina’s mobile products, told the service. Samsung Pay launched in the US and South Korea in September last year, with…
Essentia Analytics uses behavioral science and data science to provide professional investors with an enhanced understanding of their own behavior. The purpose is for them to become aware of their strengths and avoid acting on cognitive bias. Clare Flynn Levy, Essentia Analytics’ founder and CEO, launched her startup after having worked ten years as a fund manager. The idea of Essentia Analytics emerged following the observation that up to date decision support tools monitor data from outside, gathering data about what people are doing. “We look inward. If your bad habits or lack of self-awareness are causing you to not…
On January 25 and 26, the 2016 Fintech Finals conference and pitch competition will be held in Hong Kong featuring 40 Fintech Finals finalists who will exhibit. 24 chosen startups will have the opportunity to demo and pitch their product to an audience filled with the brightest collection of bankers, technologists, entrepreneurs and VCs. The 2016 Fintech Finals, organized by NXT BNK and Fintech HK, is part of the StartmeupHK Festival 2016 and promises to be Asia’s biggest fintech conference and pitch competition in 2016. Sponsors include Visa, BBVA Innovation Center, Startupbootcamp Fintech, Fintech Innovation Lab, as well as government…
Fintech, an abbreviation for financial technology, is most certainly one of the hottest new trends in the digital age. Why? Well, because it comes with the promise of radically changing the way we live and conduct business. These fintech firms and startups are leveraging technology to provide products and services typically offered by bank and financial institutions that are more innovative and much cheaper. At the end of the day, fintech will benefit the consumer who will get lower prices, more innovative products and better user experience. The fintech craze has been particularly visible through the growing amount of cash…
Vietnam currently stands as one of the top ten remittance recipient countries in the world. In 2014, more than US$12 billion have been remitted to the country, making it the 9th largest remittance recipient, according to a World Bank report. In Ho Chi Minh City (HCM) alone, one of the country’s leading destinations for remittances, it was estimated that more than US$3.7 billion have been injected by the end of October 2015, a year-to-year increase of 13%. Inward Remittances to Vietnam are expected to hit all-time high. By the end of the year, the State Bank of Vietnam’s HCM City…
The bitcoin craze has gone well beyond the US and Europe. In Africa, startups such as BitPesa are revolutionizing the remittance market, enabling cheap and fast money transfers. In South America, bitcoin firm BitINKA announced in June its plans to become the region’s first universal exchange platform with operations in Peru, Venezuela, Bolivia, Brazil, Argentina, Colombie and Chile. In Asia, startups are using Bitcoin and blockchain technology for all sorts of things: remittances, salary payments, or even business incorporation. To keep track with this burgeoning space, we have compiled a list of the top ten major startups from Southeast Asia…
Standard Chartered, Baidu and co-working space operator Tuspark Global Network (TGN) have teamed up to launch SuperCharger, an 12-week accelerator program dedicated to fintech startups and established global companies looking to expand in Asia. Based in Hong Kong, SuperCharger seeks to leverage Asia’s finance and technology gateway to assist fintech companies with building, mentorship and advice in market entry, regulatory requirements and joint venture opportunities. “Hong Kong’s vibrant international financial ecosystem as well as strategic location as a gateway to China, one of the world’s largest FinTech market opportunities, makes it the perfect place to co-create the future of financial…