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…
Author: Fintech News Singapore
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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 IMPORTANT: This Article is out of date: Check this link for current upcoming Fintech Events Startupbootcamp Fintech Singapore January 15, 2016 (corrected: new Date Feb 4th) On Feb 4th, 2016,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…
Apple is partnering with American Express to bring Apple Pay to “key global markets,” Apple CEO Tim Cook announced during the earnings call for the fourth fiscal quarter of 2015. According to Amex, Apple’s digital wallet and mobile payment service will launch in Singapore, Hong Kong and Spain in the beginning of 2016, the company said in a statement. Apple Pay, which is currently available in the US, the UK, Canada and Australia, allows users to connect their credit or debit cards to a mobile wallet, enabling consumers to make payments using their iPhones, Apple Watch-compatible devices and iPads at…
The first Fintech Vietnam Startup Report with on overview of 28 Vietnamese Fintech Startups. Moreover this reports shows interesting information about the Vietnamese age populaton and shows exciting facts about internet, online banking and credit card usage. And there is one big market for Vietnam, the 14bio USD Remittance market. Fintech Vietnam Startups Overview The current Fintech Startup System is dominated by Payment Solutions and there are no investment and insurance Fintech Startups. In total we counted 28 Fintech Startups. There are many more Fintechs in Vietnam, but they are not founded in Vietnam. For example Fastacash Vietnam which is expanding from Singapore to…
Mobile Payment in Vietnam: Boosted by the rising of Internet and smartphone penetrations, online commerce and m-commerce are expanding their reach in Vietnam. According the International Finance Corporation (IFC), a member of the World Bank Group, m-commerce, led by social networks and chat apps, is poised to gain significant uptake. In a Swiss supported survey entitled ‘E- and M-Commerce and Payment Sector Development in Vietnam,’ the IFC found that the e- and m-commerce industry is growing faster than the infrastructure required to serve it, generating unmet demand for software, financial technologies and payments solutions for end-users and merchants. Thus, new business…
You think a bank needs a branch or an app? Think again, because UK-based Secco will offer none of these, and not even an interface actually. Instead, Secco will operate as an underlying service hidden in all the apps we use everyday. This new challenger bank wants to “re-invent banking” by using a distributed database – similarly to the bitcoin blockchain -, to spread data around everyone’s phone, allowing it to “live on all of the devices of the customers that make up the bank.” “This creates a hyper resilient back-end, removing central points of failure,” according to the company.…
Top 10 Fintech Books While blogs and news portals will keep you up-to-date in terms of companies and corporate news, books – which often result from extensive researches and interviews – will give you have a wider view on a particular sector, as well as its emerging trends and developments. We tried to select the best fintech books for you. Whether you are interested in bitcoin, cryptocurrencies, peer-to-peer lending, mobile banking, or even more largely, just curious about the future of money and banking, we have compiled a list of the top 10 essential books about fintech you must have…
At the 2015 World Bank Group-IMF Spring Meetings in April, the World Bank Group and its partners have discussed ways of helping promote financial inclusion and achieve universal financial access by 2020. Commenting on the latest developments of the Universal Financial Access 2020 (UFA2020) initiative, World Bank Group President Jim Yong Kim, said that “new technologies, transformative business models and ambitious reforms” will most likely help accelerate financial access in the world’s most financially excluded regions. In fact, many fintech startups have pledged their support for universal financial inclusion. Some believe that bitcoin and its underlying technology the blockchain offer many opportunities for…
Available in 135 countries (including Singapore, Switzerland and Vietnam) and supporting over 500 operators, Bitrefill is a service that allows you to refill your prepaid mobile phone with bitcoins. Founded in October 2014, Bitrefill lets you top-up your mobile phone credit through a incredibly easy process: you type in the phone number, you select the price plan, and you pay by sending the amount in bitcoins. Top-up happens as soon as the transaction clears, which normally takes within ten minutes. Bitrefill doesn’t charge any additional fee. “We do exactly what a local 7-Eleven would do in that country,” Sergej Kotliar,…
Private equity fundraising remains strong in Asia, most particularly in China. While the country’s current economic slowdown is troubling many investors, fundraising activity in Asia continues to stay strong, according to DealMarket.com, a Swiss platform for fundraising that also provides deal flow management tools. The region has experienced big deals this year, including an all-time high. In September, Tesco sold its South Korean unit, Homeplus, to private equity firm MBK Partners, a deal worth over US$6 billion. According to KPMG, we will continue to see a range of deals driven by the continued growth of the Asian middle class. In…
Fintech investment in Asia-Pacific has been on the rise. In the first nine months of 2015, there had been 122 deals totalling a record of US$3.4 billion injected in the sector, according to a new report from Accenture. Entitled ‘Fintech Investment in Asia-Pacific set to at least quadruple in 2015,’ the report is based on Accenture’s analysis of fintech investment-data from CB Insights, and aims to examine current fintech investments and predict future investment patterns. “The rapid increase of fintech investments in Asia-Pacific does not surprise us,” said Jon Allaway, senior managing director of Accenture Financial Services in ASEAN and…
The use of digital signatures is becoming more and more popular. We digitally sign company share transfers, public records, contracts, emails (PGP), and many other legally valid electronic documents. For those of you that use cryptocurrencies (paying with bitcoins an online purchase), every transaction done in the blockchain is digitally signed. A Digital Signature is unique to the person signing. This is why our digital identity is directly connected to our digital signature. Our “Public Key”, the unique identifier that is connected to our person, acts as an Identity Card number that institutions (such as banks or government entities) connect to our person…