Author: Fintech News Singapore

Blockchain ecosystem and cryptocurrency infrastructure provider Binance has announced the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding to build a strategic partnership with YG Entertainment, a South Korean multinational entertainment corporation. As part of the strategic partnership, Binance and YG will cooperate on a range of blockchain projects, including collaborations in the NFT space. Binance will provide the NFT platform and technology infrastructure while YG will supply the NFT content and gaming assets. The two companies also have plans to develop Binance Smart Chain-based games, collaborate on building the Metaverse, and actively pursue various digital asset opportunities to develop unique experiences…

Singapore’s fintech industry hit a five-year high at 191 deals transacted in 2021 according to the KPMG Pulse of FinTech H2’21 report. This is a 37 percent increase compared to 2020’s deal count with 139 deals and a 91 percent increase from 2019 where 100 deals were recorded. Total transaction value in Singapore also surged by 59 percent year on year at US$ 3.94 billion, across venture capital (VC), private equity (PE) and merger and acquisition (M&A) deals in 2021, up from US$ 2.48 billion in 2020. One significant deal involved Singapore tech group, Grab, which listed a SPAC deal…

Digital banking software provider Backbase has appointed Chris Vanden Berghe as Regional Vice President of Technology for Asia Pacific. The new role is based in Singapore and will drive the company’s product localisation and development, implementation success, and international expansion. Vanden Berghe has more than 15 years of experience as an intrapreneur and entrepreneur in the fintech ecosystem and will lead Backbase’s overall technology strategy across the Asia Pacific region with a strong focus on further accelerating the development of next-generation engagement banking solutions. Prior to joining Backbase, Chris held roles at Refinitiv and IHS Markit, where he established new…

Over the past few years, digital financial services have seen greater adoption in Cambodia, a trend that was accelerated by the COVID-19 pandemic and the social distancing measures put in place to limit the spread of the virus. Rising usage of digital financial services, including digital payments and online lending, has emerged on the back of payment modernization efforts from the government with hopes for digital solutions and platforms to improve financial inclusion. Online lending, payments pick up Despite a late start, mobile money services have been growing rapidly in Cambodia over the five years, a report by the Phnom…

Ninety-four percent of micro, small, and medium enterprises (MSMEs) in Singapore will accept some form of digital payments in 2022, compared to 82 percent globally, according to Visa’s Back to Business Study. Nearly three-quarters (72%) of them are expecting their businesses to become fully cashless within the next two years. Additionally, one-third of small businesses in Singapore also plan to accept payments via Buy Now Pay Later (BNPL) solutions (35%, compared to 21% globally) and digital currency (33%, compared to 24% globally). This shift by MSMEs mirrors the increased use of digital payments among Singaporeans. Nearly three in five Singaporeans…

The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) has imposed an additional capital requirement on DBS Bank following the disruption of its digital banking services for 2 days. DBS identified a problem with its access control servers which caused the disruption from 23-25 November 2021. MAS said in a statement that it now requires DBS to apply a multiplier of 1.5 times to its risk-weighted assets for operational risk. Based on DBS’ financial statements as of 30th September 2021, this would mean an additional amount of approximately S$930 million in regulatory capital. This is four times higher than the amount for a…

Since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, fraud and suspicious activity have been on the rise. In the insurance industry, fraud attempts have become increasingly sophisticated, forcing insurance companies to embrace technology and set out anti-fraud technology to identify suspicious activities in a more proactive manner. In their latest 2021 State of Insurance Fraud Technology Study, the Coalition Against Insurance Fraud and SAS look at the state of anti-fraud tech adoption in the insurance industry, delving into insurers’ fraud detection strategies and planned areas for expansion. Anti-fraud tech flourishes The research found that as fraud continues to rise in the…

The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) is fully committed to working with the asset management industry to combat greenwashing at both the fund and firm-level. Tan Keng Heng, MAS’ Executive Director said during the Investment Management Association of Singapore’s 8th Regulatory Forum that the regulator intends to introduce ESG-specific requirements on fund naming, prospectus disclosures and periodic reporting disclosures. This will set out MAS’ supervisory expectations for retail ESG funds and help mitigate the risk of greenwashing in fund offer documents. He added that MAS had shared its proposals earlier with Investment Management Association of Singapore (IMAS) for their comments…

The Bank of Thailand (BOT) is looking to issue guidelines for virtual banks in the country in a bid to play catch-up with neighboring countries Malaysia and Singapore who have already set their plans in motion. In line with this, BOT is seeking feedback from the public for its plans for “Repositioning Thailand’s Financial Sector for a Sustainable Digital Economy” by 28 February 2022. The regulator is seeking to promote healthy competition between new fintech players and incumbent banks to drive innovation and better financial services. BOT said that it will extend the “business scope and increase flexibility” of the…

Indonesia’s banking industry is on the verge of a revolution as a new breed of digital banks looks to capitalize on the country’s large population of unbanked and underbanked, and use the digital momentum created by the COVID-19 pandemic to propel their growth. During Finastra’s virtual panel discussion moderated by Fintech News Networks’ editor Vincent Fong, top executives and policymakers from Otoritas Jasa Keuangan (OJK), Indonesia’s Financial Services Authority, Bank BTPN, Bank Neo Commerce, and global financial software provider Finastra, looked at the state of digital banking in Indonesia. The webinar delved into the opportunities and challenges brought about digital…

Cambodian mobile payments services provider U-Pay announced that it has integrated Hong Kong’s mobile identity solutions provider IPification’s verification solution. U-Pay said that its users will now be able to verify their identity with only one click for a streamlined onboarding experience aiming to eliminate the drop off rate during the initial sign-up process as well as significantly improve app security and user experience. According to a statement by U-Pay, it is the first e-wallet to implement IPification’s solutions in the country. Licensed by the National Bank of Cambodia as a local payment service institution in December 2020, U-Pay provides mobile…

Singapore-based insurtech 360F and AXA announced that they will be launching a full-scale production of their advisory tool “My FinScore”. 360F had enabled the launch of My FinScore with AXA Singapore earlier this month which was made available to the latter’s 700-strong agency force and their customers. The two entities had previously partnered to embark on a Proof-Of-Concept for My FinScore in 2021 which had yielded a positive outcome. Using 360F’s flagship solutioning optimiser and scoring system, AXA Singapore educates customers to discern their options and its distribution force to deliver a seamless advisory experience. Powering the “My FinScore” self-discovery…

Asia has become a hotspot of digital innovation in the global financial and banking sector, aided by the region’s young, digitally-savvy population, rapid digital adoption, and government support to advance financial inclusion. To help fintech professionals keep up with the region’s burgeoning digital finance landscape, experts and industry participants regularly participate in webinars and podcasts to share their experiences in deploying the latest technologies, the challenges they face, and the hottest trends in the space to watch out for. Here we’ve compiled a list of seven webinar sessions and podcasts focusing on Asia’s fintech industry. These episodes delve into emerging…

Southeast Asian SME growth financing platform Validus has announced two key additions to its senior leadership team. Vishal Shah has joined as President, Emerging Markets, and is responsible for driving growth in emerging and new markets. He is a financial services veteran who brings more than 20 years of leadership and business experience in SME, commercial and retail banking across Asia with Techcombank and Standard Chartered. Prior to joining Validus, Vishal was Chief Business Banking Officer for four years at Techcombank in Vietnam, where he drove strong bottom-line results – growing profit five-fold and income by three times. Vishal was…

Across the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), Singapore has become the central hub for cross-border e-commerce platforms, favored by industry players for the forward-looking planning and deployment by the government of an advanced digital economy ecology, as well as the nation’s highly developed Internet market. A new report by Deloitte, which looks at the state of e-commerce across Asia-Pacific (APAC), highlights Singapore’s emergence into a popular destination for the e-commerce industry, noting that a number of ASEAN unicorns, including e-commerce giants Shopee and Lazada, have chosen the city-state to host their headquarters. Active promotion of global digital trade by…

ForgeRock, an identity and access management software company, announced its continued expansion across Asia and has made ForgeRock Identity Cloud available locally from two new data centers in Indonesia and Hong Kong. This expands ForgeRock’s Identity cloud into 17 regions worldwide. By adding these two new data centers to the existing one in Singapore, ForgeRock enables large, multinational enterprises to deliver apps and services quickly to their customers locally and ensure crucial services like telehealth and mobile banking are secure. This expansion in Asia will also help enterprises meet important regulatory and compliance requirements around data sovereignty and data residency.…

Wise, an online money transfer service, announced a partnership with Tencent Financial Technology which will enable international money transfers to China through Weixin. Weixin is the mainland Chinese version of WeChat that is owned and operated by Tencent. With this latest launch, Wise’s customers will be able to send money from 11 currencies to Chinese Yuan (CNY) within minutes at the mid-market exchange rate to users of Weixin. The 11 currencies include Australian Dollar (AUD), Brazilian real (BRL), Canadian dollar (CAD), British Pound (GBP), Indonesian Rupiah (IDR), Indian Rupee (INR), Japanese Yen (JPY), Malaysian Ringgit (MYR), New Zealand Dollar (NZD),…

The banking industry is in the midst of a period of intense transformation in Southeast Asia, and indeed the world, driven in part by the pandemic, but also influenced heavily by changing consumer demand and fast-moving technological innovation. Predicting the future of banking, while never an easy task, is now more uncertain than ever, with new trends emerging regularly and regulatory changes occurring at pace. To get a clearer understanding of how Southeast Asian banks view the future of core banking within their organisations, IDC Financial Insights interviewed a number of Southeast Asian banking executives, discussing their thoughts on legacy…

In Asia, market liberalization pushes, coupled with changing customer behaviors and advances in technology, are forcing banks to move away from a product-centric approach to a customer-centric one where data become critical in guaranteeing the value and relevance of products offered to customers. Across Asia, banks have recognized the need to embrace big data and artificial intelligence (AI) to remain competitive, utilizing data analytics and machine learning (ML) across a broad range of areas from personalized services and risk assessment, to fraud prevention and improving customer onboarding experiences. During Fintech Fireside Asia’s latest virtual panel discussion, top executives from Vietnamese…

Digital wealth app Endowus has officially launched the Endowus Income Portfolios, which were designed to match the different needs, risk appetites and goals according to the varying life stages of Singapore-based investors. The three life-stage based portfolios – Stable Income (for the older generation), Higher Income (for the “sandwich” generation) and Future Income (for the younger generation) – have varied monthly payouts pegged to different risk tolerance levels and immediate income needs. They all have a common ground to facilitate a viable and stable long-term passive income stream with capital preservation in mind. The current target payouts are projected to…