Author: Fintech News Singapore

This year, Swiss fintech startups continued pursuing their international ambitions with many choosing Singapore to enter the dynamic Southeast Asian market. These are building on Switzerland and Singapore’s long-lasting relationship and close collaboration to penetrate the high-potential market. Vestr, a Swiss capital markets startup, is setting foot in Asia through a partnership with Julius Baer through F10’s fintech incubator program. The partnership will see the startup working alongside the Swiss private bank on a proof-of-concept (PoC) for digitally managing the end-to-end lifecycle of actively managed certificates (AMCs) in Singapore. Vestr’s Singapore branch was awarded the Financial Sector Technology and Innovation…

Global cryptocurrency company Luno announced that it has launched an official direct SGD bank transfer feature. Luno said that its users can now transfer funds without intermediary parties or delays, from any local SGD-denominated bank accounts to their cryptocurrency wallets at no fee. The firm offers access to popular cryptocurrencies, such as Bitcoin (BTC), Ethereum (ETH), Ripple (XRP), Litecoin (LTC), Bitcoin Cash (BCH) and USD Coin (USDC). Other than a $0 direct deposit, instant buy and sell fee has been reduced from 1% to 0.75% per transaction while maker and taker fees starts from 0% to 0.1% respectively. Luno has…

Partior, a blockchain technology provider for payments clearing and settlement, announced that it is operational and has begun its first pilot with participating banks, achieving end-to-end settlements in SGD and USD of less than 120 seconds. The new platform uses an ‘atomic’ model to replace the existing sequential operational approach to payments settlement. Simultaneous settlement, combined with a 24×7, always-on infrastructure may help speed up wholesale settlements by banks from an average of two days to 120 seconds when the banks on the payment chain use Partior. In turn, the reduction in settlement time may free up liquidity and reduce…

Global cross-border payments network Thunes announced a collaboration with PayPal’s digital remittance service Xoom that will enable the latter’s customers in the United States, Canada, the U.K. and Europe to send remittances directly to mobile wallet users around the world. Through this collaboration, Xoom further expands its existing reach using Thunes’ global network and payment capabilities to offer quick, affordable and reliable payments for new corridors. This strategic collaboration builds on Thunes’ long-standing relationship with PayPal that began with an initiative in 2018, which enabled Kenyans to move money between M-Pesa and PayPal. Thunes will enable payments for Xoom in…

Invest Hong Kong (InvestHK) announced details of Hong Kong Fintech Week 2021, themed “Scaling Fintech Future Together”, which will be held in hybrid form, comprising both physical and virtual formats, from November 1 to 5. The sixth edition of Fintech Week was organised by the Financial Services and the Treasury Bureau (FSTB) and InvestHK, and co-organised by the Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA), the Securities and Futures Commission (SFC) and the Insurance Authority (IA). The event will provide a platform for information technology companies, fintech firms, and financial institutions, investors, regulators and more, from all over the world to explore how…

Singapore’s payment unicorn Nium,  today launched its Crypto-as-a-Service (CaaS) solution. Initial API-based elements from the new Crypto-as-a-Service offering will allow financial institutions to add in-demand capabilities for cryptocurrency investment. The cryptocurrency investment services will support five cryptocurrencies in the U.S. in 2021 and selected Asia Pacific countries such as Singapore, Australia and Hong Kong in 2022, with the list of supported currencies to reach 20 across 35 countries in 2022. Nium’s Crypto-as-a-Service platform launches at a time when crypto has emerged as one of the most popular investment asset classes. According to the 2021 Independent Reserve Cryptocurrency Index, 46% of…

Fintech “enablers” have exploded in growth and popularity in the last few years, bringing with them a new wave of innovation by democratizing financial services and expanding the fintech market opportunity. Fintech enablers develop and provide cutting-edge technologies to various clients, allowing them to offer their own fintech services. Such platforms and solutions can be core infrastructure, customer onboarding solutions, or payments systems. The growth of these companies has fueled trends such as embedded finance, where banking-like services are being offered by non-banks, as well as banking-as-a-service (BaaS), where banks themselves lease their infrastructure to various types of clients. Today,…

Fractional bonds will now be available on the FinIQ platform. Banks and financial institutions which use FinIQ would have direct access to the BondbloX Bond Exchange (BBX). This would enable these banks to trade fixed income live on an instant atomic settlement basis on BBX. Banks can also offer direct access to their wealth clients for fixed income trades as they have been so for structured notes on the FinIQ platform. Shodhan Shah, director of FinIQ, commented “Our partnership with BondEvalue further bolsters our core offering of providing a front-to-back platform for wealth managers which digitizes, sales and distribution processes.…

Financial services software and cloud solutions provider Finastra has launched an online global fintech content series to nurture innovation and collaboration through the discovery of cloud, data ready solutions and thought-provoking talks. The company said that the “Finastra Universe” platform invites the “industry to learn, inspire and be inspired, to celebrate and network and is designed to support the journey towards unlocking the potential of finance for everyone, everywhere”. Last year, for the first time ever, Finastra’s annual series of regional flagship events, Finastra Universe, went digital with thousands of attendees and over 120 panel sessions. This prompted Finastra to…

FTX Trading, owner and operator of global cryptocurrency exchange FTX.COM, announced the closing of a US$420.7 million Series B-1 fundraise, increasing its valuation to US$25 billion. The round saw the participation of 69 investors, including Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan Board, via its Teachers’ Innovation Platform, Temasek, Sequoia Capital, Sea Capital, IVP, ICONIQ Growth, Tiger Global, Ribbit Capital, Lightspeed Venture Partners and funds and accounts managed by BlackRock. The company also disclosed that in addition to the B-1 fundraise, Temasek had participated in the previously announced Series B, and updated the total amount of that raise from US$900 million to US$1…

additiv, a SaaS and embedded finance provider to the wealth management industry, announced that it has appointed Pieter Zylstra as the General Manager of its Asia Pacific (APAC) division effective from 22nd November. Having accumulated over 25 years of experience in leadership positions globally, Pieter joined additiv last year to head their strategic sales and then moved to lead sales in APAC. Before joining additiv, he was a director of Professional Services for Orange Business Services, leading a team of digital transformation experts. Pieter will take over from the current APAC General Manager Kevin Hardy, as the latter moves to…

Elevandi, a new Company Limited by Guarantee (GLC) created by the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) to manage the Singapore Fintech Festival (SFF), has appointed an international board of directors to oversee its work. Sopnendu Mohanty, MAS’ Chief Fintech Officer, will serve as the Chairman of the Elevandi Board. The directors will bring diverse perspectives and insights on innovations driving the financial sector. The appointment of the board members comes just a few weeks prior to the start of SFF on the 8th-12th November, which will be co-organised by MAS and Elevandi, in partnership with The Association of Banks in…

Ripple, the provider of enterprise blockchain and crypto solutions for cross-border payments, announced new milestones in its partnership with cross-border payment firm Tranglo’s Singapore arm. This follows Ripple’s intent to acquire a 40% stake in Tranglo to scale the footprint of its global financial network RippleNet in the region and beyond. Within 6 months of the partnership, Tranglo launched its first live On-Demand Liquidity (ODL) service on RippleNet in the Philippines, and with plans to introduce more corridors in the months to come. The ODL service leverages the digital asset XRP for instant and low-cost cross-border payments, eliminating the need…

Grab Financial Group (GFG) has launched GrabMerchant Commerce, a webstore builder platform to boost sales and reduce operational work as well as payment risks for small and medium enterprises (SMEs). The introduction of the webstore builder platform is a part of the expansion of its ‘Grow with Grab’ suite of products and features to empower small businesses across Southeast Asia. By end October 2021, selected GrabMerchant Commerce merchant-partners can be accessed via the ‘Shopping’ icon in the Grab app, giving them exposure to millions of Grab users. Additionally, the GrabMerchant Commerce platform also enables SMEs to scale by offering tailored…

London-based Wiserfunding, a provider of credit risk assessment for SME lenders, announced a strategic partnership with CrediLinq.Ai, a Singapore-based fully integrated AI credit platform, for SME credit underwriting in Southeast Asia. This partnership provides automated, fast and critical credit risk assessment capabilities for Southeast Asia SMEs to reach their growth objectives and access capital post-pandemic. CrediLinq.Ai will support the development of country specific models with Wiserfunding with the joint goal to improve credit assessments for SMEs in poorly served markets, particularly small businesses that are underserved by banks. Steven Nocka, Chief Risk Officer and Co-Founder of CrediLinq.Ai said, “CrediLinq.Ai…

KILDE, a Singaporean alternative investment platform licensed by the Monetary Authority of Singapore will join Hg Exchange (HGX) as its fourth member firm. HGX is a member-driven exchange to support the issuance and trading of private company shares, including security tokens. The addition of a new member firm is another milestone for HGX, which earlier this year was granted a Recognised Market Operator license, and appointed Phillips Securities as a designated market maker. Current HGX Member Firms include Southeast Asian brokerage Phillip Securities, corporate finance firm PrimePartners Corporate Finance, and private investment technology platform Fundnel. Willie Chang, CEO of HGX,…

KASIKORN Business-Technology Group (KBTG), KASIKORNBANK’s technology arm, has launched a venture builder and incubator for decentralised finance (DeFi) startups dubbed as KASIKORN X (KX). KX’s business operations will be independent of KASIKORNBANK and KBTG. The entity has previously spun off a new company related to digital assets, called Kubix, which is engaged in the ICO portal business. KX has also debuted Coral – a non-fungible token (NFT) marketplace platform to support Thai and other Asian artists in making their artwork available for sale globally. The platform will go live by the end of this year and has nine Thai artists…

Singapore-headquartered cryptocurrency trading platform Coinhako, has launched a digital assets platform for High Net Worth Individuals (HNWIs) and institutions dubbed as ‘Coinhako Privé’. Privé members will need to qualify as accredited investors and have a minimum of SGD 300,000 in annual income or two million in net personal assets, or one million in net financial assets. Privé is also looking to serve institutions that invest SGD 100,000 or above in annual crypto trading volume. Members of the Coinhako Privé platform will get access to institutional grade digital asset services and white glove services, such as a dedicated relationship manager, personalised…

In areas where a majority of applicants lack traditional credit scores, fintech companies typically base their lending decisions on information they collect directly from the applicants. Fintech firms find this challenging as the data is frequently insufficient for preventing fraud and filtering out likely defaulters. In response to this, they are building credit risk assessment models using alternative data, often sourced from third-party data providers. This case study by Mobilewalla takes a deep dive into how a leading Asian fintech company has significantly improved its credit score model’s performance and found a corresponding decrease in default rates using highly-predictive data sets.…

Southeast Asia’s large population of unbanked and growing Internet penetration make it a hotbed for fintech innovation and an attractive market for e-wallets and neobanks. Despite currently lagging behind more developed markets like Australia, the US and the UK, the region is set to leapfrog in digital infrastructure and will see a slew of fintech-only unicorns being birthed within the next decade, says Golden Gate Ventures, a Southeast Asia-focused venture capital (VC) firm. These predictions were shared in the VC’s new Southeast Asia: Startup Ecosystem 2.0 report which outlines 10 key forecasts for in the region. According to the report,…