UOB has launched U-Energy, an integrated financing platform to drive the development and adoption of energy efficiency projects for buildings and homes across four markets, starting in Singapore. The bank said that this first of its kind financing platform will then be made available in Malaysia, Thailand and Indonesia. While building owners and homeowners may be keen to take on energy efficiency projects to reduce energy consumption, they often lack financing support and the expertise to find the right energy service companies. U-Energy looks to address this gap as the bank aims to help businesses and homeowners save on electricity…
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Software development company Zenika announced that Nicolas Mas has joined the executive team as Chief Technology Officer in Singapore to support its next phase of growth in the Asia Pacific region. Nicolas will be responsible for handling all technical aspects of the business. Additionally, he will lead the implementation of mid and long-term strategies, driving innovative enhancements both internally and for local partners and clients. Nicolas joins Zenika from his entrepreneurial venture at Pathlit.io, an API-first fintech that provides organisations with building blocks for creating and scaling investment applications. As a global tech and innovation executive, he has excelled at…
Mastercard and Southeast Asian superapp Grab announced a regional partnership to provide millions of informal workers and small businesses on the latter’s platform access to digital upskilling opportunities This push to advance digital and financial inclusion in the region aims to create more pathways and income opportunities for them. The Mastercard-Grab partnership looks to grant underserved communities access to core digital, financial and business skills to help them better manage their finances and businesses, and participate fully in the digital economy. The scope of the two-year partnership includes bespoke training tools for informal workers and small businesses. Mastercard and Grab are…
Managing a business involves a whole host of administrative duties. For a small and medium enterprise (SME) owner with a small team, this means wearing multiple hats: marketing the business, managing manpower, paying for rent. Expenses are varied and there are new bills to pay every month. Since not every SME can afford to have a finance team on board full-time, the owner will typically handle finance tasks as they can be sensitive. Thus, being able to empower employees to function more efficiently in a risk-free way will lighten the load and help the business operate much more smoothly. Flex,…
Payment technology platform Global Processing Services (GPS) announced it has raised over US$300 million from Advent International and Viking Global Investors, who will co-control the company. The investment by Advent will be funded through Advent Tech and Sunley House Capital, an affiliate of Advent. This latest funding follows a strategic investment from Visa for an undisclosed sum in 2020. GPS’ API-first payment technology platform enables innovative card programmes for fintechs, digital challenger banks and embedded finance providers. Its platform has helped scale multiple unicorns and powers a vast array of prominent fintechs across Europe, Asia Pacific, and the Middle East,…
Surer, a Singaporean cloud-based insurtech platform, announced that it has raised US$1 million during a seed funding round. The insurtech raised the funds from Norwegian private investment company Kistefos, global specialist insurer Markel Corporation through its insurtech investing arm, Markel Digital Investments, and an angel investor. Antler, a global early-stage venture capital firm, also invested in Surer in an earlier round. With the new funds, Surer intends to bolster its core technology platform and invest in its tech team to deliver on its product roadmap. Since its launch, Surer said that it has over 350 intermediary signups and demo requests, more…
Standard Chartered plans to provide US$500 million in financing to Atome Financial, the parent company of Buy Now, Pay Later (BNPL) firm Atome, as part of 10-year multi-product strategic partnership. The bank said this financing is its largest strategic investment in a fintech to date. Standard Chartered had also invested in digital lending platform Kredit Pintar in Indonesia. The partnership will initially include BNPL services, targeting to roll out in Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore and Vietnam in the next few months, and later expand to include digital lending products. The bank aims to reach over 16 million customers by 2025 and…
Standard Chartered has partnered with Demica, a London-based fintech specialising in working capital solutions, to transform access to the bank’s supplier finance programmes, allowing easier enrolment for thousands of suppliers through an online portal. The partnership will commence with the roll out of a fully digitised end-to-end “Supplier Enrolment Portal”. This portal will change how suppliers enrol in supply chain finance programmes by using a digital front-end while providing the bank’s enrolment team with intuitive dashboards for monitoring and sending updates to anchor companies. The portal, which leverages Demica’s supply chain finance product capabilities and flexible technology, will be delivered…
Refinitiv’s new report “Workspace Without Limits” explores the data challenges financial professionals are facing, and the role that technology, interoperability and programming skills play in solving for some of these challenges; enhancing productivity, and helping firms differentiate against the competition. Key findings from Refinitiv’s report Refinitiv’s survey of 1,200 financial professionals shows new ways of working are urgently needed to keep up with an industry undergoing rapid digital transformation. Open architecture capabilities and interoperability standards are needed to drive simplicity and speed and address the data challenges associated with app overload. Firms need to be investing in the workflows of…
StraitsX, a Southeast Asian digital assets platform developed by Xfers, announced that it has surpassed the SGD 2 billion mark in digital assets-related transactions on its payment platform in 2021 and will be rebranding its platform. The new StraitsX platform features a redesigned and streamlined user interface to enable faster and more efficient navigation. The StraitsX platform enables individual users to transfer, mint and redeem XSGD with a connected bank account, in addition to spending their XSGD with various digital asset platforms. Businesses can also leverage APIs to collect, disburse and reconcile funds from their end-users. StraitsX said that it…
Asia-Pacific (APAC) continues to see higher attack rates in comparison to global figures, a trend that’s been sustained by the ongoing digital shift induced by COVID-19. According to LexisNexis Risk Solutions’ latest biannual Cybercrime Report, H1 2021 was marked by surging bot attacks activities, rising attacks towards e-commerce platforms, and a shift towards mobile channels. The study, which draws on cybercrime attacks detected by the LexisNexis Digital Identity Network from January to June 2021, found that although attack rates have decreased across all channels year-over-year (YoY), the region continues to score above the global averages. In the first half of…
In Asia-Pacific (APAC), the COVID-19 pandemic has brought the digital banking industry to a new level of maturity with penetration now approaching 90% across the region. This surge was largely driven by emerging markets, where adoption soared 33% points between 2017 and 2021, a new survey by McKinsey found. This year’s Personal Financial Services Survey, which defines digital banking as the use of online or mobile channels to conduct banking operations, revealed that while adoption of digital banking in developed markets such as Australia, Hong Kong and Singapore, has remained stable since 2017 at around 90%, emerging markets like mainland…
UOB and digital securities exchange ADDX have concluded the digitisation and digital custody of the inaugural sustainability-linked bond recently launched by Sembcorp Industries (Sembcorp). The bank was appointed as a joint lead manager for the S$675 million sustainability-linked bond issued by Sembcorp, through its wholly-owned subsidiary Sembcorp Financial Services (SFS). UOB had also partnered with ADDX to custodise and manage a S$50 million portion of the bond. Sembcorp’s ten-and-a-half-year sustainability-linked bond is due in 2032 and has been priced at a coupon rate of 2.66 percent per annum. Sustainability-linked bonds involve issuers pledging to improve their performance against tailor-made ESG…
Funding Societies, Southeast Asian SME digital financing platform, announced that it has raised US$18 million in debt financing led by a trio syndicate of financial institutions including Helicap Investments, the newly launched Social Impact Debt Fund, and an unnamed Japanese financial services group. Helicap is a Singapore-based alternative lending firm that provides private debt investments to a wide network of accredited investors, including family offices, high net worth individuals, impact funds, and institutional investors. In line with its support of sustainable lending, the Funding Societies joined the round through its investments arm, Helicap Investments, after the deal was arranged by…
KPMG plans to spend more than US$1.5 billion over the next three years specifically to focus on the Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) strategy as outlined in “KPMG: Our Impact Plan”. The plan sets out a range of targets, including a pledge to become a net-zero carbon organization by 2030. KPMG will set up five new hubs to provide expertise and solutions on key ESG issues, focusing on helping large multinational businesses meet their net-zero commitments and plan their decarbonization journey. The hubs will also provide global advisory backed by teams from KPMG firms. Meanwhile, three KPMG regional ESG hubs…
Buy Now, Pay Later (BNPL) schemes do not pose a “significant risk” to household indebtedness as they are not yet widely used relative to other payment methods, according to a Parliamentary reply yesterday. The popularity of the BNPL scheme has led to concerns of rising consumer debt worldwide as the sector is largely unregulated. In the reply, Tharman Shanmugaratnam, Senior Minister and Minister in charge of the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) estimates that the total value of BNPL transactions in 2020 at around S$114 million. This is still a relatively small fraction of the S$92 billion in credit and…
Swiss-based digital asset infrastructure provider METACO announced the launch of its Asia Pacific headquarters in Singapore, with a strong team managed by newly appointed Managing Director APAC, Patrick Enjalbal. Patrick was the former Director at Singapore-based financial technology consultancy, Luxoft, as its Managing Director APAC. He brings over two decades of experience advising and managing the successful deployment of institutional-grade financial technology solutions in APAC and beyond. In addition to leadership appointments, APAC headcount in business development and operations has increased significantly, with further expansion expected in the coming months. METACO enables institutions to secure, trade, and manage any cryptocurrency…
UBX, the fintech venture fund of the UnionBank of the Philippines, announced that it has expanded its footprint by setting up a new Singapore headquarters. The new headquarters aims to serve as a bridge for startups looking to enter the Philippines market by partnering with UBX’s ventures. UBX invests in early-stage startups that add strategic value to the UBX and UnionBank network. Its portfolio focuses on various in-demand solutions ranging from banking and payments to lending and e-commerce categories created for individuals and businesses. Cyrus Cruz, who joined UBX Singapore as its Country Head, said in a statement, “Expanding reach…
In its sixth edition, Hong Kong Fintech Week will completely reinvent your previous event experience by combining a physical conference in Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre with digital access from anywhere in the world. With only a few weeks left before the most anticipated event of the year, Hong Kong Fintech Week 2021 on November 1-5, we summarised the most important reasons on why you should attend it this year. Please visit www.fintechweek.hk for details and registration! 1. Dive into 100+ hours of content with 180+ sessions Don’t worry if you are not able to visit the event in…
Singapore-based insurtech 360F announced the appointment of Peter Huber as a new advisory board member who will provide strategic guidance for the firm’s international expansion plans. Huber’s current appointment as Chief Insurance Officer at wefox is backed by over two decades of accomplishment in the insurance industry. He was most recently Chief Executive Officer for Zurich International, covering three of its key markets including the Middle East. During his eight-year career in Zurich Insurance, Huber was also the CEO of Zurich Life Singapore as well as the Country CEO for Zurich Topas Life Indonesia. Prior to his time in Zurich,…