Author: Fintech News Singapore

The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) plans to launch a digital platform for financial institutions (FIs) to share with one another relevant information on customers and transactions to prevent money laundering (ML), terrorism financing (TF) and proliferation financing (PF) . The new digital platform, named COSMIC, for “Collaborative Sharing of ML/TF Information & Cases”, will be launched in the first half of 2023. The COSMIC platform was co-created by MAS and six major commercial banks in Singapore, namely, DBS, OCBC, UOB, SCB, Citibank and HSBC. The six banks involved in COSMIC’s development, which are leading players in commercial banking, will…

Singapore has consistently ranked amongst the top locations in the world to start a business, recognized by the global community for its competitive corporate tax rate, skilled workforce, advanced infrastructure, and political stability. For fintech companies, Singapore makes sense because it is a renowned international financial center and a fast-growing fintech hub that boasts progressive regulation, innovation support schemes and a government committed to turning the nation into a tech powerhouse. Not only that, but the city-state is also home to a vibrant startup community and a large pool of investors looking to back the next tech success stories. Despite…

Fintech information platform Fintech Global has released its inaugural AIFintech100 list, identifying the 100 most innovative companies building artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) solutions to serve the financial services industry. Selected by a panel of industry experts and analysts out of 1,000 fintech companies based on growth potential, ingenuity and recent strides, these 100 companies leverage AI to improve efficiency and cut costs in fields such as accounting, insurance and cybersecurity. Out of the 100 that made the 2021 AIFintech100 list, seven are Singapore-headquartered companies. AIDA Technologies Founded in 2016 by a team of award-winning data scientists from…

Partior, a newly-created, blockchain-based clearing and settlement technology platform, announced the appointment of Jason Thompson as its Chief Executive Officer. The platform is a joint venture between investment company Temasek, and banks DBS and J.P. Morgan, with its genesis from Project Ubin, a collaborative project between the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) and the financial industry to explore the use of blockchain and distributed ledger technology (DLT) for clearing and settlement of payments and securities. Jason Thompson joins Partior with over 20 years of leadership experience in the financial services sector. He originally moved to Southeast Asia in 2016 to…

Contemi Solutions, a technology solutions provider to asset and wealth managers, insurers, banks, and brokers, has won three awards at the WealthTech Asia Awards 2021, hosted by WealthBriefing. Its ‘Client Portal’ was crowned winner in the best ‘Client Communications Tool’, with Alexander Krefft, Contemi CEO being awarded the best ‘Regional Management Team/CEO’. Contemi’s ‘Client Onboarding Solution’ also gained recognition as being highly commended in the ‘onboarding product’ category. WealthBriefing awards are designed to recognise outstanding organisations which the prestigious panel of independent judges deemed to have ‘demonstrated innovation and excellence during the last year’. Each of the categories are highly…

DBS Vickers (DBSV), the brokerage arm of DBS Bank, announced that it has received formal approval from the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) under the Payment Services Act 2019 to provide digital payment token services as a Major Payment Institution. This will enable DBSV, as a member of DBS Digital Exchange (DDEx), to directly support asset managers and companies to trade in digital payment tokens through the exchange. DBSV said that the license, coupled with recent enhancements to the exchange such as round the-clock operations since August, could add to DDEx’s volumes in the coming months and accelerate growth momentum…

Australian cryptocurrency exchange Independent Reserve has received a Major Payment Institution License in Singapore from the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) under the Payment Services Act (PSA) to operate as a regulated provider for Digital Payment Token (DPT) Services. It is the second virtual asset service providers (VASPs) to obtain full licensure approval under the PSA in Singapore following that of FOMO Pay in September. Independent Reserve was the first VASP to announce in August that it had received an “in-principle” approvals from MAS. License applicants were subject to an examination by the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) to review…

A major paradigm shift is taking over Asia Pacific’s (APAC) banking sector, driven by a changing regulatory landscape, the onset of open banking, and rising competition from big techs and super apps. By leveraging data and ecosystem partnerships, these new entrants are redefining the status quo, bringing superior customer experiences and hyper-personalisation to the industry. For APAC banks and financial incumbents to remain relevant, they must move away from the traditional product-centric approach to focus on servicing their customers. This means creating a holistic customer experience and embracing customer data analytics to understand their needs and expectations at a granular…

SCB Abacus, an alternative digital lending platform in Thailand, has raised US$12 million in an oversubscribed Series A funding round. The firm, a fintech spin-off from the Siam Commercial Bank, has a flagship digital lending application “MoneyThunder” offering micro loans and Buy Now, Pay Later services for the underserved and unbanked retail segments in Thailand. MoneyThunder utilizes SCB Abacus’ in-house artificial intelligence and machine learning capabilities to underwrite loans and provide an automated approval experience for consumers. The round was led by Openspace Ventures, with additional capital coming from Vertex Ventures Southeast Asia and CAI Partners. SCB Abacus said that…

Ripple, a provider of enterprise blockchain and crypto solutions, announced a US$250 million fund to explore non-fungible token (NFT) and other tokenisation projects on the XRP Ledger. The XRP Ledger is a decentralised, public blockchain led by a global developer community. Its built-in decentralised exchange (DEX) provides fast settlement for tokenised assets of all types–including NFTs. The company said that NFT marketplaces and creative agencies who recognise the potential of these unique tokenised assets and, as part of the launch, will have first access to the Ripple’s Creator Fund. This includes NFT marketplaces mintNFT  and Mintable, the latter in which…

HSBC and Temasek announced a partnership to establish a US$150 million debt financing platform dedicated to sustainable infrastructure projects with an initial focus on Southeast Asia, as part of efforts to reduce climate change. In a joint statement, both entities said that they seek to build a pipeline of projects to scale, with the platform dispensing over US$1 billion of loans within 5 years. A meaningful portion of the platform’s loan portfolio will target marginally bankable, sustainable infrastructure projects, providing project development expertise, technical assistance and blended finance solutions where needed. The Asian Development Bank (ADB) and Clifford Capital Holdings…

Japanese financial group SBI Holdings, Swiss-based digital asset bank Sygnum, and European asset manager Azimut Group have jointly launched a venture capital fund of up to US$75 million based in Singapore, which will invest in startups in the digital asset sector. This new fund, incorporated as a Variable Capital Company, brings together the collective digital assets experience and leadership of the three founding partners to accelerate the growth of promising companies in this sector. With SBI Ven Capital as the primary fund manager, the fund’s investment strategy will primarily focus on Pre-Series A and Series A companies developing blockchain/distributed ledger…

Fintech and PayTech Connect is coming to Asia for the first time next week on the 5th – 7th October 2021. Taking place as a hybrid event, speakers and attendees will come together in-person at Raffles City Convention Center Singapore for the pre-day PayTech Connect (5th October), and on the virtual platform for the main conference days (6th-7th October), to discuss innovation in financial technology across merchants, financial institutions, fintechs and disruptors within Asia and the rest of the world. The inaugural Fintech Connect Asia brings together 500+ industry leading players from Asia’s biggest merchants and financial institutions in an…

Cover Genius, an Australian insurtech firm and embedded insurance specialist, announced that it has secured a strategic investment of US$50 million during a Series C funding round led by Sompo Holdings Asia. The round comprised primary and secondary capital, and was supported by G Squared, as well as Cover Genius’ early backers, King River Capital, Marinya Capital and Regal Funds Management. The insurtech said that it will use the funds to bolster its global expansion and further its digital distribution channel in the embedded insurance market. This will enable the company to offer tailored solutions to its customers by leveraging…

The trillion-dollar cross-border payments market is getting a revamp, fueled by technological advances, a changing regulatory landscape and a rush of new entrants promising to solve customers’ long-lasting pain points. During Fintech Fireside Asia’s latest panel discussion, top executives from the Bank for International Settlements (BIS), DBS Bank, Wise and Bottomline discussed the major trends emerging in the cross-border payments space, the key digitalisation efforts being undertaken, and the challenges that still lie ahead in bringing down costs while improving efficiency. Drivers behind the disruption of cross-border payments Andrew McCormack, the Centre Head of the BIS Innovation Hub in Singapore,…

UOB will invest up to S$500 million to bring together the innovation of its digital bank TMRW with the scale and product depth of its mobile app UOB Mighty on one platform dubbed as UOB TMRW. The bank will roll out UOB TMRW progressively across its key ASEAN markets, with the next markets expected to launch in the next 18 months. UOB added in a statement that it seeks to double the retail customers it serves digitally to more than seven million customers across ASEAN by 2026 with this move. As part of its rollout of UOB TMRW, the bank…

Last year, a wave of digital transformation took over the world, and along with it, so did growing concerns about fraud and financial crime. In Southeast Asia, one in every three people experienced online fraud amidst this digital transformation last year. Meanwhile, online fraud emerged as a top critical enterprise risk for Southeast Asia-based businesses. This was on top of the US$260 million that they already lost in 2019 to digital fraud. In this growing threat landscape, financial institutions (FIs) have several new, complex considerations to take into account for their fraud management systems. This was highlighted by Dev Dhiman,…

Social engineering techniques are growing in quantity and sophistication as cybercriminals capitalise on the fear induced by COVID-19 as well as consumers’ increased online presence to trick victims and defraud them. The 2021 Verizon Data Breach Investigations Report (DBIR) shows a steady rise of social engineering attempts since 2017, but indicates a surge in phishing, ransomware and web application attacks in particular since the beginning of the pandemic. During Fintech Fireside Asia’s latest panel discussion, experts from the Rizal Commercial Banking Corporation (RCBC) in the Philippines, information security non-profit ISACA Singapore Chapter, KPMG Malaysia, and global cybersecurity firm OneSpan, discussed…

Marketnode, a Singapore Exchange (SGX) and Temasek digital asset joint venture, announced its partnership with ten global financial institutions ahead of its upcoming product launches. The JV’s upcoming products will be focused on digital issuance services, ESG bond data and digital asset depository infrastructure. SGX said in a statement that these components will play a key role in the buildout of an end-to-end DLT-enabled fixed income infrastructure. The financial institutions involved in the partnership include Barclays, BNP Paribas, BNY Mellon, Citi, Deutsche Bank, HSBC, Orient Securities International, Standard Chartered, Societe Generale and UOB. Beyond early adoption of Marketnode’s products, these…

Singapore is at the heart of the tech industry’s explosive popularity across Southeast Asia. The country has emerged as a hub for technology entrepreneurs, and fintech is one of its front-running sectors. With 40% of all fintech companies across Southeast Asia based in the country, Singapore has earned itself the title of the “ASEAN capital of Fintech.” The country’s robust regulatory regime, policy-level support, and ease of doing business, have resulted in it being home to over 750 fintech companies so far. A booming e-commerce and consumer services sector, with the likes of Grab, Lazada and Sea Group setting up…