Author: Fintech News Singapore

The Singapore government has announced a package of initiatives to support high-growth enterprises to raise capital in the country’s public equity market and broaden its proposition as a financing hub. The government and Temasek will establish a new co-investment fund named Anchor Fund @ 65 starting with S$1.5 billion in the first tranche. This fund will support promising high-growth enterprises and market leaders in their public fundraising as well as provide pre-IPO financing to catalyse the growth of target enterprises and support them in their journey towards an eventual public listing. It will be managed on a commercial basis by…

DBS plans to hire around 150 of Singapore’s top technology talent through its Hack2Hire hackathon to bolster its AI and blockchain capabilities. Following a year-long hiatus due to Covid-19, DBS Hack2Hire will enable candidates to meet like-minded technologists and participate in challenges during a virtual hackathon to assess their technical and problem-solving capabilities. Successful candidates will be invited for a final interview during the same event. In its fourth edition, DBS Hack2Hire aims to fill positions across 14 developer and engineering roles as the bank scales up its use of artificial intelligence (AI) / machine learning (ML) and blockchain technologies.…

NTUC Income, an insurance cooperative in Singapore, announced that it has launched a micro investment-linked plan (ILP) on the SNACK by Income mobile app. Touted to be an industry-first, SNACK Investment adopts a stackable approach that allows consumers to build their investment portfolios with bite-sized premiums while providing insurance coverage as they go about their daily lives. It is designed for those who are keen and eligible to invest but have not done so due to high barriers of entry, as well as those who are looking for options to diversify their investment portfolios. SNACK Investment has pegged the minimum…

The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) has joined forces with the Securities and Exchange Commission of Thailand to enhance connectivity between the two markets for increased cross-border investment opportunities for investors. The regulators announced the launch of the Thailand-Singapore Depositary Receipts (DR) Linkage by the Singapore Exchange (SGX) and the Stock Exchange of Thailand (SET) in a joint statement. Being the first exchange-level DR cooperation in ASEAN, depositary receipts representing securities listed on one market will be issued for trading on the other. The DRs will trade according to their respective home market rules and regulations. To promote development of…

The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) and the Reserve Bank of India announced plans to link Singapore’s PayNow and India’s Unified Payments Interface (UPI) real-time payment systems by July 2022. The PayNow-UPI linkage will enable users to make instant, low cost fund transfers directly from one bank account to another between Singapore and India. When implemented, fund transfers can be made from India to Singapore using mobile phone numbers, and from Singapore to India using UPI virtual payment addresses (VPA). The experience of making a PayNow transfer to a UPI VPA will be similar to that of a domestic transfer…

Cash is king. Every business owner knows these three words by heart, and for good reason. Cash is the lifeblood of every business: more cash means better access to working capital, which means more flexibility in business operations, and a stronger buffer against black swan events. But the most obvious problem for small business owners is that cash isn’t often as readily available as they would like. There are a number of ways to get cash — unsecured overdrafts, working capital loans, family and friends for the truly desperate — but most of these sources require a great deal of…

vestr, a Swiss platform that digitises the life-cycle management of actively managed investment products, has expanded to Singapore following a partnership with Julius Baer though F10’s fintech incubator programme. vestr Pte Ltd, the Singapore branch of vestr, was awarded the Monetary Authority of Singapore’s (MAS) Financial Sector Technology and Innovation (FSTI) Proof-of-Concept (POC) grant. The FSTI POC grant provides funding support for experimentation, development and dissemination of nascent innovative technologies in the financial services sector. vestr will collaborate with Julius Baer’s Singapore entity for a POC on Actively Managed Certificates (AMCs) which started in August of 2021 and is expected…

Wise, formerly known as TransferWise, has dropped prices by up to 42% on transfers from Singapore to 19 countries across 5 continents. This announcement is part of a global price drop where 52% of Wise customers around the world will receive lowered transfer fees. Currencies include the United States Dollar (USD), Canadian dollar (CAD), Renminbi (CNY), South Korean won (KRW), Malaysian ringgit (MYR) and more. Wise said that this latest price drop comes following a new independent survey that it had commissioned which revealed that 23% of Singaporeans are transferring money overseas at least once a month, highlighting the growing…

The financial services space is among the most regulated industries in the world, therefore it is no surprise that in recent years we’re witnessing the rapid growth of regtech. From driving regulatory and compliance efficiency through automation to providing actionable data, regtech is becoming an increasingly important tool for financial institutions. Beyond just simplifying compliance, regtech is fast becoming an important element in digital transformation. Join our panel of experts to learn more about: Navigating evolving regulatory environments with regtech Adopting the right data strategy Turning compliance into competitive advantage Speakers Alvinder Singh, Deputy Director – Financial Technology and Innovation…

Despite significant headway made in improving access to financial services in the Philippines, blindspots in data still remain a major roadblock to this goal. Whether it is credit data to determine credit worthiness or identity data for KYC/AML, solving this piece of the puzzle remains key to Philippines’ goal of elevating financial inclusion. Join our panel of experts as we explore how alternative data could create a more financially inclusive nation. Bridging the financial inclusion gap The state of digital identity in the Philippines Preventing fraud and bad actors Confirmed Speakers: Ellen Joyce Suficiencia, Director of the Financial Inclusion Office,…

COVID-19 has sparked a global spike in e-commerce sales and online businesses as lockdowns force consumers to turn to online channels to shop. As everyone embraces e-commerce, cashless payment methods including cards and digital wallets have surged, bringing with it new fraud and security risks. Since the start of the pandemic, 70 million people in Southeast Asia have become digital consumers, according to Facebook and Bain & Company’s 2021 Digital Consumer Report. Nearly half of them, or around 30 million people, became digital consumers from 2020 to 2021 alone. By the end of 2021, the report projects that there will…

SDAX announced that it has obtained its Recognised Market Operator (RMO) license from the Monetary Authority of Singapore to operate a digital asset exchange. Founded and headquartered in Singapore, SDAX is an institutional grade digital asset exchange. It leverages blockchain technology to enable asset owners to unlock the value of their assets through tokenising and listing of asset-based digital securities, providing alternative fundraising and exit options. As a secondary market trading platform, SDAX enhances efficiency, creates liquidity and offers greater access to previously out-of-reach alternative investment products for accredited and institutional investors. The firm said that its first priority is…

Cryptocurrency-related hacks and scams continue to cost businesses and consumers billions in losses each year. Although overall crypto-related fraud activities have declined since at least 2019, data from blockchain analytics and crypto intelligence firm Ciphertrace suggests that criminals are now moving to decentralized finance (DeFi) applications and protocols. Data from the Cryptocurrency Crime and Anti-Money Laundering Report, August 2021, show that by the end of July, major crypto thefts, hacks and frauds totaled US$687 million, a number that continues to dwarf. In 2019, crypto thefts, hacks and frauds surged to US$4.5 billion. That number dipped to US$1.9 billion in 2020,…

ADVANCE.AI, a Singapore-based artificial intelligence (AI) and big data company, has teamed up with Dow Jones, a global provider of news and business information, to strengthen its core suite of B2B risk and compliance products across South and Southeast Asian markets. Under the partnership, ADVANCE.AI will integrate Dow Jones’ anti-money laundering (AML), risk and compliance data into its core suite of services comprising digital identity verification, risk and credit scoring, and digital lending. The AI firm said that collaboration will enhance the robustness and efficiency of its product suite, which serves enterprises in the banking, financial services, fintech, payments, retail,…

Enterprise software development platform OutSystems will be hosting an interactive discussion on “Best Practices for Avoiding and Fixing Technical Debt,” with a panel of accomplished speakers on board. Technical debt refers to resources and costs that will have to be undertaken for future reworks in software development, due to work done or not done today. This usually happens in cases where the delivery of a feature or project is on priority, as firms aim to achieve speed to market and speed of change. In such instances, developers may use shortcuts that would need to be reworked or replaced later on.…

The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) announced the formation of a new Sustainability Group and the appointment of Dr Darian McBain as its Chief Sustainability Officer, with effect from 1 October 2021. The new Sustainability Group helmed by Dr McBain will steer sustainability efforts across MAS and help the organisation build deeper capabilities in this multi-faceted area. The new group will coordinate MAS’ green finance and sustainability agenda, namely to strengthen the financial sector’s resilience against environmental risks as well as develop a vibrant green finance ecosystem to support Asia’s transition to a low-carbon future. Additionally, the group seeks to…

The Asian Institute of Digital Finance (AIDF) has been officially launched in Singapore by Heng Swee Keat, the Deputy Prime Minister and Coordinating Minister for Economic Policies. The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS), the National Research Foundation (NRF) and the National University of Singapore (NUS) had jointly set up the research institute to develop deep capabilities to support the needs of digital financial services in Asia. AIDF said that it aspires to be a thought leader, a fintech knowledge hub, and an experimental site for developing digital financial technologies as well as for nurturing current and future fintech researchers and…

Although organisations across many sectors have accelerated the adoption of cloud environments, the financial institutions (FIs) have been rather reluctant in migrating their services to the cloud. Core transaction processing and other mission-critical tasks are still running on legacy on-premises systems. However, the changes brought by the pandemic to business models and customer interaction have become an enabler for faster adoption of public cloud platforms by banks and other financial institutions. The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) had previously issued an advisory highlighting some key risks and control measures that FIs should consider before adopting public cloud services in June…

GBG, a global digital identity and fraud solutions provider, has announced a partnership with SEON to enhance fraud prevention solutions for fintechs and digital banks in the Asia Pacific region. The partnership with SEON enables GBG to increase effectiveness in combatting modern day fraud by validating the most active consumer touchpoints such as email addresses, IP location, social media, phone and SIM data to detect fraudulent anomalies in account application and loan origination, as well as to onboard new-to-bank population. GBG said that financial institutions (FIs) can look to reducing fake and malicious email address usage to as low as…

Standard Chartered announced that it has formed a digital banking joint venture with the social enterprise division of the National Trades Union Congress known as NTUC Enterprise. The SC Bank Solutions will be Standard Chartered’s second separately licensed digital bank in Asia, after Mox Bank in Hong Kong. Standard Chartered’s wholly owned subsidiary SCBSL will take a 60% stake in the venture at S$144 million, while BetaPlus, a holding company controlled by NTUC Enterprise, will take a 40% stake at S$96 million. The statement said that the “funds will be used to develop the business of SC Bank Solutions in…