Author: Fintech News Singapore

Swiss-based fintech incubator and accelerator F10 announced that ten startups from the UK, Israel, Nepal, Malaysia, India and Singapore have graduated successfully from its early-stage startups’ programme during a virtual Demo Day on 15th July 2021. The teams went through an intense 5 months programme that covered topics from ideation, product, solution to investment in a hybrid learning environment on F10’s proprietary online learning environment, complemented with live workshops and sessions. F10 Singapore is now looking for early stage fintech and insurtech startups to join the third batch of its incubation programme, applications are open till the 30th July. “This…

In Southeast Asia, real-time payment schemes are entering the mainstream with many consumers now favoring the payment option over cash, a shift caused by changing payment necessities and preferences amid the COVID-19 pandemic, a new research by industry player ACI Worldwide and market research firm YouGov found. Out of 6,000 consumers surveyed across Indonesia, Thailand, Singapore and Malaysia, 61% selected real-time digital payment schemes as their preferred way to pay in 2021 – neck and neck with cash, and higher than digital wallets requiring cash or card top-ups (56%) and credit cards (30%). Thailand and Singapore are the biggest adopters…

SCB 10X, the venture arm of Siam Commercial Bank, has announced its latest investment in the decentralised finance (DeFi) sector via asset aggregator and portfolio dashboard, Ape Board. The company, which now has more than 350,000 users, within 4 months of inception, aims to resolve poor user experience, complexities in generating yield and overcome fragmentation issues in DeFi. Ape Board aims to provide a holistic view of users’ DeFi portfolios with actionable insights, enabling users to easily link investments across a variety of DeFi protocols on a single dashboard. The dashboard currently supports more than 79 protocols across five chains,…

Among the top ten most unbanked countries in the world, three are located in Asia Pacific (APAC), namely Vietnam, the Philippines and Indonesia, according to data provided by British research platform Merchant Machine. Vietnam ranks second in the top ten list with 69% of its total population having no access to traditional banking services or similar financial organization, the Philippines ranks fourth with 66%, and Indonesia ranks ninth with 51%. These metrics come amid relatively high cash usage, low card penetration and scarce traditional financial access points, like ATMs, in all three countries, the data show. Rise of digital financial…

Singaporean robo advisor Syfe announced that it has secured SG$40 million (US$30 million) during its Series B funding round. The fundraise was led by US-based Valar Ventures, the venture capital fund co-founded by Peter Thiel, which led Syfe’s Series A. Existing investors Presight Capital and Unbound also participated in the round. This latest capital injection comes just nine months after Syfe’s Series A funding round in September 2020. It brings Syfe’s total capital raise to SG$70.7 million (US$52.6 million) since 2019, and more than triples the firm’s valuation. The funds raised will be used to expand into new markets in…

As the fintech ecosystem continues to flourish in Singapore, there is a growing need for talent. Out of the 21,000 net jobs that were created in the financial sector over the last five years, the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) estimates that 25% of these jobs were in the technology sector. Interestingly, although Singaporeans filled 75% of the total net jobs, they accounted for only 35% of the tech jobs. The problem, MAS states, is not the number of jobs, but rather the gap in skills. MAS also estimates that 2,500 to 3,500 technology jobs will be created in the…

GBG, a global digital identity and fraud solutions provider, has announced several senior appointments to strengthen its APAC leadership team in Singapore. The company has appointed Bernardi Susastyo as General Manager of Asia, Shekhar Bhagat as Head of Alliances of Asia Pacific (APAC) and Ng Han Liong as Head of Presales of Southeast Asia (SEA) to drive GBG’s growth and innovation capabilities across the region. Bernardi brings with him close to three decades of industry experience and has held various senior leadership positions at Advance.AI, Experian, and SAS. With his extensive knowledge of the SEA financial services industry, Bernardi will…

Singaporean robo-advisor Bambu announced the acquisition of Tradesocio, a wealthtech firm specialising in investment management and trading technologies with offices in Singapore, India, and Dubai. The firm said that this acquisition significantly strengthens the combined businesses’ competitiveness globally. Through the acquisition, Tradesocio brings years of experience delivering and operating high-volume trading platforms across various asset classes. Bambu will have a presence in major financial hubs as Tradesocio has an existing portfolio of clients across EMEA and India. Additionally, Bambu said that this move will enable it to expand its digital wealth capabilities covering stock trading and cryptocurrencies. The acquisition puts…

The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) in collaboration with ASEAN Financial Innovation Network (AFIN) and Accenture has announced the launch of the inaugural Global Veritas Challenge where the theme revolves around “Codifying Responsible AI”. The competition seeks to accelerate the development of solutions that validate artificial intelligence and data analytics (AIDA) solutions against the fairness, ethics, accountability and transparency (FEAT) principles, to strengthen trust and promote greater adoption of AI solutions in the financial sector. Fintech firms, solution providers and financial institutions around the world are invited to submit innovative solutions to address eight problem statements identified by banks. These…

Global payments network Thunes announced a partnership with ABA Bank (ABA) to enable Cambodians overseas to send money back home quicker and cheaper from around the world. Powered by Thunes’ last-mile capabilities and extensive global network, Cambodians living, working and studying overseas can send money back home instantly and at more competitive rates. In a further boost to efficiency and transparency, locals and expats in Cambodia will also be able to receive real time bank account transfers from Thunes’ extensive network of sending partners, in addition to cash payouts already made available through Thunes. Thunes said that it will be…

At the Andrew Crockett Memorial Lecture, Mark Carney spoke about ‘Decentralised Finance and the Future of Money.’ Carney provided an overview of the transformation taking place that will “re-wire” monetary and financial systems. According to Carney, centrifugal forces are driving financial functions away from the traditional core and affecting all aspects of the monetary system. Moreover, amid this transformation, money has to be anchored on “values of trust, resilience, dynamism, solidarity and sustainability,” he said. Agreeing with Carney, the Managing Director of the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS), Ravi Menon, shared insightful remarks on the subject. Menon focused on the…

Bank of Thailand (BOT) issued a statement saying that it has continuously monitored the developments in use cases of digital assets as some enterprises have recently begun soliciting payments in cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin and Ether as payment for goods and services. The BOT has previously iterated that digital assets are not legal tender and doing so constitutes barter trade between the owner of the digital asset and the provider of goods and services, where the payer and the receiver mutually accept all risks involved. In using digital assets as a means of payment, both the payer and the receiver…

Progressive regulations, strong government support and the availability of talent and capital are cementing Singapore as a fintech hub with a maturing regtech market. However, the impact of Covid-19 has catalysed the development of its regtech sector, according to a report released today by Ireland’s trade and innovation agency Enterprise Ireland, ranked one of the world’s most active VC investors, including fintech. The report, entitled The State of Regtech in APAC, provides the most comprehensive, independent analysis available on the adoption of regtech across 10 key APAC markets of Australia, Mainland China, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand,…

The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) and Banque de France (BdF) announced the successful completion of a wholesale cross-border payment and settlement experiment using central bank digital currency (CBDC). The experiment, supported by J.P. Morgan’s Onyx, simulated cross-border transactions involving multiple CBDCs (m-CBDC) on a common network between Singapore and France. The regulators said in a joint statement that this is the first m-CBDC experiment that applied automated market making and liquidity management capabilities to reap cross-border payment and settlement efficiencies. Cross border payments currently rely on correspondent bank arrangements that are subject to limited transparency on foreign exchange rates,…

As the cyber threat landscape evolves, bad actors are constantly on the lookout for valuable targets. With insurers collecting, storing and managing a trove of valuable personal information, cybercriminals are increasingly viewing them as an appealing target. It’s become more crucial now more than ever for insurers to step up their cyber-security strategy, join our webinar to learn how leading insurers are deploying the latest best practices and technologies to protect its customers. Cybersecurity readiness for insurers in Hong Kong How digital adoption is reshaping the threat landscape for insurers Top threats and key prioritiesSpeakers Yiing Chau Mak, Director of…

In December 2020, the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) announced four successful digital bank applications. Out of 14 eligible applicants, the four successful entities – a consortium comprising Singapore Telecommunications Ltd (Singtel) and Grab Holding Inc. (Grab), a consortium of Greenland Financial Holdings Group Co. Ltd, Linklogis Hong Kong Ltd, and Beijing Co-operative Equity Investment Fund Management Co. Ltd, Sea Limited, Ant Group Co. Ltd were expected to commence operations from early 2022. Ravi Menon, the Managing Director of MAS, stated in his address that he expects these new entrants to thrive along Singapore’s incumbent banks and further elevate the…

Singapore-based consumer insights firm Milieu Insight’s new report “The Big Picture – Payments” exploring consumer payment trends puts a spotlight on the Buy Now, Pay Later (BNPL) sector in Singapore. The study explored BNPL usage in-depth and found that approximately 19% of the Singapore population aged 16 and above have tried the service, such as Hoolah, Atome or Grab PayLater. In terms of the profile of BNPL adopters, Singaporeans aged 25 to 34 are most likely to have used such a service. Up to 30% of this age group have used BNPL. The research also found that 48% of BNPL…

A report by global data and analytics company LexisNexis Risk Solutions found that Australia, Hong Kong, Japan and India recorded higher losses per transaction due to fraud compared to its Asia Pacific (APAC) counterparts. It showed that the cost per transaction is US$3.51 in Australia; US$3.61 in Hong Kong, US$3.87 in Japan and US$3.84 in India, the total amount of loss a firm occurs based on the actual U.S. dollar value of a fraudulent transaction. All four countries reported higher costs per transaction than the regional 2019 average that involved other APAC markets at US$3.40. A combination of factors is…

Endowus, Singapore’s MAS-licensed digital wealth platform, announced that they have crossed S$1 billion in assets under advice (AUA) locally following a fundraise from the likes of UBS, Samsung and Singtel. The firm crossed the billion dollar mark within 20 months of its full-service launch. Endowus had raised an undisclosed sum following a Series A fundraise where it secured S$23 million in April this year. According to a statement from the company, its client assets grew by over 670% in the last 12 months ending June 30, 2021, despite COVID-19 induced market volatility. Additionally, the number of clients investing on Endowus…

Fintech companies are having a record year 2021. In Q1’21, venture capital (VC)-backed fintech companies raised US$22.8 billion, making it the largest funding quarter since 2018, according to CB Insights. Fintech funding growth was global with nearly every continent recording an increase, and mega-rounds of US$100 million and over drove the quarter funding surge, accounting for 69% of total funding globally. The momentum continued in Q2’21 with massive rounds being closed by the likes of Trade Republic, Mollie, Nubank and Klarna. Now looking at the first half of 2021, the top 15 largest fintech funding rounds raised a cumulated US$11.7…