Japanese startup BankGuard has developed a new security system for the online banking industry that addresses weaknesses of current technologies on man-in-the-middle attacks. Entitled the SuperMatrix, this patented two-factor authentication solution is reinventing banking security by utilizing images rather than numeric one-time passwords, that are either printed or affixed as a sticker on the back of a bank card or credit card. Firstly, the user authentication step requires selecting the relevant images as displayed on the printed random number chart. Then, the transaction authentication step requires selecting the image corresponding to the final digits of the online remittance destination bank…

Aside from popular news services there are many financial professionals, venture capitalists and technologists who decide to start and maintain a blog. They share their knowledge and insights on cutting-edge technologies. Unlike news services, these individuals offer lengthy analysis and guidance on particular topics that could well be digital currencies, mobile payments, remittances or peer-to-peer lending. If you aren’t yet following one of these experts, here is a list of 15 Fintech Blogs you can start with that will give you greater understanding of the hottest and most disruptive technologies and business models that will likely dramatically change the way we…

If you want to keep up with the fast-moving fintech industry, here’s a list of our top 10 fintech news sites and blogs you can follow for the latest trends, news and events. Whether you are looking for sharp opinion pieces or breaking news, you will most certainly find your fit in the list below. Btw: we hope that for Fintech Singapore and South East Asia Fintech News you will also add our site www.FintechNews.SG to your bookmarks. Here it goes: (just click on the Logo to get to the page) Top 10 Fintech News Sites and Blogs. Also have a look…

SWIFT’s Innotribe has wrapped up its worldwide 2015 Startup Challenge competition and has selected 12 early-stage and 8 growth-stage finalists for the grand finale organized during Sibos on October 14 in Singapore. Launched by SWIFT in 2011, the Innotribe Startup Challenge seeks to “bridge the gap between the financial services industry and today’s brightest startups,” by organizing regional competitions and showcases around the globe. This year, these competitions took place in London, New York, Cape Town and Singapore, where the organization picked what it considered as being the 20 most promising fintech ideas and startups. These startups will now compete…

Mesitis, a Singaporean fintech startup that provides asset management and investment platforms, has raised US$3 million (S$4.05 million) in a Series A funding round to accelerate its global expansion to overseas markets, including Hong Kong, Zurich, Dubai and London. According to founder Tanmai Sharma:  “The investment came entirely from individuals; the bulk from experienced startup investors including corporate CEOs and entrepreneurs who actually are Canopy customers, and the balance from employees. I consider this as a great vote of confidence in us.” Founded in 2013 by Tanmai Sharma, a veteran banker, Mesitis is a wealth management fintech startup that provides…

A great overview about Fintech Startups in Singapore provided by the Singapore Fintech Consortium – a Singapore Fintech Map.

DeBuNe, or DEcentralized BUsiness NEtwork, is a decentralized peer-to-peer ecosystem of small and skilled businesses – referred as Business Units – that provides small companies and freelancers the relevant tools to collaborate, market, offer and monetize their expertise or products “more efficiently and effectively than any other market-based service.” DeBuNe is a built on the Nxt blockchain and consists in a network of Business Units that is supported by a “transparent, secure, and agile set of transactional and collaborative technologies,” according to the white paper. On the network, Business Units provide services and products to match requests. Each Business Unit…

Kashmi, pronounced ‘cash-me’, is a social peer-to-peer payment platform developed by a team of Sri Lankans for the Singaporean market. The startup provides a mobile application that allows users to pay their friends instantly and in a convenient matter and is betting on what it calls a “payments feed” to make peer-to-peer transfers fun and social. Social payments apps, a new generation of applications that combines social media features and payment functionalities, have gained much popularity notably for their convenience and ease of use. Today, startups such as Fastacash and Snapcash, have attracted the interest of both the public and…

ShereIt, formerly Bw8 Trading, is a Singaporean global social trading network that allows non-professional investors to identify expert traders, follow them and copy their trades and actions. Social trading, which started to gain popularity in the early 2010s, is the process through which online financial investors rely on user generated financial content. These content are gathered from various applications and constitute the major information source for making financial trading decisions. Through social trading, participation in the market has significantly increased and led to a rise in volume of trades going through. Additionally, brokers see them as new growth engines for…

TrustingSocial, a fintech startup headquartered in New York, is looking to tap into a trillion dollar market opportunity by determining your creditworthiness with social and mobile data. By using home-designed Big Data and deep learning technologies, TrustingSocial aims to find out how good of a borrower you are by using data collected from popular social networks and telecom operators. The startup has partnered with Vietnam’s largest mobile network operator Viettel, and ran a pilot only to find out that its prediction model was “50% more accurate than the best model in the world,” according to co-founder and CEO Nguyen Nguyen,…

HomePay is a Singaporean mobile and social payment solution for families and communities. The app uses smartphone technology connected to prepaid debit cards to allow families and their members to manage, transfer and spend money responsibly. Whether you’re looking to send cash to your children or pay your maid, HomePay wants you to do so via its platform, a well thought-out mobile payment system that allows parents to send money to their kids in a matter of a few clicks, while being given the ability to monitor closely their expenses. Not only HomePay provides an easy and convenient way of…

Toast, a startup that provides remittance services to Singapore’s migrant workers, is using the bitcoin blockchain to make money transfers faster, cheaper and more convenient for all customers. Most migrant workers, who send up to half of their salary to their country of origin once per month, must undergo a complicated and impractical process in order to send money back home. Lower-skilled workers are typically paid in cash and tend not to have a bank account. For this labor class, the process of sending money abroad is even harder and costly. It costs at least 5% of their paycheck. Sometimes…

Mobile commerce is poised to grow, and especially in the Asia Pacific region. With mobile penetration outpacing desktop Internet usage in countries like China, the mobile industry will grow inevitably. As the world of mobile payments integrates with social media, the line between communication and commerce is starting to blur. The Rise of Social Payments. In the US, Internet giants such as Facebook and Twitter, have already deployed features and tools that allow individuals to send money via a tweet, or through a messaging app. Snapcash, a product of Snapchat created in partnership with Square, allows users to make peer-to-peer payments…

A Bitcoin Use Case, send money abroad with no bank account and without getting ripped off. Just go to a 24hours shop around the corner and use a easy and cheap money transfer service. A innovative fintech startup based in Hong Kong is using bitcoin technology to offer this kind of service. Launched in late-2014, Bitspark, a bitcoin remittance startup offers end-to-end cash remittances using bitcoin. The startup is targeting emerging markets, with a particular focus on Asia. Bitspark has already deployed its service for remittances between Hong Kong and the Philippines, and most recently between Hong Kong and Indonesia. Its…