Author: Fintech News Singapore

Episode Six, a next-generation financial technology provider, today announced that it has secured US$7 million of its Series A funding. The round was led by HSBC and includes investments from Mastercard and SBI Investment Co., Ltd., which first invested in Episode Six through its FinTech Business Innovation Fund in 2017. “Financial institutions and innovators in other industries like healthcare are beginning to realize the constraints of legacy technology, especially given the increasing demand for new products and streamlined efficiencies,” said Episode Six CEO John Mitchell. “We have developed financial technology which, via more than 500 APIs, facilitates that next level…

About 3,000 local entry-level and mid-career job seekers will benefit from the new jobs and skills training initiative that was announced by Google, Economic Development Board (EDB), Infocomm Media Development Authority (IMDA) and SkillsFuture Singapore (SSG). The Skills Ignition SG initiative, in support of the SGUnited Jobs and Skills Package, offers two programmes, focuses on providing on-the job training opportunities and skills upgrading supported by IMDA and SSG. One of the programmes which is fully paid for, is open to 600 local applicants where they will undergo three months of online vocational training before moving on to six months of hands-on…

Swiss Regtech startup Apiax has been awarded the FSTI Proof-of-Concept grant by the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) on the 16th June, 2020. The FSTI Proof-of-Concept grant provides funding support for experimentation, development and dissemination of nascent innovative technologies in the financial services sector. Philip Schoch, Co-founder of Apiax, said: “We are proud to be granted funding support from such an important organisation as the Monetary Authority of Singapore. Our hard work and dedication to pushing the boundaries of technology in compliance is getting recognised, and this grant allows us to take our product development even further.” Founded in 2017,…

Singapore digital banking technology company Percipient has raised US$5 million (S$7 million) funding from Silicon Valley-based venture capital Stat Zero which will be used to support the launch of its “digital twin solution”. The solution named TWINNTM is described to be able to help banks to “rapidly create a lightweight, enhanced and API-ready representation of enterprise data and processes”. They said that through its implementation, AI-powered digital services, partnerships and customer experiences are realisable without retiring or rearchitecting legacy systems. A UAE-based bank is the first to pilot the TWINNTM which is expected to be completed by the end of…

Finastra and Microsoft today announced a strategic, multiyear cloud agreement to help accelerate the digital transformation of financial services. They said this move marks a commitment and builds on the 3,000 banks and financial institutions already supported by both companies across payments, lending, treasury and retail banking on Azure. The agreement, paired with the unparalleled disruption of the industry, is said to reimagine the way banks and credit unions use technology and how we all think about sustainable, open finance. Using Microsoft platforms has already enabled Finastra to accelerate its product road maps to bring even more of its mission-critical…

Mastercard announced the expansion of its cryptocurrency program by inviting cryptocurrency firms to join their Accelerate program. The partnership makes it simpler and faster for the parties involved to bring secure and compliant payment cards to market. The program provides a simple, single entry point to the company’s wide range of specialised programs where crypto partners can be onboarded in a matter of weeks and are provided a guided experience. “The cryptocurrency market continues to mature, and Mastercard is driving it forward, creating safe and secure experiences for consumers and businesses in today’s digital economy”. said Raj Dhamodharan, Executive Vice…

The name AMTD is plastered across headlines recently from launching Airstar Bank on of Hong Kong’s first virtual banks, to millions of dollars contributed into supporting the Singaporean fintech ecosystem and their acquisition spree which included names like PolicyPal, Capbridge and FOMO Pay. What is the ambition and vision behind these big moves? We speak to Calvin Choi, Chairman, AMTD Group to find out more.

The COVID-19 pandemic, the entry of digital banks as well as changing customer expectations are accelerating banks’ digital transformation plans. In Asia Pacific (APAC), 44% of the top 250 banks are now focused on completing their “connected core” transformation and working on platform-based and componentized modernization, as well as API-enablement, according to a new study by IDC Financial Insights. The IDC InfoBrief report, titled “How banking has changed for good: Becoming an intelligent financial services player” and produced in collaboration with Finastra, examines key trends reshaping the banking business model, and delves into five key trends banks must consider when…

additiv announced that it has appointed Kevin Hardy, a former Managing Director at BlackRock and Northern Trust, to head up its Asian operations based out of Singapore. Kevin was the Managing Director, Head of Singapore and Head of ETF and Index Investments in APAC at BlackRock. He succeeds Dario Bernasconi, who was acting as interim head of Asia and has now returned to his role as Group Head of Operations and Partners. Kevin’s appointment coincides with a period of rapid growth for additiv. Since the launch of its cloud-based DFS System of Intelligence, an orchestration engine that sits between record-keeping…

The NUS School of Computing launched the NUS-FinTechSG Programme which aims to nurture Singapore’s next generation of fintech talents and full stack developers. The programme offered by the NUS FinTech Lab and Strategic Technology Management Institute (STMI) is a platform for students to gain knowledge about contemporary issues, integration of financial domain know-how, consisting of lending, payments, insurance, regulation and management. Students will also learn about front- and back-end development, cloud systems, blockchain and algorithmic trading. The launch of the programme builds upon the concerted efforts to strengthen Singapore’s S$1.2 billion (US$861 million) fintech market and to ensure that the industry can continue its growth…

OCBC Bank announced today that is has enabled 1.8 million of its digital customers in Singapore to use the SingPass as an alternative login to access the full suite of digital banking services. They claim to be the first bank to enable this new feature, and it has been made available its customer since 4th July 2020. The need to remember multiple access codes and PINs is eliminated, while enabling customers to securely access their digital banking services. In order to use this, customers must download the SingPass Mobile app if they have not already done so. Managed by the…

Rapyd, a global fintech company, announced today its partnership with key players of India’s payments ecosystem – including Paytm Payments Bank, PhonePe, PayU, Citibank, DBS Bank, HDFC Bank, BharatPay and Unimoni to roll out a comprehensive payment service. This service allows international merchants to grow their business in India and help their merchants to expand sales internationally and easily access over 900 locally-preferred payment methods around the world. Rapyd recently conducted its 2020 APAC e-commerce and payments study among Indian online consumers. The study looked into preferred payment methods used as well as the consumers’ ability to adopt new technologies.…

Contour, the blockchain trade finance network that’s formerly known as Voltron has partnered with DBS Bank to push the digitalisation of trade finance with the completion of the network’s first fully digital end-to-end secured Letter of Credit (LC) between Nanjing Iron & Steel, Singapore Jinteng International and Hope Downs Marketing Company (an equal joint venture between Rio Tinto and Hancock Prospecting). DBS Bank as the issuing and advising bank, played an integral role in connecting the parties across the mining value chain and Contour’s partner essDOCS, which enabled management of the electronic bill of lading through its CargoDocs solution. The…

AMTD Group announced today several industry partnerships that it has established in efforts to better serve SMEs in Asia. It has entered into two separate partnerships, one of which is with GlobalLinker that is aimed at helping Asian SMEs in their digitalisation and global expansion while, the other is with Funding Societies and CIMB to explore collaboration opportunities in offering digital finance solutions to SMEs in Singapore and South East Asia. The partnership with GlobalLinker will see AMTD becoming the preferred financial services partner on the former’s SME focused platform. In their statement, AMTD said that it will deploy the…

Chubb announced today the launch of their Work from Home (WFH) Insurance that they claim is a market-first in Asia Pacific. As businesses adapt to living with COVID-19 and beyond, working from home is expected to remain a part of an employee’s work-life. Chubb’s WFH Insurance is said to have been tailored to enable employers to continue to care for the health, safety and well-being of their employees whilst they work remotely. With this insurance, employees diagnosed with stress disorders due to working from home will receive mental health payment for their psychological counselling. In addition to that, it also…

The Stock Exchange of Thailand (SET) has partnered with M-DAQ, Singapore-based fintech startup, to collaborate and develop a solution that allows investors to view the real-time prices of SET50 stocks in 10 different currencies using interbank foreign exchange rate. With this solution, SET aims to facilitate brokerage firms to enhance their securities analysis and expand their investor base, ultimately increasing investment appetite. The solution has gone live on their website. SET Senior Executive Vice President Soraphol Tulayasathien said that the indicative price generated will benefit foreign investors’ decision-making while brokerage firms can also leverage the information to enhance their services…

The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) and Temasek today jointly released a report to mark the successful conclusion of the fifth and final phase of Project Ubin. It provides technical insights into the blockchain-based multi-currency payments network prototype that was built and describes how the network could benefit the financial industry and blockchain ecosystem. The key findings of the report mentioned that an international settlement network, modelled after this payments network prototype, could enable faster and cheaper transactions compared to conventional cross-border payments channels. They said last phase of the project validated the use of smart contracts on the payments…

According to this year’s KPMG Autonomous Vehicles Readiness Index (AVRI), Singapore has emerged as the country that is best prepared for the adoption and acceptance of Autonomous Vehicles (AV), with Singapore ranking first in the Index. This marks the first time that Singapore has led the AVRI, edging out the Netherlands which has ranked first in the past two editions of the Index. Singapore’s ranking reflects its leadership in areas of consumer acceptance and policy as well as legislation pillars. “Singapore’s pole position in the KPMG AVRI in 2020 reflects the local government’s commitment and continued efforts to build receptivity…

As Singapore shifts rapidly to digital commerce, Mastercard introduces Click to Pay a payments solution with an online checkout that that eliminates passwords, protects data with smart security and makes transactions a breeze with just a few clicks. Due to the COVID-19, Mastercard had noticed the accelerated adoption in contactless payments and called for “sufficiently high” contactless payments limits in Asia Pacific. Mastercard research shows e-commerce and touch-free payments will be enduring habits long after the pandemic passes. According to Mastercard’s Impact Studies in May 2020 – a research survey which looks at SEA countries in regard to contactless payments -…

Mambu, a cloud banking platform, and Currencycloud, a global payments platform, have partnered to offer increased transparency and scalability to international payments for platform customers. In their statement, the said that by integrating Mambu’s true SaaS banking platform with Currencycloud’s suite of APIs,customers are able to rapidly deploy flexible, enterprise-class collections, virtual accounts, payments and FX services. They added that, financial services clients will be able to control their customers’ end-to-end journeys and offer full control over pricing and margin management. Currencycloud and Mambu will offer pre-configured solutions that further increase speed to market, control and flexibility. The broad range…