Author: Fintech News Singapore

The Monetary Authority of Singapore’s Chief Fintech Officer Sopnendu Mohanty was appointed a digital and fintech advisor to India’s Odisha state, a recent report by Times of India confirms. In his role as an advisor, Odisha-born Sopnendu will enjoy the equivalent of the rank and status of a minister of state and will have a key role in preparation of annual budgets while working in coordination to the chief minister’s office. He will collect feedback from beneficiaries of state government schemes and programs and submit the reports to respective departments through ministers, the report further adds. A spokesperson from the…

Tradeteq, the technology provider for the global trade finance market, has launched its machine-learning driven credit scoring system for institutions using Singapore’s National Trade Platform (NTP). The NTP is a digitalised national trade information management platform backed by the Singaporean government. It enables institutions operating within its domestic trade finance ecosystem – multinational corporations, SMEs, trade financiers, shipping companies, and other logistical and service providers – to seamlessly connect with each other, manage and share trade finance-related documentation, track trade flows and monitor payments via a single, secure portal. Tradeteq’s technology plays a crucial role in this process by assessing…

Hong Leong Finance Ltd is the latest entity seeking to apply for Singapore’s digital banking license, according to Bloomberg. Hong Leong who still uses fax machines as part of its application process said that they see this as an “opportunity to find new customers and re-invent itself as a tech-savvy lender to the nation’s new businesses.” Its president Ang Tang Chor, also said to Bloomberg that they are in talks with a fintech firm to jointly apply for the license but declined to name the firms they have been talking to. Not to be confused with its namesake in Malaysia,…

Pluang, a fintech startup providing digital micro-savings for Indonesians (formerly known as EmasDigi), officially announced today its US$3 million Series A funding led by Go-Ventures. Prior to the investment, Pluang primarly focused on a gold savings product. With this fresh capital, Pluang plans to launch other products, including US dollar savings and fixed return products. At present, Pluang’s gold product allows investments starting from 0.01 grams (equivalent to roughly USD$0.50). Pluang claims to provide users real-time liquidity and peace of mind as the gold is kept in a government-backed institution through the official Indonesian commodities exchange. “In terms of investment…

Mastercard and R3, an enterprise blockchain software provider, have today announced a strategic partnership to develop and pilot a new blockchain-enabled cross-border payments solution that will initially focus on connecting global faster payments infrastructures, schemes and banks supported by a clearing and settlement network operated by Mastercard. Earlier this year, Mastercard strengthened its cross-border network reach with its acquisition of Transfast. Today’s announcement complements the company’s formidable capabilities by providing access to R3’s Corda ecosystem, which includes more than 300 of the world’s leading financial services firms, technology companies, central banks, regulators and trade associations. The partnership is the latest…

DBS Bank today announced its first multi-tier financing facility on a logistics blockchain platform named Rong-E Lian, to help small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in China get faster access to trade financing. Developed in partnership with a leading Chinese logistics player, Rong-E Lian offers multi-tier financing solutions to more than 1,000 of suppliers in the company’s supply chain ecosystem. The multi-tier financing solution is particularly beneficial to suppliers embedded beyond the first layer of the logistics supply chain ecosystem, as they include SMEs which may have limited access to trade financing due to their lack of scale or credit history.…

Ride-hailing giant and super-app aspirant Grab is rumoured to be in talks to merge Indonesian digital payments firm OVO with DANA in which Grab is eyeing to acquire a majority interest in. Currently, Grab already own shares in OVO and the company is reportedly looking to acquire shares in DANA from Indonesian media conglomerate Emtek. Grab’s exact stake in OVO is uncertain, but reports from Reuters indicate that the stake is sizeable, while Emtek currently owns over 50% of the company that owns DANA, which was formed in 2017 through a tie-up with Ant Financial. Both OVO and Go-Jek have…

Razer Fintech, the financial technology arm of Razer Inc has appointed Lim Siong Guan as an Advisory Board member. Recognised globally as a thought leader in the global financial services industry, Lim’s vast experience and extensive network will add tremendous value and unparalleled insights to Razer Fintech. Lim’s illustrious career includes most recently serving as the Group President of GIC Private Limited (GIC) from 2007 to 2016 and subsequently, Advisor to GIC’s Group Executive Committee to March 2019. He previously served as a board member of the Monetary Authority of Singapore and as Chairman of the Singapore Economic Development Board,…

Refinitiv recently reached a key milestone for its Eikon Auctions service, having helped facilitate over $1trillion for its central bank and large corporate customers. Central Bank auctions in developed, emerging and frontier markets are critical for managing currency flows, primary market issuance, supporting import and export strategies and facilitating international trade and global investing. To do this effectively, central banks need to be able to run a transparent and compliant process across multiple asset classes, including FX, money markets, non-deliverable forwards, fixed income and short-term liquidity management via open market operations that are core to any central bank Eikon Auctions…

Each month, over two million banking transactions and services are performed using the OCBC Mobile Banking app. Since 19 August 2019, the app has offered an AI-powered voice-based virtual assistant – which has helped with over 20,000 requests made via voice. In half of these requests, the customer was seeking information about spending categories and budgets; another 30 per cent concerned past banking transactions. Other mobile banking services that were performed using voice included locating ATMs, paying bills and changing banking PINs. The new voice-activated banking service, which was developed and trained over 13 months and is called the OCBC Banking…

Indonesia based SuperAtom has closed its latest funding round of US$24 million. The round was led by Gobi Partners through the Meranti ASEAN Growth Fund with NYSE-listed Cheetah Mobile as a co-investor. Founded in 2018, SuperAtom is a startup incubated by and spun off from Cheetah Mobile. The company is best known for its P2P consumer lending platform UangMe, which was launched in collaboration with local banks and have been downloaded five million times since. The platform Uang Me received official approved to operate in Indonesia from Otoritas Jasa Keuangang (OJK) on July 2018. In a media statement, the company…

Ping An’s fintech unit OneConnect, is considering to apply to Singapore digital banking license, according to a recent Bloomberg report. The insurtech giant was ranked by Forbes as the largest insurer in 2018 valued at US$ 217 billion, Its fintech unit OneConnect is reportedly looking to secure a wholesale license, which will allow the company to provide SME businesses. OneConnect was among the 8 entities that received virtual banking licenses in Hong Kong dished out by HKMA earlier this year. Running virtual banks seems to be part of the group’s strategy to showcase their technology and then sell it to…

Huobi Exchange announced that they will be launching their blockchain phone named “Acute Angle” soon. As part of that launch, Huobi will enable Huobi Token (HT) users to buy their own Acute Angle phones using Huobi Tokens. Currently available in China, where it was developed, they plan to launch Acute Angle across Southeast Asia by the end of Q4, 2019. Plans are underway to expand to Europe and the United States after that. The Android-based Acute Angle claims to be built with crypto traders in mind including a programmable notification feature that alerts the user when certain market conditions are met, such as the price of…

Singapore’s granting of up to five new digital bank licenses is unlikely to threaten the dominance of the country’s three largest banks, DBS Bank, OCBC Bank and UOB, Fitch Ratings says. The ratings agency believes that DBS, OCBC, and UOB will remain disciplined and they are also well placed to compete digitally, having invested significantly in their digital capabilities in recent years – a trend they expect to continue as the market evolves. They do not expect increased deposit competition to pose a material threat to the leading incumbents, as it will take time for new entrants to build trust…

Jakarta-headquartered Kredivo, a digital credit platform for retail borrowers across Indonesia, and Partners for Growth V, L.P. (PFG), a  venture debt firm in the U.S. and Australia, announced today the closing of a debt line of up to US$20m to fund loans for Kredivo’s borrowers in Indonesia. The deal marks a major milestone for both firms: for Kredivo, it is the largest deal in its history with an offshore (international) lender; for PFG, this represents one of their largest deals in Asia Pacific (APAC) and their first in Indonesia. The closing of this deal will help to fuel momentum that…

Railsbank an open banking and RegTech platform, announces that it has raised $10m in a Series A funding round, led by Moneta Capital and joined by CreditEase, Clocktower Technology Ventures, Singapore Life and existing investors including Firestartr. Interestingly, Railsbank is not Singapore Life’s first investment to diversify out of investments, as recent as February the insurtech company was seen investing in payments space through their acquisition of Canvas. The money raised from this funding round will help Railsbank continue expanding its global capabilities into the USA, Australia and SE Asia and enhance its core product proposition from banking, payments and…

Visa, the world’s second-largest card payment organization, has turned to fintech acquisitions, investments and strategic investments to further expand its payments capabilities and reach. At the firm’s Q3’2019 earnings conference call on July 23, Visa’s CEO Alfred F. Kelly, noted the company’s delay in responding to the rise of fintech but stressed that it had made some serious strategic moves over the past year to expand its network, grow its services portfolio, and overall, keep up with the rapidly evolving landscape. “We’ve gotten our act together as it relates to fintechs,” Kelly said. “I’d be the first to admit that…

Finastra has appointed Wissam Khoury to lead its Asia Pacific (APAC) business. In this new expanded role as Senior Vice President and General Manager for Middle East and Africa (MEA) and APAC, Wissam is responsible for driving Finastra’s growth strategy, strengthening its regional footprint, accelerating sales and continuing to deepen customer partnerships across both regions. Wissam has a very successful track record in managing high performing teams, having spent more than two years leading Finastra’s MEA operations as Managing Director. Wissam Khoury will be replacing Imad Abou Haidar who recently moved on to Avaloq. The new combined position, overseeing Finastra’s…

Flywire and VPBank announced a new partnership that will simplify international tuition payments for Vietnamese students. Working together the companies are addressing the unique requirements and nuances of the Vietnamese market and ensuring compliance with local regulations while offering students and their families greater convenience and choice. By partnering with VPBank, Flywire enables Vietnamese students to make their international tuition payments in VND, via their preferred method, including bank transfers. The joint offering also provides an intuitive, digital workflow for the submission of the necessary documentation required by local regulations. Previously, this process was highly manual, and student payment options were…

Home-grown cross-border payments platform TranSwap today announced that it has successfully obtained its money remittance Fund Transfer Operator license from Bank Indonesia, which will enable them to provide services for outbound cross-border payments in its third Asian location, after Singapore and Hong Kong. With the ‘stamp of approval’ from the regulatory authority, TranSwap plans to expand into the market and launch inter-country fund transfers for Indonesian businesses, which includes SMEs and e-commerce companies within the next 1 month. Mr. Benjamin Wong, co-founder and CEO of TranSwap, said, “There are many inefficiencies in the way that foreign payments are settled. The…