The Monetary Authority of Singapore is now among the regulators that have expressed reservations about Facebook’s upcoming cryptocurrency, Libra. The central bank sees significant obstacles in Facebook’s way, according to a Bloomberg report, and they are “not trivial”. Ravi Menon, MAS’s Managing Director said: “The key challenge is to figure out the nature of the beast. What is it more like and which box we can put it into. At this point we are not sure yet.” MAS is one of the many regulators who have opened up discussions with Facebook about its plans for a new cryptocurrency, and joins…
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Grab just announced an additional investment of US$300 million from Invesco , a global independent investment management company. The additional investment in Grab takes Invesco’s overall total input into the ride-hailing-turned-potential-virtual-bank up to US$703 million. The latest capital injection puts the company one stop closer to meet its US$6.5 billion goal in total capital between June 2018 and the end of this year. They made the announcement a scant few weeks after closing its Series H led by SoftBank Vision Fund to the tune of US$1.46 billion, earlier this year. Earlier this year, Invesco successfully completed its acquisition of OppenheimerFunds,…
Singapore has already expressed their interest issuing virtual banking licenses, which could potentially admit fintech firms without a traditional bank branch at its core. Now, Singapore’s Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong has confirmed that the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) is actively studying its potential, and may announce something soon, according to South China Morning Post. “Some other countries have created frameworks to license new players with no banking parentage to set up digital banks, i.e. banks without branches or ATMs,” he said at the Smart Nation Summit on Wednesday. “The Monetary Authority of Singapore is now actively studying whether…
In just two years, the rate of Fintech adoption among Singapore consumers has almost tripled, according to the EY Global FinTech Adoption Index 2019. Singapore’s adoption rate jumped from 23% to 67% between 2017 to 2019. The jump positions Singapore as a leader across Asia-Pacific, though the region’s overall adoption rate is nothing to scoff at (64% in 2019, from 33% in 2017). However, Mainland China and India still has the higher rate of consumer fintech adoption globally (87%) respectively, according to EY’s Global Fintech Adoption Index 2019. Adoption By Your Average Citizen Globally, an average 89% of consumers are aware…
Binance just announced a partnership with a Singapore-based blockchain company with a simple goal: keeping relevant information about a vehicle transparent and available on an immutable network. MVL is a blockchain protocol mainly known for running Tada, a blockchain-based alternative to Grab; a peer-to-peer on-demand service that connects drivers and riders, among other stakeholders in the industry. Tada was launched in Singapore in July last year, and Tada Taxi last November. The blockchain is the baby of MVL Foundation, a Singapore subsidiary company of easi6. The goal is to offer an all-inclusive record of relevant vehicle information in a clear,…
The US$1 trillion that traditional retail and commercial banks have invested globally over the past three years to transform their IT operations has not yet delivered the anticipated revenue growth, according to a new report from Accenture. The report analyzed more than 160 of the largest retail and commercial banks in 21 countries to assess their level of digital maturity and determine if digital leadership is driving superior financial performance, including market valuation, profitability, top-line revenue growth and efficiency. Among the key findings: Half (50%) of banks are achieving higher profitability and returns on equity, driven by greater operating leverage,…
We recently interviewed Dmitry Voronenko, the CEO and Founder of Turnkey Lender, a Singapore based Lending Software provider. This is our first ever Fintech CEO Pitch series. A challenge for Fintech CEOs who think they have what it takes to survive a series of rapid-fire, hard-hitting questions. If you are also a fintech CEO and are interested in participating with your startup or solution, reach out to us. What inspired you to start this company? In my work, I’ve been focused on neural networks and financial services automation for quite some time. I led multiple research teams which worked on…
One of the ASEAN region’s youngest entrepreneurs, KIDLetCoin CEO and Co-Founder, 10 year old Kaede Takenaka, spoke about blockchain and cryptocurrencies at this year’s Techsauce Global Summit in Bangkok. The entrepreneur spoke about educating young kids on smart currencies and new age education at the tech conference. Takenaka’s topic was: “What does the world look like for you in 10 years?” Still a pupil, Takenaka attends school every day and spends her weekends helping kids learn about blockchain and how to manage their tokens. Takenaka was the youngest entrepreneur to take to the stage at this year’s event, alongside…
On many aspects, Asia is leading the fintech revolution. First, in terms of consumer adoption of fintech products, more than half of adult consumers active online in China and India, the two most populous countries in the world, regularly use fintech services. In China, more than 4 out of 5 respondents said they have used at least one fintech service for mobile money transfer and payments, and more than half reported using one for savings and investments. In India, 47% of respondents said they have used an insurtech product. In addition to fintech adoption, funding for Asian fintech startups is…
In the age of mobile wallets, peer-to-peer (P2P) payment apps, and cryptocurrencies, credit cards are transforming to keep up with the changing landscape. The rise of fintech and digital platforms have ushered a new era in the payments sector, and while the industry is getting more and more crowded with an ever-growing number of payments startups offering new ways to transact, experts and industry observers are confident that credit cards aren’t going away anytime soon. A TransUnion report from last year even found credit card usage to be at an all-time high. So credit cards aren’t going to disappear just…
The platform-based business model has taken hold in the digital economy, and the concept is quickly spreading to banking and financial services. Aided by widespread Internet and mobile access, fintech companies and progressive banks have started to make inroads into platform-based banking. For fintech startups and financial institutions in Southeast Asia looking to provide seamless, user-friendly, digital solutions, the following five companies are offering extensive ecosystems and business-to-business (B2B) solutions that will make your job much easier. Ancileo: Insurance-as-a-service (Insurtech) If you are a Fintech startup (eg. lending, payment, wallet…), you are likely already working on building your own…
Consumer adoption of fintech services has surged globally in the past years, rising from 16% in 2015 and 33% in 2017, to now 64%, an increase of almost 100% every two years. China and India are leading the trend with both markets recording a staggering consumer adoption rate of 87% respectively, according to EY’s Global Fintech Adoption Index 2019. EY, which surveyed more than 27,000 consumers across 27 global markets to gauge the state of fintech adoption around the world, found that the rise of online banking and mobile-first platforms has fueled usage of fintech products and services, which have…
Visa just announced that their Visa Advanced Authorisation (VAA) process, done using artificial intelligence, has helped financial institutions prevent an estimated US$25 billion in annual fraud. VAA, used by Visa themselves, is a comprehensive risk management tool that monitors and evaluates transaction authorisations on the Visa global payment network, VisaNet. The process is done in real-time to help financial institutions identify and respond to emerging fraud patterns and trends. Visa uses neural networks modeled after the human brain to power its AI platform to identify possible fraud, which the company reports delivers faster and deeper insights through previously unknown correlations.…
Following the announcement of Line’s fintech ambitions, the Japan-based company with WeChat Pay-like financial ambitions claims that it may see the new arm break even as early as one to two years, according to Bloomberg. The claim is notable, as its digital payments unit, Line Pay Corp, has been pumped with US$182 million—following a challenging financial year in 2018 when it posted a JPY 5.79 billion loss. Line is also reportedly struggling with a stagnant user base, and a revenue model based on advertising. Line’s fintech foray, on top of a Visa-enabled e-wallet already operations, will include banking, loans and…
Followers of this page are well aware that Grab, one of Singapore’s premier unicorns, has dabbled in many different areas of fintech-fuelled offerings in its drive to become what it self-describes as a “super app”. Most recently though, it seems like the company might be taking the leap and shifting into banking, according to Reuters’ insider sources. The source further claims that Grab is close to hiring a consultancy to advise it on its banking potential. Before we jump the gun though, Grab’s eye is not on becoming a bank the traditional sense. Grab expressed its interest following Monetary Authority…
Two Vietnamese payments startups, Vimo Technology and Vietnam MPOS Technology have merged to form a brand new entity NextPay according to Bloomberg. Vimo Technology operates a mobile wallet provider, while Vietnam mPOS Technology, as the name suggests, operates a portable point-of-sale solution. The name NextPay seems to stem from NextTech, a group of companies of which both Viko and mPOS are members. To that end, the merger exercise seems to be more of a streamlining process as they were both founded by Nguyen Huu Tuat, CEO of mPOS, who will now head the combined entity moving forward. As reported by Vietnambiz,…
Organizations across Asia Pacific (APAC) are looking to increase investment in technology to fence off financial crime, according to Refinitiv’s new Innovation and the Fight against Financial Crime survey. Refinitiv, a global provider of financial markets data and risk intelligence, surveyed 3,138 managers with compliance-related responsibilities at large global organizations and found that almost three-quarters (75%) of APAC organizations have been victims of financial crime over the past 12 months. 44% said they have experienced cases of financial crime by their own employees. The research also found a lax approach to due diligence checks when onboarding new customers, suppliers and partners.…
Fresh out of Beta, Sparrow, a Singapore-based options trading platform has launched a platform for Bitcoin and Ethereum options trading which are settled by smart contract. The company is backed by LuneX Ventures a crypto and blockchain dedicated VC fund set up in partnership with Golden Gate Ventures. It is also backed by the likes of Signum Capital and QCP Capital The startup hopes that verifiable and transparent operations offered by the smart contracts could help mitigate risk dealing with famously volatile digital assets. Sparrow Options are settled on Ethereum smart contracts and deployed onto a Proof of Authority chain…
Following the launch of Get4x, a price discovery platform for currency exchange, a Singapore-based fintech named 4xLabs has just launched a comparison platform which puts different money transfer solutions neck and neck to help users select cheaper or quicker transfers—particularly through Asian corridors. A remittance corridor is the space between two countries between which money flows in and out. Put simply, if money is moving from one country to another, then it will move through a remittance corridor established between the two. The new platform, Send4x claims to cover more than 9,000 corridors spanning 45 sending countries. Azimo, InstaRem, OrbitRemit,…
Singtel announced a strategic partnership with ComfortDelGro Taxi to enable in app taxi booking within Singtel’s Dash App. Through this partnership, Singtel’s Dash user will be able to procure services from ComfortDelGro’s 12,000 strong taxi fleet. According to its Head of mCommerce, Gilbert Chuah, this is in line with their goal of positioning itself as an app for their customers’ everyday financial and lifestyle need. This new move seems to be a direct attempt to compete with Grab who has also repeatedly tried to position itself a super-app. With rising consumer complaints against Grab, this could provide Singaporeans a viable…