Japanese internet giant LINE announced that its fintech unit LINE Pay has inked a partnership with VISA, which will see both parties provide financial services for their collective user bases of millions of consumer and merchants worldwide. This development seems to be a follow up of their earlier initiative to launch a co-branded credit card. With this partnership firmly in place, LINE’s 187 million global monthly active active users will be able to apply for a digital Visa card within the app. At the same time LINE Pay users will also be able to use LINE Pay branded capabilities to…
Author: Fintech News Singapore
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Tencent and Temasek is set to invest US$ 35 Million in UK-based open banking startup True Layer’s US$40 Million Series B round. This fresh round of funding brings the startup’s total funding to US$ 51.8 Million, according to Crunchbase. Temasek’s participation in this round is consistent with its earlier plans to diversify further into fintech, notable past investments include — GO-JEK, Ant Financial, and PolicyBazaar, Founded in 2016, TrueLayer’s solution addresses a growing demand for open banking as regulators around the world are increasingly embracing this concept. Locally, banks like DBS and OCBC are demonstrating to the global community, that…
Today, a consortium of major companies have launched b.yond, a financial innovation platform that will let banks and consumer-facing businesses rapidly deploy a range of innovative fintech payment services. The consortium consists of Visa, Global Processing Services, Pannovate, Cornercard, Modulr, AllPay, Meawallet and W2 Global, Businesses wanting to launch a payments programme can use b.yond to access a financial technology platform of high-quality, innovative payment solutions using Visa’s rails, which they can deploy for customers in less than 8 weeks. As a platform, b.yond aims to reduce the complexities of launching a payment programme and having to deal with multiple…
With US$7.8 billion invested globally in the property technology (proptech) industry between 2013 and 2017, the sector is no doubt rapidly growing, especially in the Asia-Pacific (APAC) region where proptech companies attracted more than half of that amount (US$4.8 billion), according to Jones, Lang, LaSalle (JLL) Inc., an American commercial real estate services firm. Proptech, which refers to the utilization of technology as a solution to challenges in the real estate sector, is expected to grow strongly alongside increasing urbanization across APAC. Among the main benefits, proptech promises to improve information and transaction transparency, drive operating performance of real estate,…
Using technology and digital channels, challenger banks are reimagining banking, delivering superior digital customer experience and challenging incumbents to reinvent themselves. These are growing in importance and incumbents must “transform themselves from slow moving caterpillars to agile butterflies,” according to a report titled Bank X: The New New Banks by Citi Research. These challenger banks that are also sometimes referred to as neo banks, are designed around meeting current customer expectations and leverage data insights to offer better personalization and fully digital banking experiences. These tend to be quicker at incorporating new products and processes onto their platforms, and offer…
Singapore Life has just raised US$7.3 million (approximately SG$10 million) from Hong Kong-based Ion Pacific, an asset management company, according to DealStreetAsia. Ion Pacific joins Aflac and Standard Life Aberdeen, Singapore Life’s original shareholders in this round of fundraising. Ion Pacific’s part in this transaction enables them access into Southeast Asia, which it characterised as a “key focus region” for the company. Southeast Asia’s life insurance market. The region, particularly Singapore, Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia, Vietnam and the Philippines has mainly been served by agents doing face-to-face meetings, which is often deemed as the best means of establishing trust with their…
The Central Bank of Laos has officially cracked down on cryptocurrency in the republic. The Bank of Lao PDR has warned everyone from commercial banks and businesses to your average Laotian against buy, selling or using cryptocurrency for money transactions, according to Vientiane Times. The central bank further called on banks and other financial institutions in the country to strictly observe an announcement they issued last October, decreeing a wholesale ban on the use of cryptocurrencies. No financial institutions are allowed to posess, engage in or encourage cryptocurrency transactions, according to the announcement last October. The warning came in response…
Philippines’ UnionBank has expressed their intention to invest around $US 9.6 Million into incubating or buying technology ventures where financial services could be wired into, and they’ll be refreshing the fund every year, according to Inquirer.net, UnionBank is among Philippines’ largest banking institutions and is currently undertaking a future-proofing exercise on its core banking operations. Beyond that, its new fintech arm will also be looking into other monetisation avenues outside of traditional banking. The investments will be made via its fintech/innovation arm, UBX Philippines Corp. The new venture will house UnionBank’s technology initiatives and experimentation, as well as ecosystem platform…
In recent years, Singapore has emerged as a hotbed for blockchain and crypto innovation, fuelled by the supportive stance from the government towards adopting cutting technologies. Sources say that there are over 634 companies have been incorporated in Singapore with a combined market capitalization of approximately US$8.3 billion. Last year, the National Institute of Singapore (NUS) announced a partnership with IBM to develop a curriculum around blockchain and distributed ledger technology (DLT), and governmental agencies and regulators themselves, including the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS), are exploring the use of blockchain and DLT to improve processes and efficiency in areas including…
InstaReM, a digital cross-border money transfer company, has announced that it will now power cross-border payments for the clients of KASIKORNBANK (KBank), one of Thailand’s leading banking group. Announcing InstaReM’s partnership with KBank, Prajit Nanu, co-founder and CEO of InstaReM said, “We are delighted to be working together with KBank to power their outward remittances. This relationship further cements InstaReM’s position as a leading provider for cross-border transactions. With InstaReM, KBank clients will be able to realize faster turnarounds, while providing certainty on delivery times and payout amounts.” According to its press release, InstaReM already powers payments for three of…
Following the launch of its loadable QR-backed Ang Baos (red packets) earlier this year, DBS is now offering the same this Raya season with the quintessential Hari Raya green packets, in hopes of fostering cashlessness in these usually high-cash activities without sacrificing the traditional act of handing out physical packets. The green packets feature unique QR codes on the back for users to ‘load’ their desired cash values via DBS PayLah!—up to SG$999. Recipients need to scan the same QR code with their own DBS PayLah! app to receive loaded amounts. This year, DBS green packets can be repurposed as…
ConsenSys and Microsoft just announced AURA, a blockchain platform that aims to offer the luxury industry with product tracking and tracing services. AURA is based on the Ethereum blockchain and Microsoft Azure, in partnership with the LVMH Group, which owns well-known luxury brands like Louis Vuitton and Parfums Christian Dior. For Louis Vuitton, the development of the AURA project is the culmination of the traceability program (Track & Trace) launched over three years ago. Apparently, advanced discussions are underway to onboard additional brands, both from LVMH and other luxury groups globally. On top of Louis Vuitton and Parfums Christian Dior,…
The World Bank and Commonwealth Bank (CBA) have banded together to enable secondary market trading on blockchain for its block-i bond—and apparently it will be the first of its kind. The function was developed by CBA in conjunction with World Bank and market maker TD Securities. The ‘bond-i’ project (blockchain operated new debt instrument) is part of a broader strategic focus of the World Bank to harness the potential of disruptive technologies for development. The bond-i blockchain platform was built and developed by the CBA Blockchain Centre of Excellence, housed in the Sydney Innovation Lab. The World Bank issued bond-i in…
YouTrip, a multi-currency mobile wallet with a prepaid Mastercard, has successfully raised US$25.5 million in a pre-Series A. Participating investors include major Asian family offices and venture capital firm Insignia Ventures Partners, founded by ex-Sequoia Partner Yinglan Tan. With the injection of funds, YouTrip is looking to invest heavily in technology to further develop its technical payment infrastructure and roll out new product features. Having established a foothold in Singapore, it has also set its sights on further expansion in Southeast Asia and developing localised solutions for the region’s growing class of travellers. Launched in August 2018, YouTrip is a…
Maria Health, a Filipino aggregator for health insurance, has secured an undisclosed amount of seed funding from the tryb group, with participation from Gobi Ventures, Wavemaker, Hustle Fund and Grand Metro Holdings. Maria Health will use the additional funding to accelerate their scaling efforts in the Philippines, seeing themselves as a first-mover in the market and pushing hard to maintain their advantage. Spending on health expenditures in the Philippines has been on a gradual incline over the years, and according to the Philipine Statistics Authority, total health expenditures grew by 8% percent between 2016 and 2017. Households spent the highest in…
Another day, another cryptocurrency exchange hack. Recently the crypto world has been shaken by the Binance hack, that vanished approximately US$40 million worth of bitcoin through patient methods to avoid detection. It’s just the latest in a slew of hacks that have wracked the crypto-spheres tracing back to the prolific Mt Gox hack in 2014. Last year alone, an estimated US$867.45 million in losses were recorded from crypto thefts, as reported by CoinGecko in their 2018 report. Losses are frustrating to all stakeholders, because they result in extensive damage control measures, including lawsuits, investigations, and loss recovery measures. More crucial is what…
In what seems to be a streak of nations embracing central bank backed digital currencies (CDBC) and Wholesale CDBCs, Wipro announced today that in partnership with R3 they have developed a blockchain-based solution prototype for a consortium consisting of the Bank of Thailand and eight commercial banks in Thailand. It is developed as part of the first phase of Project Inthanon and Bank of Thailand led project, the prototype is built on Corda, R3’s open source blockchain platform, for the consortium. The solution will enable decentralized interbank real-time gross settlement (RTGS) using wholesale Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC) to prove…
The now famous Hong Kong virtual banking licenses have been a bit of a mixed bag for the region, but nevertheless, it’s gotten a lot of attention. To date, four licensees will be ready to go to market before the year closes. Singapore has indicated that they want a slice of that action too. The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) stated that it is studying the licensing regime to see about admitting fintech firms without a traditional bank at its core. The statement from MAS came a day after DBS Bank’s Piyush Gupta said that he sees no reason why the regulator…
India, often considered Asia’s underdog tech advancements in Asia, is finally now the top fintech funding hub in the first quarter of 2019, beating longtime rival China. At Q1’s close, India’s fintechs raised US256.8 billion to China’s US$192.1 billion. It is accurate to say that India overtook China in funding in that period. However, this is less because of anything special India did, but rather because China’s billion-dollar fundings simmered down following tighter regulations. China’s fintech funding too, has now hit a 5-quarter low which dragged Asia down with it, based on a recent CB Insights report. China saw a 89%…
There’s a growing number of central banks taking a serious look at blockchain and distributed ledger technologies of late. The Bank of Canada and the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) have conducted a successful experiment on cross-border and cross-currency payments using central bank digital currencies. This is the first such trial between two central banks, and has great potential to increase efficiencies and reduce risks for cross-border payments. Cross-border payments today are often slow and costly. They rely on a correspondent banking network that is subject to counterparty risk, inefficient liquidity management, and cumbersome reconciliation. The Bank of Canada and…