Lenddo and Entrepreneurial Finance Lab (EFL), leaders in credit decisioning for emerging markets, today announced they are joining forces. Lenders will use the combined company’s unique platform to provide individuals worldwide with unprecedented, affordable access to convenient financial products. United by the common vision of providing financial inclusion for more than one billion new and underserved individuals across the globe, Lenddo and EFL will together provide a suite of credit scoring and identity verification products to more than 20 emerging markets. “We’re thrilled to join forces with Lenddo and create an undisputed, global category leader in alternative data for credit…

Accuity, the leading provider of financial crime compliance, payments and know-your-customer (KYC) solutions, announced today that it has successfully integrated its financial crime screening solutions with Corda – R3’s financial grade distributed ledger technology (DLT) platform. Accuity’s innovation team, working closely with R3, has developed a solution that enables financial crime screening of customers and transactions on Corda. For financial institutions, this would facilitate financial crime compliance with regulatory requirements of programs such as the EU Fourth Anti Money Laundering Directive, the USA PATRIOT Act, the US Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) and the MAS Notice 626. Hugh…

Financial technology group ayondo remains on track to be the first FinTech company to be listed in Singapore. It will seek a listing through an Initial Public Offering (IPO) instead of the Reverse Takeover (RTO) as announced in mid-2016. The RTO was brought to an end in September because certain conditions of the Sales Purchase Agreement between the parties could not be fulfilled by ayondo’s contractual partner. Robert Lempka, CEO ayondo group says “The end of the RTO opens up the way for ayondo to pursue an Initial Public Offering (IPO) instead. The preparation work for an RTO and IPO…

DataProm company provides a number of services for e-commerce, such as analysis of goods and product groups, analysis of online customer activity and forecasting of their interests, automatic content optimization, etc. Almost all the company’s services and products are based on unique algorithms and the ability to work with Big Data. Recently DataProm became a member of the prestigious Shen Zhen Big Data Industry Association, which is a huge step in the development of the company. The amount of data and technical capacity that is required in order to store it, grew exponentially as the number of DataProm customers increased.…

Tokio Marine Life Insurance Singapore Ltd. (TMLS), the only Japanese life insurer in Singapore, today launched the first self-learning AI chatbot in Singapore that makes life insurance easier to understand and more accessible for the public. Available 24/7 on popular messaging app Facebook Messenger, the chatbot, named TOMI (for Tokio Marine Insurance), builds on the success of an earlier version released in January when TMLS became the first financial institution in Singapore to launch a chatbot for its financial advisers. The current version is aimed at empowering the public to understand and manage their insurance coverage more independently by providing…

Oracle announced momentum for its open banking initiative, which includes a comprehensive set of PaaS capabilities as well as an open API framework enabling banks and fintechs to collaborate on a common cloud platform. This digital innovation platform for open banking enables the development and deployment of fintech capabilities on a single platform in the public cloud. In today’s marketplace, open banking is no longer an aspirational goal, it is a necessity for any financial institution. Factors such as the global rise of fintechs, increasing pressure from European regulatory bodies and the need to create operational efficiencies have further heightened…

Funding Societies, Singapore’s and Southeast Asia’s leading crowdfunding platform, has announced the launch of its chatbot Miyu. This is the first such chatbot created by a crowdfunding company in Southeast Asia. Miyu works round the clock to answer queries that a business owner or an investor may ask about the products and services offered by Funding Societies. Here comes the interesting story – Miyu was jointly developed by two interns at Funding Societies along with bot platforms meya.ai and api.ai, using machine learning and natural language processing within the span of their internship. The inspiration for the name ‘Miyu’ came…

SAP SE announced a new release of the financial services accelerator for the SAP Hybris Commerce solution, enabling banks and insurance companies to offer customers a faster and easier experience opening checking accounts, applying for loans, obtaining insurance policies and many other services either in person, online or on mobile devices. “Digitalization has turned financial services on its head,” said Matthias Goehler, SAP Hybris* senior vice president and head of Industries. “The industry has changed from one of personal relationships and advice to customers shopping online for the lowest cost option. To engage these price-conscious consumers, banks and insurers need…

Online payment technology service provider Omise announced today that it has been chosen by McDonald’s Thailand to be its exclusive payments gateway for its website, www.mcdonalds.co.th and the McDelivery Thailand mobile app. With consumers growing embrace of online and especially mobile technologies, purchases through digital channels have rapidly increased. The online and mobile transaction has been growing strongly over the past two years. To continue delivering seamless experiences for the growing number of online customers, McDonald’s required a state-of-the-art digital payments platform that could support the company’s present growth and future ambitions. “We continue to raise the bar for our customers with convenience…

RHB Bank Berhad (“RHB”)—Malaysia’s fourth largest fully integrated financial services group—in collaboration with RinggitPlus—Malaysia’s leading comparison website for financial products—today introduced ‘ChatBot’, the first real-time messenger-style platform in Southeast Asia to facilitate personal loan applications. Consumers can now apply for their personal loan at any time of the day via ChatBot on RinggitPlus.com, and obtain the results for eligibility within a day via Short Messaging System (SMS). ChatBot is a platform that enables consumers to apply for RHB Easy-Pinjaman Ekspres via RinggitPlus.com, a financial comparison website. This platform auto populates information provided by consumers and combined with the approval process, reduces application time. “We…

RegTech Canada and Singapore based RegPac Revolution, have signed a co-operation agreement to collaborate on the development of cross-border Regulatory Technology initiatives. For those who are not aware of this recent phenomenon, RegTech (or Regulatory Technology) is the application of technology in Regulation, Compliance and Supervision of regulated entities – an area where Canada and Singapore are both recognised as global leaders. A recent study demonstrated that firms in the financial sector spend between 10% and 15% of their annual revenues on regulatory compliance. As regulation becomes more complex, it becomes harder and harder to manage costs and human error…

On September 1, Humaniq opened an international competition of blockchain projects to improve the lives of the world’s unbanked people by integrating them into the global financial system. Winners will refine their ideas on an all-paid trip to Kenya, then receive support in launching an Initial Coin Offering (ICO) and an opportunity to join the Humaniq accelerator. The challenge aims to identify startups that will maximize Humaniq’s humanitarian potential and will become effective business partners on its infrastructure. We invite entrepreneurs, blockchain projects developers, programmers, marketing specialists, and economists to enter the competition in teams or individually. Future directions include…

MoneyMax announced that it has entered into a joint venture with Tokyo Stock Exchange-listed Aucnet to jointly develop Singapore’s first online LIVE B2B e-auction platform The joint venture company ,SG e-Auction, will operate and manage the e-auction platform which allows ASEAN business buyers and sellers to make electronic bids for luxury branded merchandise, and gold and diamond goods. MoneyMax will be the majority shareholder of SG e-Auction with a 51% equity stake while Aucnet will hold the remaining 49% equity stake. Established in 1985, Aucnet is Japan’s leading real-time auction platform company which provides B2B information distribution services. Aucnet’s online…

Asian Business Software Solutions (ABSS) today announced the launch of Financio, a cloud-based automated accounting software for micro and small businesses in Singapore that gives companies access to a secure solution that tracks business finances effortlessly. Developed by ABSS and powered by Microsoft Azure, Financio does not require any accounting knowledge to operate and has been designed to be used by non-accountants. Users can track sales, purchases and miscellaneous transactions through a simplified dashboard, and automatically generate financial reports and tax records or forward transactions to recipients via email and inventory tracking. Through ‘Financio Connect’, businesses are also able to…

EY and Guardtime announce the world’s first blockchain platform for the marine insurance sector. The platform launches in collaboration with A.P. Møller-Maersk A/S, ACORD, Microsoft, MS Amlin, Willis Towers Watson and XL Catlin and after a 20-week proof of concept. The blockchain platform — built on Microsoft Azure global cloud technology — is positioned to provide significant value to the insurance industry and is planned to be implemented from 2018 onward. The first of its kind in the insurance industry, the platform’s initial phased rollout will involve deploying the benefits of blockchain for end-to-end use across the marine industry. The…

Singapore based MC Payment – a regional fintech and payments solutions provider – has submitted a proposal to key government agencies in response to the government’s call for an RFI (Request for Information) on a cashless payment solution to be used in hawker centres, coffee shops and other stores across Singapore’s heartland. The announcement comes off the back of Razer’s recent response to the Prime Minister’s request for creating a nationwide unified e-payment solution. Founder & Group Chief Executive Officer Anthony Koh offered reasons behind this move, “We have been in the electronic payments business for more than 10 years…

The Securities and Exchange Commission, Thailand (SEC Thailand) has been following the development and the growing popularity of initial coin offerings (ICO). ICO refers to a digital way of raising funds from the public.  In an ICO process, ICO issuer will offer digital tokens in exchange for cryptocurrency, such as Bitcoin or Ether.  Since the digital tokens can diverge widely in design and representation, some may resemble financial returns, rights and obligations in similar ways to securities under the Securities and Exchange Act. ICO has gained popularity among tech startups as a convenient and timely way to access funding. In the past few months, ICO has grown…

Singapore’s undergraduates can look forward to a unique entrepreneurship initiative, the Singapore Valley Awards (“SVA”), which was launched this week. The prize: a rare chance for internships with leading innovation companies in China. The internships will give the winners first-hand access to China’s start-up ecosystem and the opportunity to learn from the founders of these companies. Full-time third- or fourth-year Singaporean or Singapore Permanent Resident undergraduates studying in the six Autonomous Universities are eligible to apply for the award. Shortlisted students will then need to pitch business ideas to a panel of 10 judges, from a wide range of backgrounds,…

Slack has announced today a Series G funding round led by Softbank Vision Fund with Accel as second largest investor – expands Slack’s existing $540M funding by an additional $250M; post-money valuation now at $5.1B [April 2016: $3.8bn]. Capital to be used as a war chest to allow Slack to move quickly as the business and market evolves, particularly around international expansion. Current market conditions also provided a favourable opportunity for raising capital, helping to provide for potential future macroeconomic uncertainty SoftBank Vision Fund sees Slack as a rapidly growing platform business that will be the glue that joins together…

SWIFT gives two FinTech start-ups the opportunity to work with the co-operative and gpi banks over a three-month period to further enhance cross-border payments, leveraging on SWIFT gpi. The two startups will receive up to 100,000 EUR each to further develop their innovative concepts and will participate in Sibos, SWIFT’s annual financial services event to be held in Toronto in October. The two winners of the SWIFT gpi industry challenge held today in Singapore are: AccessPay is a specialist in cloud-based payments technology who has championed the evolution of payments and finance since its establishment five years ago. Based in the U.K., their software…