Author: Rebecca Oi

Author

Rebecca Oi FNN

Rebecca Oi is a Senior Writer for Fintech News Singapore

Bank Indonesia announced the country’s very own central bank digital currency (CBDC), named the “digital rupiah,” to move forward with the country’s initiative of “advanced digital transformation.” Dubbed “Project Garuda,” named after Indonesia’s legendary bird, Bank Sentral Republik Indonesia or Bank Indonesia (BI), said it is an initiative that encompasses the endeavours in exploring the optimal design for Indonesian CBDC, or Digital Rupiah.  Bank Indonesia also participates in CBDC projects, including the international Project Dunbar and Project mBridge. The move will keep Indonesia at the forefront of efforts to develop a CBDC.  Three key factors of developing the digital rupiah Developing the…

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Economies worldwide are increasingly considering the viability of a digitised national currency, most commonly referred to now as a Central Bank Digital Currency, or CBDC. Eleven countries have already launched their CBDCs, but none in Asia yet.  There are currently 35 countries in Asia that are in different stages – either research, development, or pilot – of CBDC exploration, according to the American think tank Atlantic Council which tracks the digital currency status worldwide.  The closest to a full-scale launch is likely China next year, where it was the first to introduce the digital yuan, or e-CNY, in August 2020.  Why the growing…

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Technological developments have accelerated the transformation of financial services, leading to the explosion of digital banks worldwide. In Singapore, the entry of digital banks into the local financial system is driving economic innovation and enhancing financial inclusion, according to a new feature titled ‘Financial Stability Implications of Digital Banks’ released by the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS). The MAS has been a critical motivator of Singapore’s developing digital banking scene. It has granted licenses to consolidated groups for digital full banks (DFBs), which accept deposits and offers banking services for retail and non-retail customers, and digital wholesale banks (DWBs), which…

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Fintech firms in ASEAN are not unaffected by the employment cuts hitting the headlines this year. Compared to 2021, when the industry was flushed with record funding and mass hiring, 2022 completely flipped the script and ended with belts tightened and a series of layoffs. Yet, such upheaval could be a spark that could ignite a world changer.  Eight major tech companies in Southeast Asia have recently let go of their staff, including Sea’s e-commerce arm Shopee, which laid off more than 7,000 employees. Recently, the company made headlines for withdrawing multiple job offers based in Singapore. Meanwhile, Singaporean crypto…

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In a dramatic turn of events, FTX filed for bankruptcy protection in the United States, with CEO and founder Sam Bankman-Fried resigning from his role. This was after Binance pulled the plug on its acquisition of FTX in a remarkable turn of events, just a day after it announced its initial intention to acquire the crypto exchange company. Despite the signing of the nonbinding agreement that would see Binance, the world’s biggest cryptocurrency exchange by trading volume, take over FTX non-U.S. business and its popular trading platform, which has been a linchpin in the dramatic rise of digital assets over…

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India’s Central Bank has been digitising the country’s payment process at a rapid speed. The digital payment index (DPI), a metric used by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) to determine the growth of digital payments across the country, rose to 349.30 as of March 2022, compared to 304.06 in September 2021. The index stood at 153.47 in March 2019 and 173.49 in September 2019, demonstrating aggressive growth in just two years. Cash is not king; digital cash is The digitalisation of payment was further stimulated by the country’s launching of the Unified Payments Interface (UPI). This payment system allows users to…

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Women have made great strides in the financial sector in recent years. However, they are still woefully underrepresented in leadership positions within fintech companies. This is a problem not just for women but for the industry as a whole. There is growing evidence that companies with gender-diverse leadership teams perform better than those without. So, why are there still so few women in fintech leadership positions? Several factors include the lack of women in the pipeline, the challenges of breaking into a male-dominated industry, and the pervasive gender bias in the tech industry. An IMF working paper published last July…

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As technological advances significantly change people’s daily lives, the benefits from these advances essentially boil down to one aspect, convenience. Technology has allowed business and social activities to expand and remain primarily online. This includes transactional decisions from purchasing tangible and non-tangible products, making business decisions and investments to immersing oneself into an augmented reality where connections happen regardless of distance. But with convenience comes negligence. At the other end of this double-edged sword is the possibility of fraud. Cybercriminals are lurking around every corner to find loopholes in systems as more businesses and consumers shift their behaviors to a…

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In the virtual world of the metaverse, people don’t just visit – they inhabit. It’s a place where they can be whoever they want to be and do whatever they want. The term ‘metaverse’ was first coined in a book by Neal Stephenson called Snow Crash. In the book, the metaverse is a 3D virtual world generated by computer code. It is where people can meet and interact with each other and where businesses can operate. The book was published in 1992, and at the time, the idea of a metaverse seemed like science fiction. Fast forward to today, the novel…

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In recent years, the financial services industry has undergone a significant transformation. Traditional financial institutions face new competition from startups leveraging technology to offer innovative financial products and services, broadly referred to as the fintech landscape. But there is a distinction between traditional finances offering newer digital products to be competitive in a dynamic marketplace. In an uncertain economic climate, consumers are increasingly looking to digital platforms and apps to help them save a buck. At the same time, businesses (including banks and other financial institutions) want to optimise their digital transformation investments to ensure quality investment returns. The demand…

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GXS Bank (GXS)’s executive director and Head of Regional Office, Reuben Lai, has decided to leave the Bank at the end of 2022. Along with his resignation as an executive director, Reuben will be stepping down from his appointment as a director in GXS’ Board in Singapore. He remains a director on the Board of the digital bank in Malaysia. “Grab has taught me to think big and use technology to solve real-life problems for humanity,” said Lai who has moved from his Grab Financial Group (GFG) role in May 2022 and has since been a full-time employee of GXS.…

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The insurance market in Vietnam has grown along with the country’s surge to economic prominence in recent years. During the 1990s, only general insurance was offered by the state-owned insurance group Bao Viet. It was only in 1995 that life insurance was made available to the public. According to a report by Statista, in 2020, life insurance in Vietnam outperformed general insurance. The number of people participating in health insurance in the country is almost 90 percent of its population, approximately 87 million out of 97 million.  In the last decade, the total premium value of general insurance is almost three…

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Insurtech plays a significant role as Thailand turns to technology to boost its insurance industry and make it inclusive. It is embedded in the country’s Fourth Insurance Development Plan (IDP 4) for 2021 to 2025 to ensure that the industry can adapt to the new environment.  Even the latest five-year investment promotion strategy framework approved by its Board of Investment (BOI) this month puts creativity, innovation, and technology as part of its core concepts leading to the new economy for 2023 to 2027.  Those three factors are synonymous with insurtech, and meet what the market is looking for as it…

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Southeast Asia (SEA) is experiencing exponential growth in digital payments encouraged by a booming e-commerce scene. The region is now home to some of the world’s largest online marketplaces in some of the fastest-growing economies like Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, and Thailand. The increasing availability of digital financial services is a significant factor driving this growth. In the past, many SEA consumers were lukewarm to the idea of shopping online due to reservations and limited understanding of the security of making payments on e-commerce platforms, linking their online banking accounts, and the potential for fraud. Digital finance services expanding the e-commerce…

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The digital payments market in Asia-Pacific is expected to more than triple to US$67.42 billion by 2028, according to a recent estimate. That’s a healthy growth of 21.1 percent CAGR from US$17.85 billion in 2021, fuelled by customers’ familiarity with doing things online, a supportive environment for financial inclusion, and increasing accessibility of technologies.  Such favourable numbers and conditions are bound to attract more competitors to enter the market and higher user expectations for better digital solutions. And payments are merely one part of the whole ecosystem.  The following five whitepapers showcase some recent thoughts and trends in fintech and digitalisation.…

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The core tenets of open banking are users’ financial data stored in banks are shared with third-party applications with the users’ consent. This gives users more options and the power to make their money work more.  Instead of traditionally going to a bank and being at its mercy for services ranging from payment transfers to loans, as that was the only place with the user’s information, the data can now be made available to whom the user wants via open APIs (application programming interfaces).  So instead of being limited to using the bank’s debit or credit cards, the user can…

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Decentralized finance – often called “DeFi” – is a hot topic in the cryptocurrency world, with billions of dollars’ worth of value locked into various protocols and platforms. At its core, the decentralized finance movement aims to upend the decades-old financial system by democratizing control of banking, lending, and trading – placing it in the hands of the users rather than central authorities. In many ways, DeFi is a direct response to the centralized, top-down models that have long defined the world of finance. The technology supporting this industry is still in its early developmental stages, accompanied by teething problems.…

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