Author: Vincent Fong

QR Codes were first invented in 1994 by Japanese engineer Masahiro Hara. When it was created for Denso, they were originally used for manufacturing and issuing tickets and coupons. Never in Masahori Hara’s wildest dream did he imagine that his humble invention would be so widely used in critical areas like payments, and QR payment security was likely the furthest thing from his mind Driven largely by China, who processes trillions of dollars in payments annually using QR codes, many countries like Singapore, Indonesia, Philippines, and Malaysia are attempting to emulate China’s success. Further across our shores, in Europe, a…

One of the biggest veils of mystery surrounding the world of cryptocurrency is the identity of Satoshi Nakamoto the creator of Bitcoin. His/her (their?) whitepaper, of course, laid the foundation to an entire blockchain and cryptocurrency industry today. Given the impact that the bitcoin whitepaper had on the world at large, it is unsurprising that there are individuals out there who sees the appeal in claiming to be Satoshi Nakamoto. James Bilal Khalid Caan hailing from Pakistan, is the latest in the long list of people claiming to be the elusive Satoshi Nakamoto. In his reveal, James Bilal claims that…

Singapore recently declared its intention to develop the ‘most advanced’ halal hub in Southeast Asia within the next two years. While the announcement primarily looked Singapore as a halal hub within the food industry, given Singapore’s status a fintech hub and its past attempts to tap into the islamic finance market, it might not be too far fetched to extrapolate that Singapore might soon have its eyes set on being an Islamic fintech hub. The fact that there are are close to 2 billion Muslims in the world and a market size that worth US$ 2 trillion would serve as…

CIMB Group and Ripple have entered into a strategic collaboration to enable instant cross border payments across its various markets. On the back of this partnership, CIMB will join Ripple’s network RippleNet, which will facilitate access to other RippleNet members and allow CIMB to grow its cross-border payments business. This news follows MoneyMatch’s earlier completion of their first cross-border blockchain transaction via Ripple. Ripple’s blockchain-based solution has been deployed to enhance Speedsend, CIMB’s proprietary remittance product. This will expand CIMB’s SpeedSend network and open new payment corridors to improve consumer access to cross-border remittances, both inbound into ASEAN and outbound…

When challenger banks were first introduced to the markets in Europe many pundits have touted it (perhaps over-enthusiastically) the destroyers of banks. Promising to upend the banking sector as we know it and drastically transform the way consumers experience financial services. Fast forward to today, we’ve still yet to see the dramatic claims realised. In fact quite the opposite has happened with a recent study indicating that British consumer’s willingness to bank with challenger banks has dropped quite dramatically compared to the previous year. Interestingly this is against the backdrop of consumers who are increasingly embracing digital banking — suggesting…

Globally the open banking movement is gaining traction, fueled largely by EU’s P2D2 and the UK’s CMA Open Banking and a combination of banks’ internal efforts and market initiatives. While during the earlier years, much of the open banking initiatives were largely from the European region, the rest of the world, particularly Asia is quickly catching up with open banking initiatives. What is Open Banking? Before jumping into the breakdown, it’s worth explaining what open banking is for the benefit of those who might be unfamiliar. Open banking refers to the use of open Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) that enable developers…

The year 2017, has been an interesting year for the Fintech Malaysia scene, while there’s been progress in this scene in the past few years it was really in 2017 that we see fintech being increasingly mainstream in the Malaysian mindshare. As we usher in 2018 in anticipation for the development of the Fintech Malaysia scene, let’s take a walk down memory lane and review some of the key moments for 2017. Fintech Regulatory Developments in Malaysia 2017 saw the introduction of several key milestones in regulatory development for fintech in Malaysia, both Bank Negara Malaysia and Securities Commission Malaysia…

The Securities Commission Malaysia (SC) today announced that parties interested in establishing and operating an Alternative Trading System (ATS) in Malaysia can apply to participate in the Securities Commission Malaysia regulatory sandbox sessions. The Securities Commission Regulatory sandbox will be ran under the SC’s FinTech Innovation Lab (aFINity – alliance of FinTech community). This follows the Budget 2018 announcement on the introduction of ATS in the Malaysian capital market. The SC’s Innovation Lab will commence from 2 January to 30 March 2018. Since 2015, the Securities Commission Malaysia has pioneered the regulatory sandboxing approach where regulation is imposed on a…

Earlier this month I had the opportunity to the attend the Korean Startup Festival 2017, which is part of the efforts of the Korean Ministry of SMEs and Startups to gather thousands of startups, VCs and international media to shine the spotlight on the Startup Korea scene. While strictly speaking it is not an event that is focused purely on fintech, I found myself getting a more in depth understanding of the startup  landscape in Korea and whether or not it is conducive for fintech startups to thrive in Korea and in this article I intend to outline the landscape…

The rapid development and adoption of cryptocurrencies have driven regulators from around the globe to adopt various approaches and regulatory measures and Malaysia is no exception. Following the announcement by Bank Negara Malaysia Governor, Tan Sri Muhammad Ibrahim in late November, Bank Negara Malaysia has issued for public consultation for digital currency exchanges as reporting institutions under the “Anti Money Laundering, Anti Terrorism Financing and Proceeds of Unlawful Activities Act 2001 (AMLA) This was done with the specific aim to ensure that effective measures are in place against money laundering/ terrorism financing risks associated with the use of cryptocurrenciesand to…

In November 2017, Securities Commission Malaysia announced that it will be embarking on a blockchain pilot project for the OTC markets. OTC is short for “over-the-counter” which are typically reserved for companies do not meet the listing requirements. It is also commonly known as unlisted stocks where these securities are traditionally traded by brokers. During the the SCxSC conference Tan Sri Ranjit Singh, Chairman, Securities Commission Malaysia commented, “By using distributed ledger as a technology underpinning the market infrastructure, all transactions and market activities would be recorded and made available to all market participants while maintaining transaction confidentiality” In efforts…

Southeast Asia’s leading ride-hailing app Grab has obtained regulatory approval from Bank Negara Malaysia to launch its mobile payment service in Malaysia following it’s earlier approval from the Singaporean authorities. This move is mirrored by it’s Indonesian counterpart Go-Jek who is also making a foray into the payments market. GrabPay will be rolled out in stages to Malaysian consumers and SMEs from the beginning of 2018. Jason Thompson, managing director of GrabPay says: “Cash is still the most important payment method for many Malaysian SMEs and middle-class consumers, despite most adults having a deposit account. As one of the region’s…

Malaysia’s insurtech company, FatBerry.com launched a digital marketplace for insurance providing Malaysians with a way to get insured in two minutes. In conjunction with the launch, FatBerry.com also announced its partnership with Tune Protect Malaysia, the an online retail portal of the General Insurance market in Malaysia. Fatberry.com is an Insurtech start-up which encourages and helps users in finding and purchasing the best-fit insurance online through a fast and intuitive chatbot-like interface. During the launch, Priscilla Lim, CEO, Fatberry commented, “FatBerry believes in empowering end-to-end consumers to make effective decisions, by providing this platform of convenience that helps consumer to…

Following the announcement by Deputy Governor Jessica Chew earlier this September, Bank Negara Malaysia has officially released the e-KYC guidelines which sets out the minimum requirements and standards that an approved remittance service provider must observe in implementing e-KYC. The guideline comes into effect on 30th November 2017. KYC (Know-Your-Customer) is a process in which financial institutions are required to execute in order to authenticate a customer’s identity, which are typically done face to face, whereas e-KYC as the name suggests, is a method that relies on digital technologies to perform the same task in a more seamless manner. The introduction…

Equity crowdfunding is a mechanism that enables the general public to invest in typically early stage businesses. In return for the investment the investors are typically given a small piece of equity in return (think Kickstarter but instead of rewards you get a small ownership in the company). In Malaysia, the Equity Crowdfunding framework was first issued in 2015 by Securities Commission Malaysia and the country was considered the first in Asia Pacific to legislate it. There is a mix of local and foreign market operators, all of which are incorporated in Malaysia, as required by the framework. Through this…

ICOs are becoming all the rage these days, with startups from around the globe adopting it as a method of fundraising. In Asia this is especially true for Singapore who recently emerged as the third largest ICO hub in the world and the largest in Asia. How is Malaysia faring compared to its neighbour down south? We spoke Bobby Ong, co-founder of CoinGecko, a Malaysian based cryptocurrency data analytics & research platform that recently expanded its services to tracking ICOs, commenting on the ICOs in Malaysia Bobby said, “There are a lot of interest among investors to participate in ICOs. However, I would…

GoBear, a financial comparison website based in Asia, has appointed Pooi Chan Gan as the Country Director for Malaysia who has taken over the reins from Iskandar Ezzahuddin following his departure in November 2017. According to the company, GoBear has amassed 2.5 million users to date, and an average of over 120,000 users per month. GoBear was also among the first to be approved in the Bank Negara Malaysia Financial Technology Regulatory Sandbox. Pooi Chan Gan comes with more than 16 years’ experience in start-ups and international businesses. Her last appointment was as the General Manager of iCar Asia Malaysia where…

Following Tencent’s recent success in securing E-Money license from Bank Negara Malaysia, the company’s payments arm WeChat Pay has received the green light from Bank Negara Malaysia to partner up with Hong Leong Bank. Similar to Alipay’s game plan, WeChat Pay will also be initially focused on Chinese tourists visiting Malaysia to gain traction and merchant acceptance. It is very likely that once the first phase is complete this service will be opened up to the locals. In this arrangement Hong Leong Bank will act as the merchant acquirer bank for WeChat Pay. While it is a positive development for…

InstaReM secured approval under theMoney Services Licensed Business from Bank Negara Malaysia, it is eyeing aggressive expansion following its recent Series B Funding. Headquartered in Singapore, InstaReM is a digital cross border payments company has announced its expansion into Malaysia at its launch press conference today. The company holds licenses in 8 markets and covering over 40 countries reaching 60 countries across the globe. The company took the route of securing approval under the Money Services Business License compared to its Malaysian counterpart MoneyMatch which secured approval under the Fintech Regulatory Sandbox by Bank Negara Malaysia. Prior to…

Geopolitical pressures to out-compete the Americans have driven China to exert its influence in South East Asia. Chief among the beneficiary of this exercise is Malaysia. While many of these government to government initiatives are largely focused on infrastructure projects, we’ve seen many major initiatives from the fintech end of the divide. Most notably are TenCent’s WeChat Pay and Ant Financial’s AliPay foray into the Malaysia digital wallets space. Their entrance into the Malaysian market is no triffling matter, together these two companies make up for 92% of the payments market in China. In this article, we intend to explore…