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Tag: FinTech

  • Blockchain Ecosystem Report Lanuched

    Blockchain Ecosystem Report Lanuched

    The Singapore Blockchain Ecosystem Report 2020, launched at this year’s Singapore FinTech Festival x Singapore Week of Innovation and TeCHnology, highlights impactful developments and trends in Singapore’s blockchain ecosystem over the last year.

    The report is co-presented by OpenNodes, Temasek, IBM, PwC Singapore, EY, and SGTech, and supported by the Infocomm Media Development Authority and the Monetary Authority of Singapore. It highlights Singapore’s lively blockchain research landscape due to active contributions from both academic institutions and the private sector.

    The report also showcases how COVID-19 has accelerated the application of blockchain technology, which is being used to verify health credentials amid the pandemic.

    It features a bibliometric analysis of blockchain-related scientific publications, showcasing Singapore’s pioneering progress in driving both high quality and quantity research in the field of blockchain technology. It concludes that Singapore has produced the highest number of research publications on the subject in ASEAN, and the third-highest in the world.

    PwC Singapore conducted a survey for the Singapore Blockchain Ecosystem Report 2020 to assess the developments of blockchain-related activities in Singapore. Results showed that blockchain emerged as one of the top three technology trends in Singapore for 2021, with 70 percent of the respondents showing support for the technology. The survey also ranked Si

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  • Fintech Lightnet Partners Visa and Velo Labs

    Fintech Lightnet Partners Visa and Velo Labs

    The three partners will collaborate on payment solutions aimed at addressing the under-served micro, small and medium enterprise (MSME) lending market. Singapore-headquartered fintech Lightnet Group has signed a memorandum of understanding with decentralized credit and settlement network Velo Labs and Visa to expand lending to the MSME market in Asia, according to a press statement on Monday.

    This initiative aims to enable users with poor or inexistent credit histories to receive a line of credit by depositing digital assets as collateral, with Velo tokens serving as the digital asset collateralizing financial solutions. This approach is suited to connect over 1 billion unbanked and underbanked individuals in APAC to the global financial system, Lightnet and Velo Labs said.

    Working closely together, the collaboration will also facilitate near-real-time global transactions between participating banks, money transfer operators and other financial service providers.

    The announcement cited the large opportunity for the MSME lending market, noting that $5.2 trillion in MSME lending goes unserved annually, with more than half of this financing gap existing in the Asia-Pacific (APAC) region.

    Being new-to-credit or lacking creditworthiness is often an obstacle to achieving one’s financial goals, such as securing loans to start a business or even buying a car…We are providing customers from the MSME market with another pathway to build credit and improve financial wellness, Tridbodi Arunanondchai, vice chairman and group CEO of Lightnet Group, said.

    Lightnet was co-founded in 2018 by Chatchaval Jiaravanon – a family member of the Charoen Pokphand group in Thailand – and tech entrepreneur and former investment banker Tridbodi Arunanondchai. Earlier this year, the startup raised $31.2 million in a series A funding round led by UOB Venture Management, the private equity unit of UOB Bank. It recently partnered Swiss crypto bank Seba to offer remittance services for migrant workers in Asia.

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  • Fintech Launches Low-Cost Customizable Portfolio

    Fintech Launches Low-Cost Customizable Portfolio

    Digital wealth manager Endowus’ new product allows investors to build customizable portfolios with direct access to a selection of low-cost funds.

    The Fund Smart platform, launched Thursday, allows investors to directly access institutional share-class and trailer-free funds using cash, CPF, and Supplementary Retirement Scheme (SRS) funds.

    The platform’s curated model portfolios include an ultra-defensive fixed income portfolio that prioritizes capital preservation, flexible cash management solutions, as well as thematic and sector-focused portfolios such as ESG environment, social, governance (ESG) or socially responsible investing (SRI) funds, Shariah-compliant funds, and thematic funds.

    People struggle with too many options – a growing array of platforms, and far too many funds to choose from with confusing fee structures,» Samuel Rhee, Endowus chairman and chief investment officer, explained in the announcement.

    According to the company, Fund Smart was developed based on a survey of more than 700 investors that focused on their preferences and behavior patterns. Some 71.6 percent of respondents indicated a desire to customize their investment portfolios, with lower incurred costs (84 percent) and the flexibility to choose funds from specific geographies or sectors (74.5 percent) as key considerations.

    We want our clients to experience the same quality of advice we have provided with our core portfolio products, but now with greater flexibility, Rhee said.

    Fund Smart has no sales fees, no transaction fees, no lock-ups, and full trailer fee rebates, along with automated rebalancing and regular savings plans capabilities.

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  • Line Launches Social Banking Platform in Thailand

    Line Launches Social Banking Platform in Thailand

    Thailand is the first market where Line has integrated banking services on its main mobile platform. Japan-based Line, which operates one of Thailand’s most popular social media platforms, has rolled out banking services in the kingdom in partnership with Kasikornbank.

    The Line BK service allows users to customers to transfer money, open savings accounts, apply for loans, and make payments directly from the messaging platform. It also promises high-interest rates for saving accounts and a range of banking services, including personal loans for freelancers and individuals without fixed incomes, according to an announcement on Tuesday.

    The company said it plans to expand banking services into other countries, including Japan, Taiwan, and Indonesia.

    The Line messaging app launched in 2011 and since then has grown into a diverse, global ecosystem that includes AI technology, fintech and more.

    In Thailand, LINE introduced its messenger service in 2012, and quickly grew into the country’s leading social media platform.

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  • Singapore Fintech Gears Up for Global Expansion

    Singapore Fintech Gears Up for Global Expansion

    To support its global ambitions, it has appointed a veteran entrepreneur to its board. Singapore insurtech BetterTradeOff (BTO) is preparing to expand globally through partnerships with major banks and insurance companies looking to offer their customers the benefits of BTO’s life-planning tool through a white-label enterprise solution.

    In addition, BTO plans to roll out both its direct-to-consumer «Up» life planning platform and «Up Adviser» software to new markets, following successful launches in Singapore. It also appointed Jeremie Bonnin to its board of directors, who will support its growth as it launches into new markets, the startup said in a statement on Thursday.

    Bonnin was a founding member of media and telco conglomerate Altice Group, which has recorded $25 billion in revenues across Europe and the U.S. He relocated to Singapore in 2018, where he served as senior advisor to Altice’s founder and management team, while mentoring and investing in Southeast Asian startups eyeing international expansion.

    With Covid-19 negatively impacting so many people, especially the poorest, we’re looking at partnerships that will allow us to make our solution available in more countries and to millions of more people, while bringing the power of sound financial planning to those who need it most, Laurent Bertrand, BTO co-founder and chief executive, said.

    BetterTradeOff was founded in 2015 and offers a software-as-a-service life planning solution that provides financial advisers with a collaborative digital platform for visualizing financial advice and building trust through transparency. It currently operates in Hong Kong, Singapore, Philippines, UAE, and Switzerland. The firm has raised $2 million in seed funding and has 15 staff based in Singapore.

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  • Chinese Regulators Add More Hiccups for Ant IPO

    Chinese Regulators Add More Hiccups for Ant IPO

    The much anticipated blockbuster listing of Chinese fintech giant Ant continues to face obstacles, this time from mainland regulators claiming a conflict of interest with its payment arm Alipay.

    The China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC) is looking into Alipay’s role over concerns of a potential conflict of interest, according to a «Reuters» report citing unnamed sources.

    Alipay was allegedly the only third party channel which allows access to the five Chinese mutual funds investing in the IPO.

    The efforts have proven effective as the channel has lured more than 10 million retail investors into the five mutual funds that were launched in late September, creating an alternative to traditional channels like banks and brokerage houses.

    According to the report, the probe is not expected to derail the IPO though it has delayed plans for its Shanghai listing already as Ant had hoped to obtain CSRC approval last month.

    And in Hong Kong, where Ant will conduct the other leg of its dual listing, progress was also slowed with original plans for a September 24 hearing with the local bourse’s listing committee and an official IPO after the Chinese National Day holiday that ended on October 8. Sources claim that Ant is aiming for a Hong Kong hearing in the coming days.

    Separately, Republican senator Marco Rubio called for the Trump administration to take a serious look at delaying Ant Group’s IPO, adding that it was outrageous that Wall Street is rewarding the Chinese Communist Party’s blatant crackdown on Hong Kong’s freedom and autonomy.

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  • Fintech firm NextPay seeks to raise $100 mln

    Fintech firm NextPay seeks to raise $100 mln

    E-payment company NextPay Holdings plans to raise up to $100 million in the first quarter next year via a private placement. Its CEO, Nguyen Huu Tuat, said that the company is looking for strategic foreign investors and would offer them a 20 percent stake, revealing that it is in talks with several investors from the U.S., Japan, South Korea, and China.

    Last year it had wanted to raise around $30 million from investors, but Tuat said the company has jettisoned the plan and instead now seeks to make a $100 million IPO in 2022 on the Ho Chi Minh City Stock Exchange.

    The company provides mobile points of sale devices and an app for cashless payment. It has 70,000 merchants in Vietnam and aims to increase the number to 300,000 by 2023.

    NextPay allows a customer to pay by a variety of methods such as card, contactless, and QR code by providing a merchant with a pocket-size mobile point of sale device which connects with a smartphone.

    Vietnam is seeing increasing competition in the fintech market as the government seeks to promote cashless payment.MoMo, the most popular e-wallet in the country, last year reportedly raised $100 million from U.S. private equity firm Warburg Pincus following previous investments of $25 million by Standard Chartered and $3 million by Goldman Sachs.

    Vietnam’s fintech market was valued at $4.4 billion in 2017 and is estimated to reach $7.8 billion in 2020, according to market research firm Solidiance.

  • Fintech Partners Plan Cybersecurity Platform

    Fintech Partners Plan Cybersecurity Platform

    the @-WISE Cybersecurity Centre of Excellence in Singapore aims to grow and groom cybersecurity talents.

    Plans for the cybersecurity platform were announced by partners Hong Kong-headquartered financial services group AMTD, the University of Waterloo, iQ4 and the Singapore FinTech Association (SFA) at a virtual signing ceremony on Thursday.

    The @-WISE Cybersecurity Centre of Excellence aims to raise the awareness of the importance of cybersecurity among digital platforms, fintechs, financial institutions, and other sectors in Singapore, the announcement said.

    As part of the partnership, the platform will also grow and groom cybersecurity talents, as well as build a cybersecurity ecosystem in response to the escalating cybersecurity threats, ultimately helping to shape a cyber talent strategy that will contribute to Singapore’s Smart Nation vision.

    AMTD and SFA previously announced a strategic agreement to promote entrepreneurship and innovation in Singapore’s fintech community, which builds on the two sides’ work under the MAS-SFA-AMTD Solidarity Grant.

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  • Razer Fintech Eyes New Markets

    Razer Fintech Eyes New Markets

    The firm is said to be exploring opportunities in Southeast Asia and other emerging markets, such as India and Latin America, to grow its fintech business.

    The financial technology arm of Singapore gaming and technology brand Razer said that while awaiting results of its bid for a digital banking license in Singapore, it is currently exploring applying for digital bank licenses in other jurisdictions, it said on Wednesday with its financial results for the first half of 2020.

    Razer Fintech generated $1.8 billion in total purchase value in the first half of the year, representing an increase of 114.3 percent year-on-year, and just shy of the $2.1 billion it achieved across the whole of 2019. This was driven by the onboarding of new merchants and surges in online shopping and digital entertainment consumption activities due to the COVID-19 lockdown, Razer said in the announcement.

    Razer recorded a record high revenue of $447.5 million, with 25.3 percent year-on-year growth for the period, driven by strong growth across its Peripherals portfolio, strong double-digit percentage year-on-year growth for Systems in May and June, and phenomenal growth in the services business.

    In an interview with on Thursday, Razer Fintech chief executive Lee Li Meng said the company is well-positioned to grow its digital banking business and is able to pivot quickly from its digital payments business to being a digital banking platform.

    The company is also looking abroad for more opportunities in this field. «We want to build a global business and leverage on the Razer Inc side of things as they grow alongside the fintech business, Lee said.

    Razer Fintech is one of the largest offline-to-online digital payment networks in Southeast Asia and has processed billions of dollars in total payment value since its establishment in 2018. The company is also is part of a consortium that is vying for one of five licenses in Singapore’s digital banking regime.

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  • Fintech Lightnet Partners Swiss Crypto Bank

    Fintech Lightnet Partners Swiss Crypto Bank

    The Singapore joint venture will serve both retail and institutional investors from the globe with a more transparent and secure settlement solution.

    Bangkok-based fintech Lightnet’s partnership with SEBA will strengthen its remittance settlement capabilities and provide a seamless, secure and accessible bridge between digital and traditional assets, as it sets its sights on the region’s remittance market.

    Under the memorandum of understanding signed by both parties, SEBA will serve as the banking counterparty for the Lightnet Group, enabling settlements, correspondences and remittances in both fiat and digital currencies, an announcement on Tuesday said. Zug-based SEBA will also act as an alternative settlement banking network, account and custodian as well as the settlement bank for money transfer operators (MTOs) in digital currencies.

    Asia is a promising market not only because of its size but especially because of the affinity of the people towards digital services and digital assets, Matthew Alexander, head of asset tokenization of Seba Bank, said about the partnership.

    Lightnet said it will use a blockchain financial protocol developed by Velo Labs, a decentralized credit and settlement network in Asia, to transform remittance services for the millions of unbanked migrant workers across Southeast Asia, which is currently characterized by high transaction fees, fragmentation and unreliable payment routes.

    The company said it also plans to introduce multi-currency virtual accounts to address the inefficiencies of global trade finance.

    Lightnet was co-founded in 2018 by Chatchaval Jiaravanon – a family member of the Charoen Pokphand group in Thailand – and tech entrepreneur and former investment banker Tridbodi Arunanondchai. Earlier this year, the startup raised $31.2 million in a Series A funding round led by UOB Venture Management, the private equity unit of UOB Bank.

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  • Mastercard to Support Scottish Fintech’s APAC Expansion

    Mastercard to Support Scottish Fintech’s APAC Expansion

    Mastercard has announced an expanded strategic partnership with Eedenbull to cover the Asia Pacific as the Scottish fintech eyes a slice of the region’s business-to-business payments market.

    Building on its partnership in Europe, Eedenbull will leverage Mastercard’s advisory experience, commercial solutions, and network of customers and partners as it rolls out its new commercial cards platform to banks in the region, the announcement on Tuesday said.

    Based in Norway, Scotland, and Singapore, EedenBull is a technology-agnostic innovation company built by banking, payment, and technology professionals. It operates a spend management platform to digitize the slow and costly processing of checks and cash.

    «While payment products and services are now more user-friendly, product management is growing more complex and requires access to specialists in marketing, revenue management, IT, legal, regulatory, and many other areas,» Nicki Bull Bisgaard, CEO EedenBull, said in the statement.

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  • Australian Wealth Fintech Eyes Growth

    Australian Wealth Fintech Eyes Growth

    Picture Wealth has completed a A$12 million equity and debt funding round, at it sets its sights on reinventing the country’s financial advisory and superannuation landscape.

    The fast-growing company has completed late-seed funding round and acquired 100 percent of financial services licensee NEO Financial Solutions (NFS) for an undisclosed sum, it announced on Friday on its blog.

    With the acquisition, NFS managing director Mark Edman will become chief operating officer, and give the group a combined footprint of 94 advisers and $2 billion in funds under advice.

    We felt acquiring NFS with its robust compliance protocols was the way forward so that we could offer advisers and their clients a new home amidst very turbulent market conditions, said Pettit in the statement.

    Picture Wealth was co-founded in 2018 by chairman Neal Cross, who was previously DBS Bank’s innovation chief, and CEO David Pettit, a private wealth entrepreneur, aiming to use technology to empower people to understand and manage their finances.

    The hybrid wealth manager brings together digital automation and licensed, human financial advisers to provide users with personalized actions and insights based on their financial profile. It highlights gaps and opportunities to grow their wealth, and helps users with the changes required for them to reach their targets. It also has an adviser side, which allows the needs and expectations of clients to be met through structured servicing protocols and bespoke financial advice.

    It now has revenues of A$20m, A$2 billion of funds under advice and over 40,000 clients.

    As others are running out of the industry, we are running in…We have the technology, the business model and the people behind us to make a significant dent in the wealth industry in Australia, Cross said in an interview.

    Australia’s wealth management industry was shaken up with the Hayne royal commission into misconduct, leading the big four banks to exit the sector.

  • Regional Fintech Startups Open HQ in Singapore

    Regional Fintech Startups Open HQ in Singapore

    Ayannah and Equity Capital Advisors will merge their businesses in India, the Philippines and Indonesia to form Ayannah Global, headquartered in Singapore.

    Philippines-based digital financial services provider Ayannah and India-based payments company Electronic Cash and Payment Solutions (ECAPS) have announced a merger to support their goal of providing affordable and accessible digital financial services to the growing middle class in South Asia and Southeast Asia.

    The new entity will serve over 10 million customers through mobile apps and a growing network of over 60,000 retail touchpoints, Ayannah Global announced on Tuesday. The company caters to underbanked customers in the two regions using a suite of fintech solutions through agent networks for remittances, payments, insurance and loans.

    The group currently operates a rapidly growing remittance and payment business in India and the Philippines, and recently launched Kaya, a digital marketplace connecting middle-class customers and SME entrepreneurs with banks, lenders and insurers in the Philippines and will launch versions in India, Indonesia and Vietnam later this year.

    The company also appointed veteran banker Ray Ferguson as chairman of the Ayannah Global board. Ferguson has over 30 years of banking experience across five continents and has held senior roles in Standard Chartered Bank, including as CEO in Taiwan, Indonesia, the United Arab Emirates, the Americas and Singapore.

    He was also group chief banking officer at Arab Banking Corporation in Bahrain. Ferguson is based in Singapore, where he also chairs digital life insurer Singapore Life. He is also the founding partner of Caber Partners, a Singapore-based fund manager and advisory firm that focuses exclusively on the intersection of finance and technology.

    Ayannah’s new Singapore headquarters will support the company’s expansion plans, talent acquisition, and strategic partnership, the announcement said. It is also targeting $30 million to $50 million in its series B funding round to support its growth ambitions in new markets.

    Widespread smartphone usage across our target markets provides a ripe landscape for a financial inclusion revolution, while the COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated the demand for at-your-fingertips financial services, Praveen Suri, Ayannah Global co-chief executive officer, said.

    The firm is backed by venture capital firms Wavemaker Partners, Golden Gate Ventures, and 500 StartUps, as well as several large family offices across Asia.

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  • Fintech Startup GoBear Adds Digital Lending via Acquisition

    Fintech Startup GoBear Adds Digital Lending via Acquisition

    Financial product comparison platform GoBear acquired AsiaKredit in a bid cover Asia’s alluring unbanked segment.

    Singapore-based AsiaKredit was acquired at an undisclosed amount following an announcement by GoBear in May last year that it raised around $80 million to date from two Dutch companies – asset manager Aegon and VC firm Wallis Participaties.

    AsiaKredit provides financial products to the underserved in the Philippines with a mobile app – pera247 – that boasts over 1 million loan applications. GoBear will look to leverage AsiaKredit’s risk management and automation capabilities in data-driven underwriting and collections to establish «end-to-end lending».

    Credit access to consumers is due for increased importance in 2020 developing countries faced significant growth slowdowns, the firm said.

    The fintech promise for the unbanked is to provide and manage sound lending to those that aren’t linked to the formal banking system – a market Bain & Company estimates has 296 million people in Southeast Asia alone. The region is home to most of GoBear’s businesses which have operations in Singapore, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam.

    Through its latest acquisition, GoBear will look to provide connect consumers to its over 100-strong banking network which includes the likes of HSBC, Standard Chartered and Citi.

    The establishment of industry-leading lending business is a critical component of GoBear’s strategy to support our banking partners in providing loans to the many underserved consumers in Asia,» reiterated GoBear CEO Adrian Chng.

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  • Fintech Helps Boost Hong Kong’s Tech Hub Ranking

    Fintech Helps Boost Hong Kong’s Tech Hub Ranking

    Financial technology, alongside other developments, helped boost Hong Kong’s ranking as a tech innovation hub to tenth place worldwide in the latest KPMG survey.

    Hong Kong’s ranking improved from 12th place last year, according to the KPMG report which surveyed 800 global leaders from the tech industry from 12 countries, including 110 respondents from China. In addition to fintech, the outlook is bright for development in artificial intelligence, biotech, and smart cities especially due to opportunities to leverage synergies from closer integration with the mainland such as the Greater Bay Area strategy.

    The Hong Kong government is supporting and promoting an entrepreneur ecosystem, as well as leveraging the city’s mature international financial system and advanced logistics sector to drive a real difference, said Irene Chu, KPMG China’s partner and head of new economy & life sciences in Hong Kong, in a release.

    Although China is home to four top 20 tech hubs including Shanghai, Beijing, Shenzhen and Hong Kong, the country’s overall rating dropped. The country was ranked second by 13 percent of respondents, down from 17 percent last year and tied with India.

    In contrast, the 28 percent of respondents placed the U.S. in the top rank, up from 23 percent last year. And in order for China to close this gap moving forward, it must now spend more resources on its own domestic innovation ecosystem due to the current American policy stance on technology and intellectual property.

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