Fintech news in Q3 2021
• July, August and September of 2021
• Tech news headlines at a glance
• Quick reference for a time-poor audience
• One-click access to each full tech news article
• Online and drawn from daily tech news
July 2021 | August 2021 | September 2021
Get daily tech news from Asia and beyond, as it happens, from our social, mobile and email channels
Fintech news headlines: September 2021
- ICYMI: UK Financial Conduct Authority claims Binance “not capable” of supervision, failing to provide details of business ops, corporate structure, or ways retail customers consume its products
- “Fully 2.5 billion of the world’s adults don’t use banks or microfinance institutions to save or borrow money, but unserved doesn’t mean unservable.”
- Global Fintech Fest 2021 virtual event set for September 28-30, focusing on the theme of ‘fintech, empowering a global digital economy’
- ICYMI: Global Fintech Fest set for September 28-30, running online – more thann 75 sessions, 200 speakers, networking opportunities and more
- So what exactly is meant by the term ‘programmable money’? Here’s a primer from the US Federal Reserve.
- Asia’s tech news, latest issue: Oppo & 5G, Indonesia pitching, Connected Women, India’s blockchain middleware, Australia’s NFT Fest…
- Download: Digital Wealth Management in Asia Pacific 2021, a comparative analysis across 8 key markets, from KPMG (pdf)
- Singapore: Standard Chartered signs deal with BetaPlus, part of Singapore’s biggest trade union group, to form a digital bank
- e-news, latest issue: SPAC 101, StanChart digital bank, Bitmain & Georgia, NFT Fest Australia…
- Blockchain & remittances: “According to the World Bank, the global money transfer market reached over $700BN in 2020, with an estimated additional $200BN by 2026”
- Philippines: UnionBank and Visa’s FinTech Fast Track program partner to enable fintech firms in the country to develop personalized payment gateways
- Australia: Paypa Plane partners Cuscal payments platform to enable PayTo digital solution, allowing real-time payments and more from customer bank accounts
- ICYMI: Singapore Fintech Club, a community platform for Singapore’s fintech professionals, run by Singapore Fintech Association with support from JP Morgan
- India: 8 banks partner to launch Account Aggregator to enable consenting citizens to consolidate financial data from banks, insurers and others in one place
- e-news, latest issue: Gaming in India, Singapore Fintech Club, Australian med-tech, China Internet Report, A16Z interview…
- India: Visa and Innoviti payments tech firm partner for proof-of-concept around card chip-based offline payments
- India: ToneTag completes Reserve Bank sandbox participation, executing offline voice-based payments in areas with patchy internet connectivity and low digital literacy
- Thailand: SCB Abacus, alternative digital lending platform from Siam Commercial Bank, raises $12M Series A in part with focus on lending to the unbanked
- Thailand: Fraction fintech startup clears final regulatory hurdle towards helping property owners fractionalize real estate, enabling sale of ‘pieces’ to small investors
- Cambodian Association of Finance and Technology and American Chamber of Commerce ink MOU, aiming to streamline and facilitate collaboration
- India: Fyp fintech partners YES Bank and Visa for launch of payments app and prepaid card for teenagers, incorporating parent-assigned ‘missions’ promoting good financial habits
- Philippines: A brief intro to 6 of the country’s rising leaders in the fintech space, working in unbanked services, remittances and more
- “In 2020, more than 1.18BN people used proximity mobile payments worldwide…By 2022, proximity mobile payments will reach close to 1.35BN people…”
- Oy! Indonesia payments aggregator raises $30M Series A, led by Softbank, with platform providing a payments and transfer bridge for online and offline payments
- Philippines: Connected Women social impact startup partnered by Union Bank to develop financial inclusion solutions contextualized for Filipinos
- Thailand: Ascend Money, TrueMoney e-wallet’s parent firm, raises $150M to expand on 6-country services in digital lending and cross-border remittances
- Philippines: PearlPay takes 3rd prize in global finals of Visa Everywhere Initiative with end-to-end focus on financial inclusion in rural areas
- Indonesia: 15 startups selected for Batch 3 of Startup Studio Indonesia incubation program, working in health-tech, supply chains, social commerce, fintech and more
- ICYMI: Mastercard now stepping into the burgeoning buy-now-pay-later space with launch of Mastercard Installments service in Australia, the US and the UK
- India: Akudo raises $4.2M seed round led by Y Combinator with learning-focused neobank for teenagers
- Singapore: Cyberdyne Tech Exchange sells first tranche of carbon neutrality tokens backed by China carbon credits, following launch of China’s carbon trading market in July
- Download: Digital Wealth Management in Asia Pacific 2021, a comparative analysis across 8 key markets, from KPMG (pdf)
- Australia: Zip buy-now-pay-later provider aiming to allow merchants to accept Bitcoin payments next year; also planning to launch crypto trading feature
- Australia: Rush Gold raises $3M Series A with app and platform allowing people to use gold like cash – to buy, save, transfer, gift and spend via major mobile wallets
- Fintech Australia / AWS Fintech Megatrends Webinar set for September 30th
- Russia’s Tinkoff online bank, country’s largest digital bank, reportedly aiming to apply for a banking licence in the Philippines as part of wider Asian market entry
- “India’s digital loan market is becoming a battleground for companies from Facebook to Xiaomi seeking a foothold in what’s set to be a $1-trillion industry.”
- China: Banking officials now working with fund managers and insurers to explore CBDC use beyond low-value daily retail payments
- Japan: Paidy buy-now-pay-later fintech to be acquired by PayPal payments giant in $2.7BN deal, gaining 6M Paidy members
- e-news, latest issue: Philippines startup pitching, offline payments in India with Visa, 500 Startups interview, Singapore Gaming Week, EVs in China…
- China: Shanghai Maritime University and Conflux blockchain startup launch finance-focused research lab, in part to look at offshore digital yuan transactions
- Tech news, latest issue: BNPL in Australia, Monk’s Hill VC Scouts, She Loves Tech winners, Wall Street & crypto…
- Indonesia: Komunal fintech raises $2.1M Series A with platform allowing rural banks to source third-party funding and syndicate lending
- Malaysia: Securities Commission to review SPAC framework to make Malaysian markets more relevant and efficient in light of recent SPAC moves by Singapore and HK
- India: The Money Club gains $1.7M with AI-backed P2P group savings platform, enabling the lower-middle-class population to save, borrow and invest
- Fintech & Banking Tech: A round-up of a full month’s worth of fintech news, articles, reports and downloads, focusing where possible on S & SE Asia, Australia & NZ
Fintech & Banking Tech: August 2021
- AI’s potential in financial crime detection: “In recent years, financial crime scandals involving front and shell companies have led to fines of hundreds of millions, even billions, of dollars.”
- Singapore Fintech Festival to also host satellite events in Japan, Cambodia, The Philippines and others under World FinTech Festival banner
- Circle Internet Financial, principal developer of USD Coin – the 2nd largest stablecoin by circulation – aims to become full-reserve national commercial bank in the US
- Download: KPMG Pulse of Fintech, H1 2021, looking at payments, insurtech, regtech, wealthtech, blockchain/crypto, and cybersecurity
- What Gen Z can tell us about the future of banking: “…Crypto wins over junior saving accounts…is one of the few attractive risks.”
- Philippines: Central bank to stop accepting digital bank license applications, capping number to seven whilst assessing performance of new licensees
- The Boston Fed and MIT are building a CBDC from scratch that aims to usurp existing tokens’ via The Financial Times
- Download: Bloomberg Crypto Outlook, August 2021 edition (pdf)
- Walmart, the largest US retailer by total sales, looking to hire a digital currency and cryptocurrency product lead, having previously tested blockchain solutions
- Facebook cryptocurrency project lead says Novi digital wallet is ready to launch on the Diem blockchain-based payment system
- PayPal takes major crypto step in UK, allowing users to buy, hold, and sell 4 cryptocurrencies – Bitcoin, Ethereum, Litecoin and Bitcoin Cash – directly from the app
- PayPal-owned Venmo launches feature allowing users to automatically buy cryptocurrency using cash back earned from Venmo credit card purchases
- Download: Realising the potential of Indonesia’s digital economy, from Deloitte “…digital economy poised to grow to size of about USD133M in the next 5 years…” (pdf)
- Australia: Government accredits country’s first private digital ID provider, OCR Labs, to offer automated, contactless identity verification
- Vietnam: Vietcetera gains $2.7M pre-Series A with digital medial network focused on millennials and Gen Z, with plans to now broaden its target demographic
- Digital Nomad Week 2021 set for December 6-8, running online and looking at all aspects of remote work
- Download: KPMG Pulse of Fintech, H1 2021, looking at payments, insurtech, regtech, wealthtech, blockchain/crypto, and cybersecurity
- Hong Kong: Currenxie launches $10M Series A bid with digital wallets for multiple currencies, payments, virtual banking and more in 30 countries and 18 currencies
- India: Gov’t launches e-RUPI electronic voucher promoting digital payments, a one-time voucher redeemable without a card, payments app or internet banking
- India: More on the government’s recently-launched e-RUPI digital voucher programme, seen as a first step towards wider digital payments adoption
- Australia: Afterpay ‘buy now, pay later’ firm to be acquired by US payments giant Square in $29BN deal, the largest in the country’s history
- Download: Cryptocurrencies – A Guide to Getting Started, from the World Economic Forum (pdf)
- Download: Cryptocurrency Adoption Rates, from Finder, a survey of 42K individuals across 27 countries (pdf)
- India: Zomato food-tech giant to enter fintech space with Zomato Payments digital payments entity, competing directly with Google Pay, Paytm, PhonePe and others
- e-news, latest issue: Indian fintech, China’s ride-hailing, Australia’s Cyber Ambassador, Indonesian giant IPO…
- Video: Visa Fintech Initiative India – Solving for the multi-trillion dollar credit opportunity
- India: Visa runs proof-of-concept allowing payments in places with low or no internet, using Visa chip on debit, credit and prepaid cards like a preloaded mobile wallet
- Indonesia’s Traveloka, SE Asia’s largest online travel firm, planning to launch financial services in Thailand and Vietnam as it eyes a US listing via SPAC
- Indonesia: “New banking rules…allow near-full foreign ownership of local lenders and reduce red tape for new services as regulators move to spur growth in…digital banking industry.”
- Malaysia’s BigPay, fintech unit of AirAsia digital arm, gains $100M from South Korea’s SK Group with prepaid debit card, local and int’l money transfers, micro-insurance and more
- Nerve musician-focused neobank launches, providing artist streaming and social data, private networking, debit and savings account, networking and more
- Philippines: GCash Padala launches, allowing users to remit funds from mobile devices even if recipient does not have a digital wallet or mobile banking account
- Philippines: An intro to newly-launched BayaniPay, providing app-based cross-border financial services to Filipino Americans in the US focusing on remittances
- Singapore: Matrixport raises over $100M with cryptocurrency-focused financial services from custody to trading, and products for institutional and retail customers
- 2021 Singapore FinTech Festival Global FinTech Awards are open for applications across 12 categories, closing August 31st
- Taiwan: XREX secures $17M pre-Series A with focus on speeding cross-border businesses in emerging markets, via services including payment escrow and crypto-fiat exchange
- e-news, latest issue: Women in tech, EV influencers, Indian fintech, Korean startups…
- Australia: Citi to launch Spot, a ‘buy now, pay later’ card in partnership with Diners Club, usable online or in-store anywhere Mastercard is accepted
- Australia: An intro to the 6 tech startups selected for EnergyLab Climate Solutions Accelerator
- Australia: Commonwealth Bank’s x15ventures selects 10 startups to pitch at retail-tech focused Xccelerate21 Community Day
- Australia: FinTech Awards 2021 awards night set for October 6th in Sydney, with fintech submissions closing September 17th
- Australia: NAB joins with Canada’s CIBC, Brazil’s Itaú Unibanco, UK’s NatWest Group, and AWS for Global Open Finance Challenge
- “Investment scams in Australia cost investors more than Au$70M in the first 6 months of 2021, with crypto scams contributing to more than 50% of the losses…”
- India: An intro to PayNearby, fintech partnering with neighborhood stores to enable them to provide financial and digital commerce services to local communities
- Central banks vs the data regulators: Who is on the hook when CBDCs get hacked?
- Stablecoins and the future of money: “…lower-cost, safe, real-time, and more competitive payments compared to what consumers and businesses experience today.”
- ICMYI: Razer gaming giant to end Razer Pay and Razer Card eWallet services in Malaysia and Singapore
- India: Facebook to launch Small Business Loans Initiative, allowing its lending partners to grant SMEs small ticket loans
- Myanmar: Wave Money mobile wallet provider has lost more than 50% of monthly active users this year, adding to woes following Ant Group’s derailed plans to take a stake
- Philippines: MarCoPay e-money app aims to link merchant ship crews to loans, insurance and financial services, with sights on $8BN global market
- Standard Chartered and Hong Kong’s Linklogis partner for Olea, blockchain-based platform connecting institutional investors to businesses seeking supply chain financing
- India: Securities and Exchange Board to launch blockchain-based system for monitoring certain financial instruments
- Singapore’s STACS selected for Mastercard Start Path with blockchain-backed infrastructure for financial industry focused on environment, social, and governance issues
- PayPal hints it may start integrating decentralized finance and cryptocurrencies with its app and platform, aiming for ‘super app’ of consumer services
- Philippines: Central bank to stop accepting digital bank license applications, capping number to seven whilst assessing performance of new licensees
- The Boston Fed and MIT are building a CBDC from scratch that aims to usurp existing tokens’ via The Financial Times
- Facebook cryptocurrency project lead says Novi digital wallet is ready to launch on the Diem blockchain-based payment system
- PayPal-owned Venmo launches feature allowing users to automatically buy cryptocurrency using cash back earned from Venmo credit card purchases
- India: Gov’t launches e-RUPI electronic voucher promoting digital payments, a one-time voucher redeemable without a card, payments app or internet banking
- China: WeChat and UnionPay to recognize each other’s QR codes, marking a major step in continuing consolidation of the country’s mobile payments industry
- Grab super app in Indonesia gains $375M from Indonesia’s Emtek conglomerate to collaboratively scale ecosystems across logistics, ecommerce, financial services, advertising and more
- Philippines: An intro to the 4 Filipino startups that made it onto Forbes Asia’s ‘100 to Watch’ list, working in e-commerce, cloud kitchens, HR and fintech
- Australia: CoinJar, country’s longest-running cryptocurrency exchange, unveils Crypto Mastercard allowing users to buy, sell and spend digital assets
- e-news, latest issue: Crypto in Singapore, BNPL in Australia, Korean and LatAm startups…
- Tech Council of Australia launches with Google, Atlassian, Afterpay among its 24 founding members, with sights on boosting tech industry value to $250BN by 2031
- Australia: As part of Growth Campus initiative, WeWork co-work giant to offer subsidised work spaces and mentoring in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and Perth
- “The number of crypto ATMs installed globally has increased by more than 70% to 24,030 this year…”
- Hong Kong Monetary Authority and Bank of Int’l Settlements Innovation Hub join to investigate tokenized, blockchain-based green bonds as a spur to sustainable investments
- e-news, latest issue: Cross-border QRs, FinTech festivals, crypto-to-fiat in Singapore…
- “JPMorgan Chase began pitching an in-house bitcoin fund to its Private Bank clients for the first time this week…”
Fintech news from July 2021
- Decentralized finance: “With DeFi, millions…are now lending, borrowing, trading, saving…without the permission of companies whose interests may not always align with their customers.”
- Download: The Rise Of Digital Banking In Southeast Asia, a December 2020 report from Boston Consulting Group, commissioned by Google Cloud (pdf)
- Future Of Fintech 2021 Conference set for October 5-6, running online from New York and organised by CB Insights
- Is DeFi the future of finance? “In traditional finance, if you make a mistake, a financial institution can initiate a rollback of the transaction – this doesn’t exist at all in DeFi yet.”
- Square payments giant to launch new Bitcoin-focused business, an open source platform for decentralized and permissionless financial services
- Download: Online Payment Fraud from Juniper Research, covering emerging threats, segment analysis, market forecasts across 2021-2025 (pdf)
- AI and fraud detection: ” in the overall financial fraud stakes, internal fraud accounted for close to 70% of all cases annually…”
- Australia: Alex digital banking startup gains banking licence from regulator, allowing the firm to receive deposits from customers to fund loans and credit for other customers
- Australia: Spriggy gains National Australia Bank’s NAB Ventures backing with pocket money app for kids, allowing parents to set goals and monitor spending
- Cambodia: Techo Startup Center and Cambodian Ass’n of Finance and Tech ink MoU around development of digital framework for financial and other technologies
- Download: Designing a Central Bank Digital Currency with Support for Cash-Like Privacy (pdf)
- China’s digital currency moves: “… Bloomberg estimates the e-CNY could capture about 9% of China’s market by 2025.”
- “At the end of 2020, there were over 2.8BN mobile wallets in use. That number is projected…to reach 4.8BN mobile wallets…by the end of 2025 – nearly 60% of the world’s population…”
- Hong Kong: Global Fast Track 2021 programme applications now open, seeking fintech scale-ups and established firms aiming to scale from Hong Kong
- Hong Kong: A brief look at a couple of highlights from Grantit’s recent survey of 310 HK residents, aged 18-35, on payment methods and concerns
- India: An intro to Slice, fintech focused on changing the country’s credit card industry
- India: Credit Fair consumer lending fintech raises $15M with focus on unbanked and underserved segments of the country
- India: Credenc student loans firm gains $25M, using AI to track 15M data points when predicting future income of students applying for loans
- Google steps into financial services in Japan with acquisition of pring cashless payments and settlement company for over $180M
- South Korea: Tru Technologies gains $3.3M Series A with TruLab securities lending trading platform, automating securities lending transactions
- Malaysia: Central bank receives 29 applications for digital banking licenses; may issue up to 5 licences, with successful applicants notified in Q1 2022
- Malaysia: MoneyMatch secures $4.4M Series A with focus on fintech approach to cross-border trade payments and individual remittances
- Japan’s SBI Holdings takes stake in Singapore’s AND Global fintech startup, providing microloans in Mongolia via smartphone app
- Pakistan’s DigiKhata raises $2M, aiming to help MSMEs reduce trade credit losses
- Singapore: Endowus digital wealth app and platform raises new funds with sights on Hong Kong entry and further growth in Singapore
- Singapore: Syfe investment app startup closes $30M Series B just 9 months after Series A, with all full-time employees to receive equity
- Thailand: An interview-based look at decentralized finance with chief venture and investment officer at SCB 10X, venture arm of Siam Commercial Bank
- Vietnam: Sapo omnichannel commerce platform partners Fundiin to add buy-now-pay-later checkout solutions for Sapo’s 100K merchant clients
- Australia: Afterpay buy-now-pay-later startup trialing a new money and lifestyle app, offering users a savings account and debit card
- Australia: FinTech Australia’s End Of Year CEO Address, a year in review
- ICYMI: Mastercard and Circle partner to use USDC for crypto-to-fiat conversions in pilot program, aiming to boost ability of customers to spend crypto assets
- Singapore: Monetary Authority launches Global Veritas Challenge to promote adoption of artificial intelligence solutions in the financial sector
- Singapore: CrediLinqAI gains $1M angel funding with AI-driven approach intended to change how credit is underwritten
- ICYMI: US State Department Rewards for Justice program is adding cryptocurrency to its payout options, in a first for a federal agency
- Australia: Lygon platform has sights on digitising entire bonds and bank guarantees process using blockchain, backed by IBM and major banks
- ICYMI: Mastercard unveils new Start Path cohort, focused on fast-growing digital asset, blockchain and cryptocurrency companies
- Singapore: Nansen, blockchain-based data analytics platform for decentralized finance gains $12M Series A led by Andreessen Horowitz
- India: A brief look at Amazon Pay Later – 2M customers since launch last year, with over 10M transactions and claiming a near 100% payment success rate
- China: Central bank claims ‘digital yuan’ reached $5BN transaction value by end of June, across 70.5M transactions, 21M personal wallets and 3.5M enterprise wallets
- China’s Ant Group likely to sell 5% of 30.33% stake in India’s Paytm parent company, in bid to to comply with Securities and Exchange Board requirements
- Australia: Koinly tax startup partnered by Binance Australia to give users taxation office-compliant reporting solutions
- ICYMI: BlockFi cryptocurrency company launches ‘crypto rewards’ credit card, in partnership with Visa, in the US, with users earning back 1.5% in bitcoin on purchases made
- Hong Kong: Another look at Amber Group, 4-year old startup that has hit $1BN valuation with a focus on cryptocurrency lending
- Japan: Gov’t increases diplomatic efforts to regulate digital currencies globally, seeking involvement in global dialogue around stricter rules on private digital currencies
- Indonesia: BCA Digital, arm of the country’s largest publicly listed private bank, recently launched Blu digital banking app for Android users
- ICYMI: The Central Bank Digital Currency Tracker, from the Atlantic Council – “81 countries (representing over 90% of global GDP) are now exploring a CBDC…”
- India: Paytm expands its BNPL solution with addition of Postpaid Mini; PhonePe launches digital payment offering that replaces cash for delivery orders
- India’s Pine Labs merchant commerce platform partners Malaysia’s Atome ‘buy now pay later’ platform to expand BNPL presence in Malaysia
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