A round-up of broad fintech and banking technology news headlines, reports and downloads from August 2021
August 2021’s fintech and banking technology news headlines covered a wide range of areas and developments – our aim here is to gather a very wide-angle view of the overall field, focusing where possible on Asia and the Indo-Pacific, but including any wider world items for additional reference. Because of this we’ll capture fintech-related items here in digital currency, crypto, cybersecurity and beyond.
Fintech headlines in August 2021 covered: India’s e-Rupi vouchers; Indonesia’s Traveloka stepping into financial services; buy-now-pay-later services in Australia; Malaysia’s AirAsia-owned BigPay; blockchain-based monitoring of financial instruments in India; and many more.
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- 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…”
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