Asia

December 5, 2020 @ 3:00 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

Fintech company MobiKwik has acquired Rs 52 crore (appr. $7 million) in capital through an investment round led by Hindustan Media Ventures, the investment division of HT Group. The round included contributions from Infosys Co-Founder Kris Gopalakrishnan’s family office, Pratithi. The funds raised will be… Read More

December 5, 2020 @ 1:15 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

India-based digital payments firm PhonePe has branched out from its parent company, the Walmart-owned Flipkart Group. PhonePe is now valued at an estimated $5.5 billion, the company confirmed on December 3, 2020. According to the announcement, Flipkart will maintain its own majority stake of 87%… Read More

December 4, 2020 @ 9:24 am By JD Alois  |  

Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) announced on June 28, 2019, that it would issue up to two digital full bank (DFB) licenses and three digital wholesale bank (DWB) licenses. Last June, MAS announced that 14 out of 21 applications to become digital banks have met… Read More

December 3, 2020 @ 7:50 am By Samantha Hurst  |  

  Plug and Play Japan KK announced on Wednesday it has selected 103 startups in seven existing verticals (IoT, Fintech, Insurtech, Mobility, Brand & Retail, Hardtech & Health, and newly launched vertical, Smart Cities) with 42 large domestic corporate partner companies for the Winter/Spring 2021… Read More

December 2, 2020 @ 10:11 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

The Middle East focused Fintech Tour 20 officially began on November 29, 2020. The event will provide key insights on the evolving financial technology sector in Saudi Arabia and aims to bring together local and international industry professionals. Ahmed Alkholifey, Governor of the Saudi Central… Read More

December 2, 2020 @ 9:33 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

Governments across the globe are always trying to create a balance between enabling or supporting tech advancements and innovation while preventing large companies such as Google (NASDAQ:GOOG) and Facebook (NASDAQ:FB) from unfairly using their dominant position to eliminate smaller competitors. India is reportedly planning to… Read More

December 1, 2020 @ 10:40 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

China is reportedly planning to introduce “special” and “innovative” regulatory guidelines for  Fintech giants like billionaire Jack Ma’s Ant Group Co., which is a subsidiary of the Alibaba Group Holding (NYSE:BABA). Regulators in China aim to create new policies so they can eliminate monopolistic practices… Read More

December 1, 2020 @ 3:39 pm By Samantha Hurst  |  

Just a little over a month after announcing its payment capabilities debuted in South Korea, B2B fintech-as-a-service provider Rapyd announced it has launched the capabilities in Thailand. According to Rapyd, the integrated solution is a comprehensive set of local and international payment methods that includes… Read More

November 30, 2020 @ 11:43 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

The Hong Kong Fintech Buzz Index (FBI), a quarterly index that aims to represent a “quantified sentiment” of the local Fintech-focused news updates in local Chinese news media, fell to an all-time low of 93.5. The index was calculated by analyzing 1,299 news articles that… Read More

November 30, 2020 @ 10:45 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS), the nation’s reserve bank and financial regulator, has revealed that eligible non-bank financial institutions (NFIs) will be able to gain direct access to the banking system’s retail payments infrastructure starting from February of next year. NFIs that are authorized to… Read More

November 30, 2020 @ 10:36 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

The Dubai International Financial Centre (DIFC) Fintech Hive, the largest Fintech hub in the MENA region, entered into an agreement with Israel-based Fintech-Aviv on Saturday, November 28, 2020. Founded in 2014, Fintech Aviv aims to cater to the needs or requirements of the Israeli Fintech… Read More

November 30, 2020 @ 6:49 am By Omar Faridi  |  

UK-based Paymentology, a payment tech solutions provider, is reportedly working with banks and financial institutions based in the UAE and the Middle East in order to offer digital payments services. Paymentology claims that its payment services will change and improve the way customers conduct transactions… Read More

November 29, 2020 @ 11:20 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

Vietnam’s Fintech startup ecosystem has grown significantly between 2017 and 2020, according to a new report. There were 44 Fintech-related startups in the country in 2017 and now there are at least 123 financial technology firms, Fintech News Singapore confirmed. The number of Fintechs operating… Read More

November 29, 2020 @ 10:45 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

During the past few years, the Fintech sector in Thailand has grown significantly. The country is now home to at least 96 Fintech startups. Thailand’s Fintech ecosystem includes companies and businesses operating in the digital payments space, blockchain or distributed ledger tech (DLT). There are… Read More

November 29, 2020 @ 9:23 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

Online lender IN Financial through its subsidiary Cash-IN-Asia has secured S$5 million (appr. $3.74 million) in capital via an investment round that was led by Singapore’s VC venture firm DeClout Ventures. IN Financial is a Singapore-headquartered financing platform that’s enhanced by artificial intelligence (AI) and… Read More

November 29, 2020 @ 7:30 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

​The Monetary Board in the Philippines has reportedly approved the recognition of digital banking platforms as a new bank category that’s separate and distinct from the traditional bank classifications. Regulators in the country have defined digital banks as an institution or entity that provides financial… Read More

November 29, 2020 @ 5:39 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

Ping An’s technology division OneConnect will be expanding its operations into Malaysian markets. OneConnect is notably among the few companies that have acquired a digital banking license from the Hong Kong Monetary Authority. OneConnect is also supporting the BEYOND consortium (in Singapore) as a key… Read More

November 29, 2020 @ 3:08 pm By Xu Gao  |  

Suzhou Will Carry Out Digital RMB experiment on Dec. 12 Suzhou will become the second Chinese city after Shenzhen to carry out a digital RMB experiment, according to a source with knowledge of the matter. On December 12th, the crypto yuan for the experiment will… Read More

November 28, 2020 @ 6:41 pm By JD Alois  |  

Switzerland has emerged as a Fintech friendly jurisdiction and home to many blockchain-focused financial services firms. The country  has long been an important banking center and the Swiss government is keen to maintain its status in a world that is going through a digital transformation…. Read More

November 27, 2020 @ 7:04 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

The Kingdom of Bahrain and Saudi Arabia’s capital city Riyadh were recently chosen as the top Fintech ecosystems to watch closely, according to a report from research organization Startup Genome. The researchers at Startup Genome analyzed the economies and deal activities of several different countries…. Read More