Asia

May 26, 2020 @ 1:16 pm By Samantha Hurst  |  

South Korean cryptocurrency exchange Bithumb announced on Monday it has appointed Back Young Heo as its new CEO. According to Bithumb, Heo joined Bithumb in 2017 as the head of compliance and prior to Bithumb, worked in traditional finance for 14 years at Citibank, CitiCapital,… Read More

May 26, 2020 @ 9:37 am By Omar Faridi  |  

  CoinDCX, one of India’s largest digital asset exchanges, has secured an additional $2.5 million in funding from several major blockchain investors, including Coinbase Ventures (the investment division of cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase) and Polychain Capital. The latest investment acquired by CoinDCX has come around two… Read More

May 25, 2020 @ 7:32 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

Andy Mukherjee argues in a recently published Op-Ed in the Washington Post that the virtual yuan could potentially transform “the relationship between money, economic power, and geopolitical clout.” The digital renminbi has been under development since 2014. Its top-level design was recently finalized and its… Read More

May 25, 2020 @ 11:44 am By Omar Faridi  |  

The National People’s Congress (NPC), China’s parliament and the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference recently began conducting their annual sessions. Both government bodies are considered the most powerful or influential political groups in the country. These meetings are commonly referred to as the “Two Sessions”… Read More

May 25, 2020 @ 1:03 am By Omar Faridi  |  

Indian Fintech firm Zaggle has teamed up with Visa in order to support various payments solutions for SMEs. Both companies will work cooperatively to develop solutions for startups and SMEs that will help them improve their overall productivity and efficiency. Businesses will be able to… Read More

May 24, 2020 @ 11:35 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

An increasing number of transactions are being conducted online by the residents of the Philippines due to COVID-19. The nation’s government has confirmed that it will launch a branchless bank that will offer services to Filipinos working and living abroad. The digital bank will also… Read More

May 24, 2020 @ 5:43 pm By Xu Gao  |  

The People’s Bank of China and State Administration for Market Regulation Sign Data Sharing MoU On May 20th, the People’s Bank of China (PBC) and State Administration for Market Regulation (SAMR) signed a Memorandum of Cooperation on Data Sharing (hereinafter referred to as the MoU),… Read More

May 23, 2020 @ 10:09 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

Digital asset exchange FTX has introduced a crypto trading platform for US-based users. FTX.US supports spot trading for major virtual currencies, including Bitcoin (BTC), Ether (ETH), Bitcoin Cash (BCH), Litecoin (LTC), Paxos Gold token (PAXG), and stablecoin Tether (USDT). The new platform will provide up… Read More

May 23, 2020 @ 9:14 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

Southeast Asian banks will most likely accelerate their digital transformation initiatives, due to the COVID-19 outbreak and changing consumer behavior resulting from safe distancing measures and lockdowns. Incumbents could be challenged more than ever before, as they might struggle to offer the same level of… Read More

May 23, 2020 @ 9:13 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

  The Suseong University in South Korea will be working with the Korea Artificial Intelligence Association (KORAIA), in order to establish a blockchain or distributed ledger technology (DLT) and AI-focused campus in Daegu, a city located in the country’s North Gyeongsang province. Local media outlet… Read More

May 22, 2020 @ 6:16 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

East-West Banking Corporation (EastWest) (PSE: EW), the eleventh largest bank in the Philippines with over $6 billion in assets, has introduced its own fully-digital bank, Komo. The company claims that it’s the first universal banking group in the country to establish its own all-digital bank,… Read More

May 22, 2020 @ 7:57 am By Omar Faridi  |  

Singapore-headquartered CapBridge Financial has acquired equity investments from SGInnovate, a private organization wholly-owned by the Singapore government. SGInnovate aims to help scientists establish “Deep Tech” startups. CapBridge has also received investments from the Cyberport Macro Fund, which offers seed to Series A stage funding to… Read More

May 21, 2020 @ 11:25 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

  Bahrain’s residents have been using mobile and digital payments platforms a lot more now than they were before the COVID-19 outbreak. Safe distancing measures have been introduced throughout the Kingdom, in order to prevent the further spread of the Coronavirus. There are currently 7,888… Read More

May 21, 2020 @ 10:44 pm By JD Alois  |  

Molinari Media will open its first international subsidiary office in Delhi, India, according to a company release. Founded by CEO Vince Molinari, Molinari Media (MM ) is a global Fintech media and broadcast company that broadcasts from the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE), NASDAQ and… Read More

May 21, 2020 @ 10:33 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

IOHK (Input/Output Hong Kong), a research and development (R&D) firm focused on bringing innovation via blockchain and cryptocurrencies, has confirmed that it will be joining the Hyperledger initiative and W3C. Hyperledger is an open-source project focused on blockchain or distributed ledger technology (DLT) development. It… Read More

May 21, 2020 @ 10:23 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

Over the course of the next ten years, banking institutions are planning to play a major role in supporting Fintech projects and the adoption of all-digital platforms. A new report suggests that incumbents feel confident that they won’t be completely replaced or displaced by Fintechs…. Read More

May 21, 2020 @ 12:45 pm By Samantha Hurst  |  

Klaytn, a blockchain project led by the South Korean Internet platform Kakao, announced on Wednesday it has formed a new partnership with Chainlink, a decentralized open-source oracle network that gives smart contracts secure and reliable access to data providers, web APIs, IoT devices, and payment… Read More

May 21, 2020 @ 1:16 am By Omar Faridi  |  

India-based online lender Lendingkart Technologies has secured Rs 319 crore (appr. $42.16 million) in funding through a Series D investment round, which was led by existing investors Bertelsmann India Investments, Fullerton Financial Holdings, IndiaQuotient, and Sistema Asia Fund. LendingKart’s management said that the capital raised… Read More

May 20, 2020 @ 11:33 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

  South Korea’s Fintech sandbox program has reportedly acquired $111 million in funding. The initiative is expected to create 380 new jobs, locally. South Korean officials confirmed that the financial technology regulatory sandbox had secured KRW 136.4 billion in capital, and that they’re expecting the… Read More

May 20, 2020 @ 10:57 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

Leading Chinese digital bank, WeBank, has teamed up with OpenNodes, a distributed ledger technology (DLT) platform developed by the Singapore-based Infocomm Media Development Authority, a statutory board of the nation’s government, under the Ministry of Communications and Information. WeBank will provide the FISCO BCOS blockchain-enabled… Read More