Asia

December 17, 2019 @ 7:07 am By Omar Faridi  |  

South Korea-based Viva Republica, a Fintech firm that developed Toss, a financial services platform, has been given preliminary approval for an online banking license from the Financial Services Commission of Korea, according to a December 16 release. SG Lee, CEO at Viva Republica, stated: “Toss… Read More

December 17, 2019 @ 1:22 am By Cali Haan  |  

Chinese authorities have arrested Yang Zuoxing, an electronics engineer who reputedly designed several of Bitmain’s most popular “Antmine” cryptomining rigs in 2016 before he left and started a rival firm called MicroBT. Since then, Coindesk reports, MicroBT, based in Shenzhen, has reportedly captured about 40% market… Read More

December 16, 2019 @ 11:22 am By Omar Faridi  |  

China’s “smart” courts have reportedly been implementing various innovative technologies such as blockchain and artificial intelligence (AI) to help decide legal cases. Local media outlet Xinhua news revealed recently that over 3.1 million Chinese litigation matters from March to October 2019 were handled via the… Read More

December 16, 2019 @ 11:16 am By Omar Faridi  |  

Cardano (ADA), one of the largest (by market cap) platforms for building and deploying decentralized applications (dApps), now has over 5 billion ADA tokens, worth about $195 million, staked on its testnet – reportedly within 24 hours of the launch of Cardano’s testnet. Input Output… Read More

December 15, 2019 @ 10:41 pm By Samantha Hurst  |  

Western Union (NYSE: WU) announced last week it is launching its cross-border payment services in Japan. The company notably partnered with remittance company City Express to launch the service to enable global used-car customers to buy from BE FORWARD, which is one of Japan’s used-car… Read More

December 15, 2019 @ 2:33 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

Indian online payments company Paytm’s parent has secured 4,724 Crore (appr. $660 million) from several large investors including Alibaba’s Alipay, SoftBank’s SVF Panther (Cayman) and investments are overseen by T Rowe Price. The board members of One 97 Communications Ltd, Paytm’s parent, will be allocating… Read More

December 15, 2019 @ 10:00 am By Omar Faridi  |  

Chinese Fintech firm Ant Financial Services (part of Alibaba (NYSE:BABA)) and US asset management company, The Vanguard Group, have launched a joint initiative that offers retail investment advisory and consulting services to investors in China, the companies revealed on December 13. The announcement has come… Read More

December 13, 2019 @ 3:53 pm By JD Alois  |  

OneConnect (NYSE:OCFT), a Fintech off-shoot of Ping An, listed its shares on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) today. The initial public offering raised around $260 million following a decision to slice the offer in half due to demand concerns. Ping An is one of… Read More

December 13, 2019 @ 8:47 am By JD Alois  |  

Robo.cash, a European peer to peer lending platform operating within the European Union and Switzerland, is now providing a path for European investors to invest in Singapore, according to a company release. The Robocash Group reports that it has integrated its in-house P2P lending platform… Read More

December 13, 2019 @ 8:03 am By Omar Faridi  |  

Thailand’s “full-stack” Insurtech Sunday recently revealed that it has secured an additional $11 million extension to its Series A round, which is led by Quona Capital, a Fintech VC firm whose funds are supported by Accion, along with contributions from existing investors such as Vertex…. Read More

December 12, 2019 @ 4:07 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

Greg Gibb, CEO at Lufax, an online wealth management platform and tech solution provider for local governments and financial institutions, recently shared his views and insights on the future of Fintech, during the Committee of 100 Greater China Conference and Gala 2019, which were held… Read More

December 12, 2019 @ 8:42 am By Samantha Hurst  |  

Chinese fintech WeLab announced on Thursday it secured $156 million through its Series C funding round. According to WeLab, the investment attracted new investors, as well as five existing investors including Alibaba Hong Kong Entrepreneurs Fund and China Construction Bank. Founded in 2013, WeLab claims… Read More

December 12, 2019 @ 2:22 am By Cali Haan  |  

Details have emerged regarding Jihan Wu’s plans to regroup cryptomining hardware giant Bitmain and restore company fortunes after the hostile ouster of co-f0under Micree Zhan earlier this fall. Zhan, an electrical engineer, and Wu, a Beijing tech entrepreneur, co-founded Bitmain in 2013. As one of… Read More

December 11, 2019 @ 7:15 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

Fintech companies in Vietnam acquired $410 million, or 36% of the total global capital invested into Southeast Asia’s economies between January and September of this year, which is right behind Singapore. Vietnam’s market share of regional VC funding allocated to Fintech-related projects increased from only… Read More

December 11, 2019 @ 10:47 am By JD Alois  |  

A report from earlier this week in Sina indicates that the Bank of China has issued Yuan 20 billion (USD $ 2.8 billion) in “special finance bonds” for small and micro firms. For the issuance, the Bank of China used a “self-developed blockchain bond issuance… Read More

December 10, 2019 @ 11:49 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

H.E. Sheikh Abdulla bin Saoud Al Thani, Governor of Qatar Central Bank (QCB), revealed on December 8 that the nation’s central bank is in the process of developing the banking sector’s Fintech strategy. Qatar’s Fintech strategy is being created in cooperation with local financial institutions… Read More

December 10, 2019 @ 10:35 pm By JD Alois  |  

Payments and transfer Fintech InstaReM, part of the  NIUM payments platform, has added an electronic-Know Your Customer or “e-KYC”. InstaReM’s e-KYC eliminates the need for in-person checks. The service is now available in Malaysia has enabled by the central bank the Bank Negara Malaysia (BNM)…. Read More

December 10, 2019 @ 12:20 pm By Samantha Hurst  |  

Sensely, a U.S. startup that has created avatar and chatbot-based platforms to assist insurance plan members and patients with insurance services and healthcare resources, announced on Tuesday it has been selected for the next batch of Plug and Play’s Insurtech program in Japan. According to… Read More

December 10, 2019 @ 9:55 am By Xu Gao  |  

46 Innovative Financial Services & Products From 77 Entities Accepted into Beijing Fintech Sandbox On December 7th, Beijing Municipal Bureau of Financial Work held a Fintech seminar in Beijing. Zhicheng Zeng, an official from the People’s Bank of China, revealed in a speech that 46… Read More

December 10, 2019 @ 9:22 am By Omar Faridi  |  

Tania Aidrus, a former director of products and payment at Google and former country manager (Singapore) for South Asia’s emerging markets at Google, has returned to Pakistan after spending 20 years working abroad. Aidrus will now be leading Pakistan into the digital age. The MBA… Read More