Tagged: coronavirus

September 7, 2020 @ 11:03 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

Payments giant Visa has teamed up with Pakistan’s Daraz, an online marketplace and logistics firm which operates in markets of South Asia and Southeast Asia (owned by Alibaba Group). Through the long-term, strategic partnership, the companies will introduce “Visa Mondays,” which will allow Daraz customers… Read More

September 7, 2020 @ 10:00 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

Kokila Alagh, Founder of KARM Legal and a member of the MENA Fintech board, recently shared the latest updates from the Middle East region, including the United Arab Emirates (UAE) with Crowdfund Insider. Alagh works closely with the Arab Monetary Fund (AMF), the Dubai International… Read More

September 7, 2020 @ 12:25 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

Latvia-based peer to peer (P2P) lender Grupeer has provided an update regarding the current status with the repayments and debt collection processes on its platform. The Grupeer team noted that, as its clients already know, since April 2020, the lender had suspended its “economic activity.”… Read More

September 6, 2020 @ 7:44 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

October, a leading European online lender, confirms that State guaranteed loans were recently introduced in France by the nation’s government in order to help businesses during the COVID-19 pandemic, as they might be struggling to maintain operations. October explains that the French government aims to… Read More

September 5, 2020 @ 2:11 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

Senator Andrew Bragg, the Chair of the Senate Select Committee on financial technology and regulatory technology in Australia, recently introduced an interim report which included 32 different recommendations. Bragg noted that as the country tries to cope with its first recession in the past three… Read More

September 2, 2020 @ 9:34 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

Asian Fintech firm GoBear, which secured $17 million in capital in May 2020 to expand operations, has reportedly decided to lay off 22 staff members – which includes 6 workers based in Singapore. GoBear’s management has also laid off employees based in Ukraine, Vietnam, and… Read More

August 31, 2020 @ 11:57 am By Omar Faridi  |  

The MENA region is reportedly experiencing a strong revival of its digital commerce and virtual payments sector, particularly during the past quarter of this year. This key Fintech trend is expected to continue and also keep up its current growth rate in the coming years,… Read More

August 29, 2020 @ 12:48 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

Crowd2Fund, an FCA-regulated crowdfunding platform for individual investors and businesses that claims to be the only peer-to-peer platform to offer 5 types of finance, across debt and equity investments, recently revealed that it will be relaunching its platform with a new type of credit model… Read More

August 28, 2020 @ 9:37 am By Omar Faridi  |  

Peer to peer (P2P) lenders in the UK have, at times, been criticized for not being able to offer the best services to their clients. However, they’ve also recently been praised for their overall approach and response to the Coronavirus outbreak which has created many… Read More

August 24, 2020 @ 11:50 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

Pakistan still has a very large informal economy, meaning many (or most) transactions are still settled with cash. The majority of the nation’s residents do not have access to a bank account or modern financial services. However, local Fintech and digital wallet solution providers such… Read More

August 24, 2020 @ 10:01 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

Levent Künzi, co-founder and CEO of Properti, a technology-driven real estate firm focused on modernizing residential real estate in Europe, notes that the COVID-19 crisis has shown us that even large transactions, such as purchasing a property, may be finalized completely in an online or… Read More

August 24, 2020 @ 9:58 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

Taro Aso, the Japanese Finance Minister, has reportedly said that blockchain or distributed ledger technology (DLT) could potentially help with combating the COVID-19 pandemic. Aso believes that DLT-powered solutions may be used for contact tracing while ensuring the privacy of user data. Aso, whose comments… Read More

August 24, 2020 @ 4:18 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

UK-based Fintech firms claim that they have been unfairly excluded from government-backed investment programs. Fintech business owners say that there has to be a stronger push for proper regulations for the sector, according to a recent survey released by the Digital Finance Forum (DFF). DFF… Read More

August 24, 2020 @ 1:49 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

The National Bank of Egypt (NBE), the country’s largest banking institution in terms of total assets, number of branches and employees, has introduced several services via its Al Ahly Net and NBE mobile app, in order to support its digital banking strategy. Hisham Okasha, chairman… Read More

August 24, 2020 @ 7:51 am By Omar Faridi  |  

Countries throughout the world are struggling to cope with the COVID-19 outbreak and resulting socio-economic challenges. Although many places have been trying to re-open for business and lockdowns are being eased, globally, there might be a second wave of the Coronavirus that could lead to… Read More

August 23, 2020 @ 7:32 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

Hong Kong’s future economy is set to be supported by the latest Fintech platforms and services, as the city-state will be home to at least eight virtual banks. Hong Kong serves as the primary gateway for (mainland) Chinese businesses to expand their operations, globally. It… Read More

August 22, 2020 @ 3:05 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

Folk2Folk, a peer to peer lender supporting local and rural businesses, says that service providers in the UK should consider diversifying or branching out into new areas in order to survive during the COVID-19 pandemic. Folk2Folk notes that companies have been negatively affected because many… Read More

August 21, 2020 @ 5:50 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

Southeast (SE) Asia is home to an unbanked population of around 290 million, according to a recent report from Fitch Ratings. Fintech solutions can enable more widespread financial inclusion, and could potentially increase the GDP of emerging markets by $3.7 trillion, according to an updated… Read More

August 21, 2020 @ 9:59 am By Omar Faridi  |  

Digital banking or the use of online services and platforms may have been accelerated due to the COVID-19 outbreak, which had led to many countries enforcing nationwide lockdowns. While many countries are now beginning to “re-open” their businesses, the Coronavirus crisis has led to major… Read More

August 20, 2020 @ 10:45 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

The COVID-19 outbreak and nationwide lockdowns in India have forced many local residents to re-evaluate how they conduct business and manage their finances. An analysis performed by ETMoney reveals that the overall spend by India’s residents between March and June 2020 dropped by around 40%,… Read More