What The FinTech #72: 7 Nov 2021
Medhy Souidi
Transformation Lead - Head of Innovation & Experiences at DBS HK | Host of What the FinTech | Senior Editor at Money20/20
Happy Sunday and Welcome back to What The FinTech, your regular FinTech & Innovation Newsletter focusing on Hong Kong & Asia ! Here are the selection and the top headlines for this week.
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BLOCKCHAIN - CRYPTO - DIGITAL ASSETS - DE FI
Commonwealth Bank of Australia will become Australia's first to offer retail clients crypto services, signalling a change from the sector that had refused to do business with cryptocurrency providers. Commonwealth Bank will partner with Gemini Trust Company LLC, a New York-based crypto exchange, to offer trading in about ten cryptocurrencies, through its banking app, which is used by about 6.4 million customers. The bank will offer about 10 cryptocurrencies by 2022 including Bitcoin, Ethereum and Litecoin, and will work with US blockchain data platform Chainalysis, to help its compliance team monitor and mitigate the threat of cybercrimes.
Thailand's Siam Commercial Bank has acquired a 51% controlling interest in digital asset exchange Bitkub for $537 million. The acqusition was engineeered by SCBX, set up last month as a "mothership company" designed to enable the bank to become a "regional financial technology conglomerate" by 2025, with investments in areas such as blockchain, digital assets and fintech. Under the deal, SCB Securities will become Bitkub’s major shareholder and will be responsible for engaging closely with the company as a business partner in building a business and digital asset ecosystem and exchange. Bitkub's coin tripled in value after the deal was announced. SCB's expansion into digital assets comes even as policymakers and regulators caution investors about the risks of crypto assets.
HONG KONG
Global payments platform 2C2P announced a partnership with UnionPay International. 2C2P will launch UnionPay 3DS in October first in Thailand and subsequently in Cambodia, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines and Singapore. UnionPay’s payment authentication solution is compliant with EMV 3-D Secure, the latest security protocol designed to minimize payment fraud and make online debit and credit card transactions frictionless.
The Hong Kong-headquartered cross-border payments company announced that it has launched a Visa card to provide businesses with a more convenient and secure way to manage global payments. The Currenxie Visa Business Card is available now in Hong Kong and will be also rolled out across the UK and Europe in early 2022. Currenxie’s Global Account clients can apply for and receive virtual Visa cards instantly via the app. The card number is held securely in the app, allowing Currenxie to issue optional, physical companion cards that do not need a number printed on them. The virtual card will also allow companies to easily issue employee cards for simple and effective spend management.
The Fintech Association of Hong Kong (FTAHK) has released a paper outlining the importance of regtech in enabling financial institutions to make their businesses sustainable. In collaboration with LITE Lab@HKU, a research unit of Hong Kong University, the FTAHK outlines four applications of regulatory technology that have the potential to improve the adoption of green finance:
SINGAPORE
Retail customers of DBS can now see what their carbon footprint looks like via a new LiveBetter platform in the bank's digibank app. LiveBetter offers sustainability-themed funds as well as eco-friendly tips and options to donate to local green causes. Additionally, LiveBetter will be offering an autonomous carbon calculator by January 2022, which will automatically generate carbon footprint profiles and insights based on customers' spending profile. A function for retail customers to purchase carbon credits to offset their carbon footprint is also being developed.
ShopBack, the Rakuten-backed e-commerce loyalty platform, announced today it will acquire buy now, pay later startup Hoolah. Both companies are based in Singapore and operate in Southeast Asian markets. The deal was done in stock and cash, and terms were undisclosed. After the merger closes, ShopBack will own all of Hoolah, but the BNPL service’s brand, app and website will continue to operate as before. The merger means new features will be added to ShopBack’s platform, evolving it from a loyalty app for e-commerce purchases to enabling transactions with BNPL options.
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Dell Technologies is launching its financing arm Dell Financial Services (DFS) in Singapore, as part of an expansion strategy to provide financing alternatives to its regional and global customers with a local presence. DFS offers financing options that include Technology Rotation and Ownership, Software Instalments, PC-as-a-Service (PCaaS), and Dell Technologies APEX Custom Solutions. With DFS, organisations can accelerate their digital transformation goals with better cash flow management and capital preservation.
HSBC Singapore is launching another digital solution for corporate customers – “Dart”, or the Digital Accounts Receivables Tool, which connects businesses to their customers by enabling the exchange of invoice and payment information. According to the bank, receivables reconciliation remains a key challenge for treasury functions who receive and process large volumes of payments on a daily basis, particularly when identifying payers and matching with invoices. The bank's new online platform for corporate customers simplifies receivables collection and improves transparency and monitoring capabilities. The bank said it will progressively widen the capabilities available on Dart, as it optimises its digital services to support customers.
Ekata, a Mastercard company that empowers businesses to enable frictionless transactions and combat fraud, announced a partnership with Singapore-based artificial intelligence (AI) and big data company ADVANCE.AI to offer B2B digital identity solutions and risk products across South and Southeast Asian markets. Ekata’s Account Opening solution will be integrated into ADVANCE.AI’s core suite of services comprising digital identity verification, risk and credit scoring, and digital lending. This will enable ADVANCE.AI to deliver global data and risk insights to its customers, helping them reduce friction in the customer onboarding process, improve conversions and combat fraud.
CHINA
The central bank’s head of the financial stability department Sun Tianqi slammed cross-border online brokerages in what has been seen by some as the next potential target for Beijing’s ever-widening crackdown. Chinese brokerages Futu and UP Fintech are believed to be amongst those targeted after the two firms were already warned of facing regulatory risks from new personal data privacy laws. “Financial licenses have national boundaries”, Sun said. “Overseas institutions with only overseas licenses conducting business in mainland China is illegal financial activity.”
Clinching a digital wholesale bank licence in Singapore is one of Ant Group’s biggest moves in South-east Asia. But as far back as 2016, the Chinese tech giant has been investing in South-east Asian fintechs, including e-wallet operators Ascend Money (Thailand), eMonkey (Vietnam), TNG Digital (Malaysia), Dana (Indonesia) and GCash (The Philippines). Ant sees e-wallets as critical infrastructure, given that large segments of South-east Asia lack access to traditional financial services. Singapore, where Ant has had a presence since 2013, plays an important role in the company’s vision as a gateway to Asean. This role is likely to be amplified as Ant rolls out its digibank here, with a focus on making financial services more accessible to “unserved and underserved” SMEs.
ASIA
Thailand's Kasikornbank will allocate up to US$6 billion in financing and investment by 2030 as part of efforts to achieve net zero emissions in its finance portfolio. This includes efforts to reduce direct emissions from an organization's activities and indirect emissions from purchased energy, the bank said on the eve of the start of the COP26 climate change summit. The announcement comes as major Thai companies make net zero commitments. Last week, PTT Global Chemical said it would invest US$22 billion by 2050 to decarbonise.
Australia’s national science agency, CSIRO, and CBA have launched a joint initiative to examine the potential impacts of climate change to the finance sector. CBA will provide funding for the research as well as anonymised data and information from across a broad range of industries. CSIRO will utilise the data to develop sectoral analysis and different scenarios. The insights from the project will be publicly available on a digital platform being developed by the Climate Resilient Enterprise initiative.
In Southeast Asia, digital ecosystems have reached mainstream acceptance. A new research by Bain & Company found that more than 77% of surveyed consumers in the region’s six biggest economies (SEA-6) have used at least one online-to-offline (O2O) platform in the past 12 months, while one in five micro, small and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs) indicated being on O2O platforms. O2O platforms facilitate transactions with both an online and offline component. In Southeast Asia, these platforms have brought new opportunities and innovations in the development of the wider digital economy. By embedding digital financial services into their ecosystems, O2O platforms have played a key role in improving financial inclusion and driving digital payments adoption.
Krungsri (Bank of Ayudhya PCL), one of Thailand’s largest banks, has partnered with Nium to enhance their international transfer offerings for both corporate and individual Krungsri customers. Through this partnership, Krungsri and Nium will enhance the international transfer experience for millions of banking customers across Thailand. The integration offers their customers the ability to transfer money in real-time to various new countries across Europe, the UK, the US, and Asia Pacific. Nium currently has strategic partnerships with some of the largest banks in Thailand.
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Follow me on Twitter @medhy_souidi & on Telegram to get the annotated edition of this newsletter on Monday or Tuesday. Plus I tweet most of what makes it into the newsletter.
Medhy
CEO
3yLike reading your post Medhy!
Head Of Account Management | Lead Generation | Belkins - #1 Ranked Appointment Setting Agency | TOP-50 Service Companies Globally 2023 by Clutch
3yThanks for sharing this amazing content!
CEO and Founder of Provident Real Estate
3yNice content!