What The FinTech!
Medhy Souidi
Transformation Lead - Head of Innovation & Experiences at DBS HK | Host of What the FinTech | Senior Editor at Money20/20
Welcome 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.
To stay fully updated with all the latest HK & Asia FinTech & banking news, insights & intelligence impacting the sector - click on the button "subscribe" next to the Title.
Top headlines of the week:
HONG KONG
- WeLab Becomes Third Virtual Bank to Launch in Hong Kong
- HSBC and Microsoft partner to offer tech support to SMEs in Hong Kong
- Hang Seng Indexes to launch more ESG, Greater Bay Area indices
SINGAPORE
- Revolut rolls out rewards offering in Singapore
- Singapore Fintech Festival to feature digital and physical events
- New portal to help Singapore SMEs navigate government support schemes
- Grab to launch retail investment product, consumer loan platform
- Standard Chartered Singapore launches online simulators for wealth lending
- Intuit to buy Singapore inventory software maker TradeGecko
- Singapore-based MatchMove introduces cross-border remittance platform for businesses
- Aspire and Osome partner for same-day incorporation and account opening services in Singapore
- Standard Chartered partners startup Truera to combat AI bias
CHINA
- Chinese tech's next battleground
- China's central bank urges antitrust probe into Alipay, WeChat Pay
- China’s four state-owned banks testing digital RMB
ASIA
- UOB launches digital bank TMRW in Indonesia
- Asian Institute for Digital Finance to start operations in Singapore by end-2020
Rest of The World
- Apple buys startup to turn iPhones into payment terminals
- Google to offer co-branded accounts with eight US banks, including Citi & BBVA
- UK digital bank Monzo’s losses double on the back of pandemic uncertainty
- Fintech Klarna introduces shareable shopping wish lists
Videos of the Week! 📺
Articles of the Week - DBS Startup Xchange
Next Events and engagements 🎙
Job List
HONG KONG
WeLab Becomes Third Virtual Bank to Launch in Hong Kong
WeLab Bank has become the third virtual bank to launch in Hong Kong. Customers can open an account within 5 minutes with no monthly fees. The bank offers services such as time deposits, an interest-bearing deposit account with an instant virtual debit card, and real-time payments powered by Faster Payment System (FPS). Customers can apply for a WeLab Debit Card, a numberless card issued in collaboration with Mastercard. The bank’s GoSave product provides interest rates of up to 4.5% p.a. on deposits from as little as HKD10, and customers can withdraw their funds at any time without additional fees.
HSBC and Microsoft partner to offer tech support to SMEs in Hong Kong
HSBC and Microsoft Hong Kong have partnered to help Hong Kong’s SMEs boost their organizational resilience and expedite their digital transformation journey. “Tech Me Up” is a year-long collaboration under which Microsoft Hong Kong will provide remote working devices, cloud solutions and technical enablement trainings to HSBC SME customers. SMEs can also access co-created content and webinars on HSBC VisionGo, the Bank’s proprietary SME digital community platform built with Microsoft on Azure, to gain knowhow and strategies on business transformation. Microsoft’s applications will be integrated into HSBC’s service platform to enable SMEs to manage their finances and daily operations more seamlessly.
Hang Seng Indexes to launch more ESG, Greater Bay Area indices
For the rest of 2020, the Hang Seng Indexes Company will focus on three major areas: promoting more ESG (environmental, social and corporate governance) indices, the Greater Bay Area and smart beta indices, which consider factors such as volatility, liquidity, quality, value, size and momentum. Hang Seng Indexes began compiling ESG indices in 2010, with eight major series tracking about 350 companies that have passed a sustainability assessment carried out by the Hong Kong Quality Assurance Agency, an independent professional assessment body. Hang Seng introduced its stock connect Greater Bay Area indices in 2018 and now has one composite index and five categories of indices. It will launch more indices in the series in light of an acceleration in the development of the bay area.
SINGAPORE
Revolut rolls out rewards offering in Singapore
Revolut has launched lifestyle offerings called Revolut Rewards to all Singapore customers. With Revolut Rewards, customers can access special discounts and cashback on a number of brands using their Revolut Visa cards, including Amazon, Nike, Lazada and Zalora. Revolut’s behavioral intelligence platform aims to provide curated personalized offerings to customers, such as sportswear offerings for gym goers or hotel deals for frequent travellers. There is no additional subscription to pay to use Revolut Rewards. Revolut will also be launching its Donation feature in the coming weeks, which allows customers to set recurring donations or round up their card payments to donate the difference to their preferred charity organization.
Singapore Fintech Festival to feature digital and physical events
This year, the Singapore FinTech Festival (SFF) x the Singapore Week of Innovation and TeCHnology (SWITCH) will be held from Dec 7-11 in a format that will allow participants to attend events, both digital and physical, whenever they want and wherever they are. Organisers have dubbed it the world's first "round-the-clock" event, in which participants can gain insights from global thought leaders on deeptech and fintech issues as well as network with international innovators, investors and collaborators. As these activities will include panel discussions that will take place on video-conferencing platforms across the globe and streamed throughout the event, participants can go online any time to watch them. While this year's festival will not have a main conference in a physical location, there will be physical events which will be hosted by partners around the world.
New portal to help Singapore SMEs navigate government support schemes
A new business portal set to launch on Aug 11 will aid SMEs in navigating the numerous government support schemes available to help them seize new opportunities in the changed business environment. Called GoBusiness Gov Assist, the portal will feature an e-Adviser that will suggest schemes best suited to a company's business needs, based on its answers to a short questionnaire. Companies can then book an appointment with a business adviser at one of the SME Centres via the portal to further discuss the results from the e-Adviser. SMEs will be able to subscribe to government procurement notifications on the website to stay abreast of the latest opportunities in this space. The e-Adviser is part of the GoBusiness platform.
Grab to launch retail investment product, consumer loan platform
Grab Financial Group (GFG) is rolling out a micro-investment product and a third-party loan platform for its users. The investment product, called AutoInvest, will allow users to invest sums as low as S$1 and comes after Grab acquired Singapore-based robo-advisory startup Bento in February. The returns of an estimated 1.8 per cent per annum will be cashed out to users' GrabPay wallet. The invested sum can then be withdrawn at any time, with no penalties, to spend on Grab services or at any merchant accepting the GrabPay Card. Grab does not charge any transaction fees for investing in the AutoInvest solution. Funds are invested into fixed income funds offered by Fullerton Fund Management and UOB Asset Management. Separately, under GFG's consumer loan platform, users will have access to personal loans offered by licensed bank partners. Bank partners and GFG will integrate their APIs so users can securely apply for the loans directly within the Grab app.
Standard Chartered Singapore launches online simulators for wealth lending
Standard Chartered has launched three digital simulators for investment, bancassurance, and portfolio, for its Wealth Lending overdraft facility. The first-in-Singapore scenario-based simulators aim to help clients visualise how factors such as market movements and FX volatility could influence the performance of their Wealth Lending portfolio and show clients the potential returns and associated risks of leveraging quality assets in their portfolio. Clients can then calibrate their Wealth Lending portfolio based on their current financial circumstances, investment goals and protection needs, and decide how they can best use Wealth Lending to meet their financial goals and aspirations. The Wealth Lending simulators were co-created with clients and came on the back of a study with clients on investment experiences. Investors’ key concerns include the resiliency of their Wealth Lending portfolio in face of market stress events, portfolio performance, and margin calls.
Intuit to buy Singapore inventory software maker TradeGecko
Intuit Inc has agreed to acquire TradeGecko, a Singapore-based inventory and order management software platform for small retailers and wholesalers in more than 100 countries. Intuit will integrate TradeGecko's system into its QuickBooks accounting suite to help sellers manage their orders and inventory. The transaction is expected to close in September. Intuit will pay more than US$80 million for TradeGecko, marking one of the biggest exits in Singapore since the Covid-19 pandemic. Founded in 2012, TradeGecko serves thousands of small businesses globally, processing more than US$5 billion in gross merchandise value.
Singapore-based MatchMove introduces cross-border remittance platform for businesses
Singapore-based MatchMove has launched its new remittance platform, RemitSend by MatchMove, to enable seamless and cost-efficient, cross-border Business to Business (B2B) remittances for businesses of all sizes. By offering a Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) based subscription pricing model, MatchMove says it enables SMEs in Singapore save up to 80 per cent of their costs compared to charges currently levied by most banks. The platform provides companies with faster access to data, transparent transactions and fees starting at S$8.90 per remittance, with a fixed price regardless of the amount being sent. Businesses can now remit to five countries, with more corridors planned.
Aspire and Osome partner for same-day incorporation and account opening services in Singapore
Osome, Singapore-based AI-powered service for business management, has partnered with Aspire, a fintech startup serving businesses, to provide a same-day service of incorporating a company and opening a business account in Singapore fully online. Under the partnership, Incorporation packages start from S$294, while the Incorporation and Corporate Secretary package starts at S$504. The deal includes an Aspire Business Account which enables companies to send and receive payments, as well as apply for Aspire Credit Line, which provides flexible access to working capital. Both services are integrated with Xero. Osome uses AI to manage tasks such as company incorporation, corporate secretarial work, accounting, taxation and payroll on their platform. Aspire provides a single platform for business owners to manage their business finances.
Standard Chartered partners startup Truera to combat AI bias
Standard Chartered has partnered with Truera, a US based startup, to use their model intelligence platform to improve model quality and increase trust by analysing models and helping to identify and eliminate unjust biases in decision-making processes. Truera collaborated with Stanchart’s retail analytics, risk, digital and technology teams on a pilot that focused on one of the Bank’s challenger credit decisioning algorithms. The algorithms use a combination of traditional data, and with clients’ consent, alternative data. The solution works across multiple machine learning platforms and is able to pinpoint specific variables that influence risk scoring. It can also look for correlations between seemingly impartial variables that can act as proxies for demographic indicators such as race or gender. The Bank will work with Truera to further develop the software and explore its application across a range of AI use cases.
CHINA
Chinese tech's next battleground
Chu hai or "going to sea" is the ethos that China's tech giants have embraced with overseas expansion in the past decade. But the waters are getting rougher in India and the United States. These tech titans may now steer more resources towards South-east Asia, intensifying their battle to succeed in this 655 million-strong market. Observers expect that the likes of the BAT troika - Baidu, Alibaba and Tencent - may step up their expansion and investments in South-east Asia, even as the Covid-19 pandemic stalls business activity. These tech giants are engaging in a battle across South-east Asia in the e-wallets segment. Both Tencent and Alibaba have unleashed a strategy of backing rival e-wallet operators across South-east Asia, setting up proxy wars that could spur consolidation.
China's central bank urges antitrust probe into Alipay, WeChat Pay
According to reports citing sources, China’s top antitrust agency is looking at whether to launch a probe into Alipay and WeChat Pay, prompted by the central bank which argues the digital payment giants have used their dominant positions to quash competition. The State Council’s antitrust committee has reportedly been gathering information on Alipay, owned by Ant Group which in turn is an affiliate of Alibaba Group Holding Ltd, as well as on Tencent Holdings’s WeChat Pay for more than a month. In an effort to encourage smaller players to enter the market, the central bank said last year it planned to standardise the interoperability of QR code payments.
China’s four state-owned banks testing digital RMB
China’s big four state-owned commercial banks have reportedly started large-scale internal testing of the digital RMB. The Bank of China, the China Construction Bank, the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China and the Agricultural Bank of China are working on the digital RMB with the central bank in major cities. Users taking part in the trial can use the app to top up their accounts, withdraw money, make payments and transfer money after registering with their mobile phone number. The banks are also testing a scenario where a user can make a transfer to another account without an internet connection. Employees at some of China’s big state-run banks have also started to use the digital currency to make transfers and pay bills.
ASIA
UOB launches digital bank TMRW in Indonesia
UOB has launched its digital bank TMRW in Indonesia. This follows from TMRW's first launch in Thailand in March 2019. TMRW’s account-opening process for its Indonesian customers is designed to be intuitive, seamless, fast and secure. Identify verification is done via a video call with a live agent, and the account opening can be completed in nine minutes. Customer queries are handled by TMRW’s 24-hour chatbot that converses in Bahasa Indonesia. TMRW also offers QR code payments, enabling registered sellers and merchants to pay by scanning a QR code. TMRW features a game where customers can build a virtual city as they save. As users level up, they unlock options to enhance their virtual cities.
Asian Institute for Digital Finance to start operations in Singapore by end-2020
The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS), the National Research Foundation (NRF) and the National University of Singapore (NUS) will jointly set up a research institute called the Asian Institute of Digital Finance (AIDF) that supports the needs of digital financial services in Asia. AIDF will begin operating by the end of the year. It will pursue foundational and interdisciplinary research projects across fundamental digital infrastructure, performance optimisation of business processes and advanced application development research on cyber, fraud and anti-money laundering challenges. The institute will also develop financial services to meet sustainability and resiliency needs in areas such as digital assets and ledger technology, artificial intelligence and machine learning, digital finance platforms, green finance technology and next-generation financial services on 5G networks.
Rest of The World
Apple buys startup to turn iPhones into payment terminals
Apple Inc has acquired Mobeewave Inc, a startup with technology that could transform iPhones into mobile payment terminals, according to reports citing sources. Mobeewave's technology lets shoppers tap their credit card or smartphone on another phone to process a payment without additional hardware. The system works with an app and does not require hardware beyond a Near Field Communications (NFC) chip, which iPhones have included since 2014. Samsung Electronics partnered with Mobeewave last year to allow its phones to use the technology. Apple recently acquired weather app Dark Sky and virtual-reality content broadcasting company NextVR. Other purchases include Voysis, Xnor.ai and Inductiv to improve Siri and artificial intelligence, and Fleetsmith for enterprise device management.
Google to offer co-branded accounts with eight US banks, including Citi & BBVA
Google has partnered with eight US banks to launch mobile-first bank accounts within the Google Pay app. The new platform aims to integrate Google's expertise in creating intuitive user experiences with the security of a reputable bank to provide a new way to manage money with financial insights and budgeting tools. When launched in 2021, the co-branded, FDIC-insured digital accounts will be offered via Google Pay and built on top of the banks' existing infrastructure. The move marks an extension of a previous deal made by Google with Citi and SFCU. The new banks coming onboard include Bank Mobile, BBVA USA, BMO Harris, Coastal Community Bank, First Independence Bank, and SEFCU.
UK digital bank Monzo’s losses double on the back of pandemic uncertainty
UK digital bank Monzo’s annual losses have more than doubled and the start-up has warned its ability to continue operating had become more uncertain due to the coronavirus pandemic. Monzo reported an annual post-tax loss of £113.8 million ($149.5 million) in its 2020 accounts, up from the £47.1 million it lost last year, amid investment on hiring, marketing and a U.S. expansion. That was despite revenues more than tripling to £67.2 million from £19.7 million. Monzo lent out a record £143.9 million, compared to £19.2 million in its 2019 results. However, it expects credit losses to climb to £20.3 million from £3.9 million, with £4.1 million of that sum being set aside for a heightened default risk associated with the pandemic. Monzo currently generates most of its revenue from fees generated every time a customer uses their card, however it recently relaunched a premium account called Monzo Plus in a bid to diversify its revenue streams.
Fintech Klarna introduces shareable shopping wish lists
Fintech Klarna has launched followable Wish lists for shoppers, a new feature that allows customers to create, share and follow shoppable Wish lists on the Klarna app. Users can also follow and share Wish lists curated by brands, influencers, Klarna's shopping experts and others to discover new products and find shopping inspiration from within the Klarna app. Klarna's Wish list feature allows users to save and add products they want from any online store, as well as set up price-drop alerts for products and share their lists with family and friends. For retailers, the shareable Wish lists not only help build community engagement, but also serve as a source of data that helps companies understand what shoppers want. Information such as top Wish-listed items and items that are frequently Wish-listed can help retailers make merchandising decisions.
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Video of the Week! 📺
Quantifeed, a digital investment solution to financial institutions and their clients.
Apoidea, an AI solution provider to financial institutions. 🤳📲
Check out the previous videos here: What The FinTech
Articles of the Week - DBS Startup Xchange
What does your picture-perfect future look like?
Have you ever wondered how your silver years will look like? Do you see yourself sipping on cocktails on a cruise, enjoying a spa with your friends, or blissfully enjoying time with your grandkids at home?
Conversations around retirement may be a source of dread for many, particularly the young who may be less than eager to broach this topic prematurely. To dispel the notion that retirement planning is burdensome, DBS recently launched Face Your Future in Hong Kong. It is a first-of-its-kind digital engagement experience that encourages more people to envision their ideal retirement lifestyle and how they can work towards it.
Assured with InsurTech Innovations
Insurance is like a superhero that saves you from falling off a cliff, but even the best superheroes need upgrades to hone their abilities. Similarly, InsurTech (or Insurance Technology) harnesses the potential of emerging technology to power up insurance solutions, streamlining processes and enhancing customer experience while ensuring optimum coverage and protection.
We sat down with Tomas Holub, Founder and CEO of CoverGo, who shared more emerging trends in the insurtech industry and his collaboration with DBS in Hong Kong through the Startup Xchange programme.
Next Events and engagements 🎙
FTAHK Webinar Series 2020 - WealthTech in HK: Opportunities Ahead
Supported by Invest Hong Kong, FintechHK, FTAHK is bringing you the webinar - WealthTech in HK: Opportunities Ahead on Aug 13, 11:30 AM-12:30 PM HKT. Join us along with the industry experts to learn more about how #WealthTech companies scale in #HongKong and the #opportunities ahead!
Jobs Listings 📑
The CoverGo Engineering team provides highly available infrastructure for all insurance processes across all CoverGo service. All this is built on top of mostly Kubernetes clusters across all public and private cloud, as well as on premises. They are looking for backend / infrastructure to help us build and grow our backend services and our infrastructure. In this role you will have the opportunity to apply your skills to develop robust and scalable software. They provide the freedom to execute, learn and pivot, and the responsibility to be self directed, collaborative and insightful.
- Send your application: hello@covergo.com
# Backend / Infrastructure / SRE intern ## Nice to have - Experience with Linux / Docker / Kubernetes - Experience with C# / Kotlin / Java / Rust / Go / Node - Experience with Docker - Experience with Cloud Computing platforms: Amazon AWS, Microsoft Azure, Google Cloud, Alibaba... - Experience with database technologies like MongoDB, PostgreSQL... - Familiarity with microservices using either of RESTful API, gRPC or GraphQL - MS/BS in Computer Science or a related degree ``` ---------------------------------------------------------------------- # Mid and Senior Cloud Infrastructure Engineer / SRE (Kubernetes) ## Qualifications - Have 3+ years of experience with infrastructure/devops work - Experience with Linux - Experience with Docker - Experience with Kubernetes - Experience with Networking - Experience with infrastructure security - Experience with Cloud Computing platforms: Amazon AWS, Microsoft Azure, Google Cloud, Alibaba... ## Nice to have - Experience with database technologies like MongoDB, PostgreSQL... - Familiarity with microservices using either of RESTful API, gRPC or GraphQL - MS/BS in Computer Science or a related degree ``` ---------------------------------------------------------------------- # Backend Software Engineer ## Qualifications - Familiarity with microservices using either of RESTful API, gRPC or GraphQL - Experience in Event sourcing, CQRS, and DDD (Domain Driven Design) - Experience with one of the following: .NET Core and C#, Kotlin, Rust or Go - Experience with Docker ## Nice to have - Experience with .NET Core - Experience with database technologies like MongoDB, PostgreSQL... - Experience with Cloud Computing platforms: Amazon AWS, Microsoft Azure, Google Cloud, Alibaba... - Experience with Node & javascript - MS/BS in Computer Science or a related degree ```
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I hope you find the information provided in this newsletter to be informative and helpful.
To ensure that I am addressing the topics that are most important to you, I would welcome your feedback and suggestions.
Follow me on Twitter @medhy_souidi to get the annotated edition of this newsletter on Monday or Tuesday. Plus I tweet most of what makes it into the newsletter.
Medhy
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Director, Consulting Services at interop.io
4yInsightful as always!