What The FinTech!

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

• Latest updates on HK Virtual Banks
• Hang Seng Bank offers mutual funds in-app to novice investors
• Ant Financial plans IPO in Hong Kong

SINGAPORE

• AMTD Digital to buy controlling stake in Singapore fintech FOMO Pay
• Wealth fintech Canopy completes funding round
• Toyota launches financial services arm in Singapore
• Cardless cash withdrawal app SoCash adds 20 Prime supermarkets to network
• Interactive Brokers opens Singapore office, offers access to local stocks
• Singapore-based point-of-sale provider Qashier receives SGD 1.2 million

CHINA

• Ride-hailing app Didi tests China's digital currency
• ICICI Bank’s WhatsApp banking platform crosses 1 million users
• Chinese authorities investigate Hangzhou’s largest P2P microloans provider

ASIA

• South Korea reports 20m subscriptions to open banking service
• Payday lender Robocash seeks US$5m for Philippine banking licence
• Fintech startup Akulaku advances on digital banking in Southeast Asia
• YES Bank launches instant loan disbursement facility
• Competition in Indonesia’s payments sector heats up 
• Google, Temasek reportedly in talks to invest in Indonesian e-commerce giant Tokopedia

Videos & Article of the Week! 📺

Job List

HONG KONG

Latest updates on HK Virtual Banks

• Four are in pilot phase including: WeLab Bank commenced pilot program to selected users including some from the waiting list and staff’s family and friends, Mox had its soft launch to selected external customers for gaining feedback, PingAn OneConnect Bank started pilot for both retail and SME banking with selected staff and SMEs, and Ant Bank is conducting internal pilots with selected users;
• Two are operational and open to the public: ZA Bank was launched on March 24, 2020; Airstar was launched on June 11, 2020
• Three have opened a waiting list: Mox Bank, WeLab Bank and Livi Bank have been remaining open to interested parties to submit their email to the waiting list to be notified once they go live, and;

Hang Seng Bank offers mutual funds in-app to novice investors

Hong Kong's Hang Seng Bank has launched an in-app fund investment service for new and younger investors. SimplyFund aims to make investing easier for beginners by mitigating the most commonly cited obstacles to getting started, such as the large number of funds available, high investment fees, and unachievable investment thresholds. It offers a range of mutual funds selected by Hang Seng’s team of in-house fund experts, as well as a minimum investment amount of HK$1, fund subscription fees as low as HK$0, and information on funds based on broad geographical areas (China, Hong Kong, or global market).

Ant Financial plans IPO in Hong Kong

Chinese fintech company Ant Financial plans an IPO in Hong Kong and is aiming at a valuation of more than USD 200 billion. In an IPO, the company could sell between 5% and 10% of its shares. The long-awaited move could take place later this year. Ant Financial had previously planned to place shares in both Hong Kong and China, but now the company is very much leaning towards doing so just in Hong Kong, according to insiders. They have referred to simpler rules for listing in Hong Kong as the reason.

SINGAPORE

AMTD Digital to buy controlling stake in Singapore fintech FOMO Pay

AMTD Digital is looking to acquire a controlling stake in Singapore-based one-stop Quick Response (QR) code payment aggregator and payment gateway provider FOMO Pay. The deal is subject to approval from the Monetary Authority of Singapore. This will be AMTD Digital’s third controlling-stake acquisition in Singapore’s fintech industry recently, following its acquisitions of PolicyPal and CapBridge in June. The FOMO Pay deal will reinforce AMTD Digital’s strategic expansion in South-east Asia out of the latter's global headquarters in Singapore. FOMO Pay allows merchants to accept a suite of digital payment methods in Singapore and Malaysia, including WeChat Pay, NETSPay, mVISA, Grab Pay and Singtel Dash.

Wealth fintech Canopy completes funding round

Singapore-based data aggregation fintech firm Canopy has closed its latest funding round, with funding from both new and existing investors such as Dymon Asia, Credit Suisse, and Seeds Capital, the investment arm of Enterprise Singapore. Canopy operates an anonymous account aggregation and analytics platform for financial institutions, wealth management professionals, and HNWIs. The new funds, the sum of which was undisclosed, will be used to drive profitability and continued growth in markets such as Asia and beyond. The firm will also roll out Canopy Extract, which allows external asset managers to collect data from multiple custodian banks in a comprehensive and consistent format.

Toyota launches financial services arm in Singapore

Toyota Financial Services, a wholly owned subsidiary of Japanese carmaker Toyota, has launched in Singapore with an initial investment of S$23 million. It is providing financial services through its partnership with Borneo Motors Singapore, the distributor of Toyota and Lexus vehicles. For a start, Toyota Financial Services will offer customers a promotional interest rate of 1.88 per cent for new car loans, compared to the 2-3 per cent typically offered by traditional car loan providers. It will also offer customers a "Buy-now, Pay Later" scheme with no instalments for one year for all new Toyota and Lexus models, as well as a zero down payment lease scheme. Customers can browse, make the purchase online and get instant approval. Toyota Financial Services' financial calculator also allows customers to perform credit checks at their convenience.

Cardless cash withdrawal app SoCash adds 20 Prime supermarkets to network

Cash-withdrawal app developer SoCash is expanding its merchant network to include touchpoints at 20 Prime supermarket branches. Sixty two of Sheng Siong supermarket outlets in Singapore are already in the network that converges banking and retail services. With these two supermarket chains on board, SoCash’s service will be available at more than 1,500 touchpoints across Singapore. Through the app, customers of SoCash's bank partners DBS Bank, POSB and Standard Chartered can withdraw money with any in-store purchase without any human interaction or contact.

Interactive Brokers opens Singapore office, offers access to local stocks

Nasdaq-listed Interactive Brokers Group has established a local entity, Interactive Brokers Singapore, and opened an office in Singapore. With its Singapore expansion, the brokerage can now offer Singapore stocks to local investors and directly market to them offerings, which include the ability to invest globally in stocks, options, futures, currencies, bonds and funds from a single integrated investment account. Interactive Brokers has eight other entities around the globe: in the US, UK, Australia, Canada, Hong Kong, India, Japan and Luxembourg. It connects to 135 markets in 33 countries. Over 37 per cent of Interactive Brokers' accounts come from Asia, up from 27 per cent in 2017.

Singapore-based point-of-sale provider Qashier receives SGD 1.2 million

Singapore-based point-of-sale (POS) provider Qashier has received SGD 1.2 million in a seed financing round, led by early-stage venture capital firm Cocoon Capital and VC Hardware Club. With the new funding, the company plans to further expand into Southeast Asia, grow its team, and increase investment in product development, to build an omnichannel commerce platform for SMEs. Qashier’s POS system has been deployed in hundreds of businesses, and combines a payment hub with an open platform software for third-party apps. The terminal is available without high upfront costs and supports all major credit and debit cards, as well as mobile payments and e-wallets. The Qashier App Store offers additional services such as loyalty programs, table booking, and stock management. Merchants can track and consolidate data across multiple applications and automate tasks such as daily settlement and accounting.

CHINA

Ride-hailing app Didi tests China's digital currency

Ride-hailing app Didi Chuxing has signed on to trial China's central bank digital currency on its on-demand transport platform. It has entered into a strategic partnership with the People's Bank of China's Digital Currency Research Institute to "jointly study and explore the innovation and application of digital RMB in the field of smart mobility". Didi’s app allows users to pay for ride-hailing services with bank-issued credit cards and e-payment platforms Alipay and WeChat Pay, which are currently used for more than 90 per cent of mobile payments in China. In April, trials began taking place across four cities, with participation from players such as Starbucks and McDonald's. China’s four big state-owned banks have reportedly been testing a wallet to store and send the currency.

ICICI Bank’s WhatsApp banking platform crosses 1 million users

ICICI Bank has reached one million users on its WhatsApp banking platform, which it introduced three months ago to enable its retail customers to carry out banking services from their homes during the lockdown. Through the WhatsApp platform, customers can check their savings account balance, last three transactions, credit card limit, as well as open a savings account in a few minutes, opt for loan moratoriums, locate nearby essential stores, etc. According to the bank, the service has been adopted mainly by millennials. It plans to double the number of users to 2 million in the next three months.

Chinese authorities investigate Hangzhou’s largest P2P microloans provider

The Chinese authorities are investigating Weidai (Hangzhou) Financial Information Service, Hangzhou’s largest online microloans provider, for alleged illegal fundraising activities. Weidai (Hangzhou), operator of one of China’s largest online car-backed financing platforms, is controlled by Weidai, which listed on the New York Stock Exchange in late 2018. It had a P2P market share of 35% in 2017. Most of its borrowers were owners of small enterprises, while its funding came mostly from small investors and institutional partners. Tighter regulation has seen the number of P2P services providers in China plunge to 343 in 2019 from 2,680 in 2016. Gansu, Hebei, Hunan, Chongqing, and Sichuan were among the areas that ordered a complete shutdown of P2P lending last year.

ASIA

South Korea reports 20m subscriptions to open banking service

South Korea’s financial regulator has reported that 20 million people are using its open banking services, since the launch of such services in the country in December 2019. Currently, 72 companies currently offer open banking related services in South Korea, including commercial banks and fintech firms. South Korea first piloted the system in October 2019, with participation by local lenders including Woori Bank, NH Nonghyup, KB Kookmin Bank, Shinhan Bank and KEB Hana Bank. 5.5 million accounts were registered during the pilot phase.

Payday lender Robocash seeks US$5m for Philippine banking licence

Singapore-headquartered payday lender Robocash Group is seeking US$5 million to be used as regulatory capital for a banking licence in the Philippines, ahead of plans to go public in Australia. Founded in Russia in 2013, Robocash operates payday lending businesses in Russia, Kazakhstan, Spain, India, Indonesia, Vietnam and the Philippines. It also has a peer-to-peer (P2P) investment platform, Robo.Cash, in Europe. It now hopes to set up an online-only bank in the Philippines, called Una Bank, and onboard 40,000 active cardholders in the market. The company moved its headquarters to Singapore last year, as it began to shift more of its business to Asia.

Fintech startup Akulaku advances on digital banking in Southeast Asia

Indonesian fintech Akulaku was voted as the most interesting company in the region in a 2019 KrASIA readers poll, beating players such as Grab and Gojek. Founded in 2016, Akulaku is headquartered in Indonesia, with operations in the Philippines, Vietnam, and Malaysia. The startup offers three main services – online credit, wealth management, and digital banking. It has 6 million users and an annual transaction value of over USD 1.5 billion. Akulaku lets users purchase consumer goods and pay for them in instalments. It also operates its own online marketplace, on which it offers gadgets, mostly smartphones, via its pay-later mechanism. In 2019, Akulaku acquired Indonesian commercial bank BYB as part of plans to build a digital bank. The first version of the app will be launched in the fourth quarter of this year with features such as account opening, online deposit, and cash management.

YES Bank launches instant loan disbursement facility

India’s YES Bank has launched a solution for instant disbursement of retail loans for the bank’s pre-approved liability account holders. Called Loan in Seconds, the solution’s algorithm assesses a loan application in real-time and eliminates the need for documentation. Eligible customers will receive communication from the bank with the link to apply for the loan. They can then verify and accept the final offer.

Competition in Indonesia’s payments sector heats up 

Two major Indonesian mobile wallets, Ovo and Dana, are reportedly close to finalizing their merger, which has been in the works since September 2019 and aims to allow the firms to better compete with Ovo’s main rival, Gojek’s GoPay. According to analysts, Ovo is the preferred e-wallet of Grab and Tokopedia, and Dana is the preferred e-wallet of Lazada and Bukalapak. Southeast Asian super app Grab has reportedly invested in Ovo as part of efforts to enter Indonesia’s fintech scene, following its unsuccessful attempt to secure a licence to bring GrabPay into Indonesia. Since early-2019, Ovo has been adding financial services to its app, including mutual fund investments and pay-later features. According to Daily Social’s fintech report for 2019, pay-later was the third most popular fintech product in Indonesia, and Ovo was the most used app for pay-later services.

Google, Temasek reportedly in talks to invest in Indonesian e-commerce giant Tokopedia

According to reports citing sources, Google and Temasek Holdings are in negotiations to join a funding round of between US$500 million and US$1 billion for Indonesian e-commerce giant Tokopedia. Tokopedia, the online marketplace backed by SoftBank Group's Vision Fund, has reportedly held talks with US Internet giants including Facebook, Microsoft and Amazon.com. According to sources, Google and Temasek have been more active in their negotiations and those talks may conclude in coming weeks. Indonesia has become a key battleground between regional rivals such as Singapore-based Shopee and China’s Alibaba. The country's e-commerce market is projected to expand from US$21 billion in 2019 to US$82 billion by 2025, according to a recent study by Google, Temasek and Bain & Co.

Videos & Photos of the Week! 📺

New video this week - Stay tuned ! Check out the previous videos here: What The FinTech

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 ```
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# 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
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- 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 ```
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# 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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