Fintech news
March 2020 headlines
Startup News Asia’s collection of March 2020‘s fintech, banking tech and digital payments news from across South and SE Asia, Australia and NZ, with wider-world items included to provide reference, points of interest and need-to-know industry insights.
The fintech news collection below represents a ‘wide angle’ overview of the fintech space, rather than one focused on a particular sub-area of banking technology news; bitcoin and cryptocurrency news is gathered separately, as is our blockchain news summary, both listed in other tech news.
- An intro look at the wide range of activities within the Asian Development Bank’s digital innovation sandbox program
- ICYMI: Saudi Arabia engages HPS payments firm for national, unified QR code platform, enabling banks, wallet providers and fintechs to interact seamlessly
- …the future of banking will come in many forms, but Europe and the US have to create their own ecosystems to compete with the East
- Australia: The KPMG Pulse of Fintech H2 2019 biannual report now available
- Australia’s Xinja mobile-first neobank to gain $433M over 2 years from Dubai’s World Investments, with plans for home loans and personal loans market entry
- International Chamber of Commerce launches Digital Standards Initiative for platform interoperability between digital trade and trade finance initiatives
- China: Ant Financial to open AliPay platform to 40M service providers in a bid to become a one-stop platform for ‘digital lifestyle’ services
- China: Fenbeitong secures $36M with online expense management platform, mobile app and associated corporate products
- Coinbase Card, Visa debit card allowing users to spend cryptocurrency directly from a Coinbase account, now works with Google Pay
- Facebook Libra rival Celo launches 50-plus member ‘Alliance For Prosperity’ for developers to build decentralized apps based on Celo platform and USD stablecoin
- Microsoft files patent application for cryptocurrency mining system powered by data gathered from human activity including exercising, or simply reading an ad
- India: Reserve Bank to seek review of Supreme Court ruling which overturne ban on cryptocurrency trading
- India: FamPay fintech startup raises $4.7M, in part from Y Combinator, with parent-supervised payments for families
- India: An intro to Kosh, Y Combinator-backed startup working on financial inclusion by grouping 3, or as many as 10, blue-collar workers to issue loans
- India: Reserve Bank sets down new guidelines to better regulate non-bank payment aggregators, looking in part at customer privacy and data storage issues
- India: Rupifi Technologies gains pre-seed funding with software-as-a-service platform focused on financial products for SMEs
- Indonesia: Digiasia fintech gains Mastercard as lead investor in Series B round, aiming to widen financial services access for individuals and SMEs
- Indonesia: A 7-point introduction to the Traveloka PayLater Card
- Indonesia: Standard Chartered launches nexus Banking as a Service product aiming to help e-commerce, social media and ride hailing companies tap the banking space
- Japan: Sony Bank unveils Moneykit, English-language digital banking service for foreign residents in the country
- Malaysia: Asia Pacific University of Technology and Innovation partners Fintech Association of Malaysia to boost student internship and career opportunities
- New Zealand’s fintech sector is outgrowing the rest of the world; while the global average is 31-33%, New Zealand is growing at a rate of 48.5%
- A CEO interview intro to Singapore’s YouTrip, fintech startup aiming to simplify overseas spending for travelers
- Singapore: ShopBack gains $75M funding with cashback app, claiming 19M users and 2K merchants
- Thailand: Krungsri Finnovate, corporate VC firm under Bank of Ayudhya, to invest $10M across 3 startups in the first half of 2020
- Philippines: WonderTech team takes global grand prize at Finastra fintech hackathon with Agree Farm App connecting rural farmers with access to bank loans
- ICYMI: A New York power plant is now mining $50K worth of Bitcoin each day, having installed close to 7000 mining rigs
- The case for electronic cash: Why private peer-to-peer payments are essential to an open society
- Discussion Paper: Central Bank Digital Currency – Opportunities, challenges and design, from the Bank of England (pdf)
- Hong Kong: China’s ZhongAn Online P&C Insurance the first to launch in HK with virtual banking licence under Za Bank brand
- India: China’s Oppo smartphone maker steps into financial services in India with launch of Oppo Kash, aiming for 10M customers in 5 years
- South Korea: KB Kookmin bank to launch KB Digital Asset Custody service to hold digital assets and authorize transactions on behalf of clients
- Is Texas the new promised land for Bitcoin miners? The backers of several big-money projects are betting yes, thanks to the state’s cheap electricity and unique regulatory environment
- India: Supreme Court overturns Central Bank ban on virtual currency trading, hailed as victory for digital asset industry and India’s fintech and broader tech industries
- Japan: OKCoin fiat-to-crypto exchange gains Virtual Currency Exchange Service Provider registration
- ICYMI: Algorand Blockchain protocol selected as the underlying technology for Marshall Islands’ digital currency, the SOV initiative
- ICYMI: Bank of England releases Central Bank Digital Currency research roadmap
- ICYMI: “Even though the proposed system didn’t make the final cut for the coronavirus response bill, it appears the digital dollar got closer than ever to becoming a reality”
- Bank for International Settlements current quarterly review focuses on providing an in-depth look at the fast-changing world of payments
- Mastercard partners Samsung to deploy Pay on Demand platform with focus on consumers and small businesses in emerging markets
- An intro to Singapore’s ZeusX, one-stop online trading platform for gamers to exchange gaming services and virtual products
- Hong Kong’s AMTD Digital to acquire Singapore’s PolicyPal insurtech startup, aiming to build a SE Asia-focused fintech platform HQ’d in Singapore
- Philippines: A look at 3 of the country’s startups, working in the on-demand, work-from-home and fintech spaces
- China: A round-jup of the country’s startup, technology and funding news from February 2020, from Startup News Asia
- India: A brief intro to 11 of the country’s female entrepreneurs, working in digital payments, fintech, social impact and more
- India: ICICI Bank launches new banking services on WhatsApp, allowing customers to check balances and transactions via the Facebook-owned platform
- Australia: “The reason we don’t just use [open banking] instead of screen scraping is…largely because big financial incumbents have dragged their feet.”
- Thailand’s Krungsri Finnovate considering investments in tech startups in Cambodia, Indonesia and the Philippines, to expand the bank’s regional footprint
- What differentiates bitcoin from its analog cousin, gold? You might respond ‘divisibility’ or ‘portability’…but what really differentiates it? The answer is auditability
- ICYMI: The companies from Y Combinator’s Winter 2020 Demo Day, focusing on the healthcare, biotech, fintech and nonprofit spaces
- ICYMI: Mastercard partnering Paynetics payment solution for mobile point-of-sale trial, delivering contactless payments via Android devices without extra hardware
- Grab ride-hailing giant partners Germany’s Wirecard, connecting their payment ecosystems with initial roll-out in Singapore, Malaysia and The Philippines
- Australia: A round-up of February 2020’s tech, startup and funding news
- Singapore: Hoolah payments startup gains 8-figure funding with buy now, pay later solution allowing initial 1/3 payment, followed later by 2 interest-free instalments
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