FinTech news headlines
Banking technology and fintech news items reported in February 2021 dealt with items including ‘buy now, pay later’ services, investing platforms in Indonesia, incorporation of fiat-to-crypto services into the Opera web browser, and China’s moves into Africa’s digital payments infrastructure.
Each fintech news headline listed here is linked to the article behind that banking technology headline; each linked article is free-to-read in full, online and at no cost. Thanks to this method, Startup New Asia’s readers get 2 things instantly from our monthly fintech news collections:
- a quick, at-a-glance overview of fintech and banking technology news headlines from February 2021; and
- one-click access to the full story on specific fintech news items.
Technology news: February 2021
Artificial intelligence | Blockchain | Cryptocurrency
Cybersecurity | FinTech
- A brief look at why Google Pay’s reboot signals a major land grab on financial services far beyond digital payments
- Fintech & Banking Technology: A collection of the fintech news headlines and news items reported over the past month
- Digital currency in Africa: “…China has discreetly accumulated significant influence over Africa’s technology stack…50% in the mobile handset and 70% in mobile network layers.”
- “…mobile banking users in four Asia-Pacific countries – India, Indonesia, the Philippines and Vietnam – could increase by some 209 million by 2023…”
- ICYMI: Visa pilots Visa Crypto APIs program, giving banks the ability to let customers buy and sell digital assets such as bitcoin
- “Blockchain is transforming everything from payments transactions to how money is raised in the private market. Will the traditional banking industry embrace this technology or be replaced by it?” via CB Insights
- ICYMI: SWIFT global cross-border payments firm establishes JV with China’s central bank digital currency research institute, seen as move to explore global use of digital yuan
- China: KPMG releases annual selection of the country’s top fintech companies, The 2020 China Fintech 50
- China: “Weibo tells me it can lend me money; the delivery app tells me it can lend me money; and now even the photo editing app tells me it can lend me money”
- ICYMI: Square app CFO says 1M users of its Cash App service bought bitcoin for the first time in January
- ICYMI: Opera web browser partners Simplex, fiat-to-crypto onramp solution provider, allowing users to buy cryptocurrencies using fiat and store them in browser wallet
- Download: DappRadar 2020 Dapp Industry Report – an overview of the year in decentralized finance and decentralized exchange apps
- ICYMI: diem, formerly Facebook’s Libra project, may launch initial product this quarter, partnering with Fireblocks crypto custodian and First Digital Assets Group payments platform
- ICYMI: Tokens and accounts in the context of digital currencies, from the Board of Governors of the US Federal Reserve System
- Indonesia: GajiGesa fintech startup raises $2.5M with focus on underbanked workers, addressing short-term liquidity challenges and cutting out money lenders
- Indonesia: FUNDtastic investment platform secures $7.7M Series A, aiming to add retail bonds, insurance and P2P lending to existing mutual funds and gold options
- Japan: An overview of the recent ‘FinTech Program: Asia meets Tokyo’ business plan pitching event, and the 8 fintech firms that took part
- 7-Eleven Philippines enables ‘buy now pay later’ with Plentina fintech, launching online grocery service backed with loan approvals in minutes
- Monetary Authority of Singapore reportedly reviewing regulatory approach to ‘buy now, pay later’ firms, in part due to concerns over debt these services encourage
- Download: Singapore Fintech Landscape 2020 & Beyond
- Vietnam: A brief intro to 5 of the country’s fintech startups, working in e-wallets, agriculture, lending and more
- ICYMI: Opera web browser to launching its own fintech, Dify, giving its 50M European users in-browser cashback service
- Australia: Fintech Australia’s Finnies Awards now open for applications across 20 categories
- Visa CEO: “First, there are cryptocurrencies that represent new assets such as Bitcoin. Second, there are digital currencies…backed by existing fiat currencies. We see all currencies in that first segment as digital gold.”
- ICYMI: Bitcoin, Ethereum and Tether now a mode of payment at Dubai’s KIKLABB, gov’t licensing body, for all payments related to trade licenses and visa fees
- India: “If the bill becomes law, India would become the only major Asian economy to ban private cryptocurrencies rather than regulating them like corporate stocks.”
- An intro to India’s Zolve, neobank and branchless digital banking service provider, bridging financial systems for people moving to a difference country
- South Korea: A look at Quotabook, a one-stop platform for startups, businesses, and investors to manage documents, stockholdings, securities, communications
- Graduation Day for F10 Singapore Accelerator set for February 26th, running online and showcasing the fintech startups in Batch 1
- So, what exactly are ‘stablecoins’? CB Insights takes a look
- India: Government-owned State Bank of India becomes the first Indian bank to join JPMorgan’s blockchain network, Liink, for cross-border payments
- Download: Indonesia Crypto Outlook Report 2020 (pdf)
- Musicians and Audio NFTs – an overview of Audio Non-FungibleTokens, limited edition audio/visual experiences issued and sold as tokens on Ethereum
- “…highlighted the digital yuan’s potential in Africa in a recent report, pointing out that Huawei Technologies’ new smartphones have a built-in digital yuan wallet.”
- ICYMI: Tesla invests $1.5BN in Bitcoin with plan to accept cryptocurrency payments for its products in the near future
- Indonesia’s Xendit partners Philippines’ BillEase for PayLater option allowing merchants to offer card-free instalments to cardless and unbanked shoppers
- Indonesia: PasarPolis insurance-tech firm gains $5M in equity finance from IFC, part of World Bank Group, to boost protection for Indonesians
- Thailand: Siam Commercial Bank VC arm, SCB 10X, launches $50M fund to invest in blockchain, digital asset and decentralized finance startups
- Thailand: Siam Validus crowdfunding platform becomes first foreign fintech firm to gain debenture crowdfunding licence from Securities and Exchange Commission
- ICYMI: Canada’s VersaBank to issue a Canadian dollar stablecoin named VCAD, one-to-one backed by Canadian dollar deposit at the bank
- An overview of how Indian crypto businesses are coordinating in an effort to convince the government that regulation is better than the all-out ban proposed
- ICYMI: East Caribbean Central Bank completed first retail transaction of its DCash digital currency, aiming to roll out in Antigua & Barbuda, Grenada, Saint Kitts & Nevis and Saint Lucia
- Pakistan’s Safepay digital payments services startup reportedly backed by Stripe payments giant
- TikTok reportedly planning major e-commerce push into the US to take on Facebook, adding live-streamed shopping, mobile TV shopping channels and more
- Digital currencies and the future of the monetary system’, seminar remarks from the Bank for International Settlements (pdf)
- China: Suzhou city to add to digital currency trials with $5M airdrop, with 150K citizens set to receive digital currency by lottery, with a set time period within which to spend
- China: Ant Group’s MYbank and Tencent’s WeBank reportedly to join trials of the digital yuan, adding digital wallets to People’s Bank of China’s digital yuan app
- ICYMI: Mastercard reportedly to give merchants option to receive cryptocurrency payments later this year
- Download: 2021 Global Crypto User Index, from Binance (pdf)
- A look at why 2021 may be the year of Non-Fungible Tokens – NFTs – tokenized versions of assets like artwork, real estate or collectibles
- Indonesia’s Traveloka to launch ‘buy now, pay later’ financial services in Thailand and Vietnam
- India: Legislation coming to ‘prohibit all private cryptocurrencies in India’ but allow ‘for certain exceptions to promote the underlying technology of cryptocurrency and its uses’
- China: Beijing Gov’t to give away $1.55M to residents during Chinese New Year as further step in digital currency trials, with 50K individuals receiving $30 in e-CNY lucky draw
- ICYMI: PayPal aims to play significant role in utility of central bank digital currencies, looking at being ‘the digital wallet for global CBDCs’
- Facebook has integrated Shopify’s Shop Pay checkout system into Instagram, and plans to add it to Facebook Shops in social commerce move
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