FinTech & Banking technology in May
The headlines here provide a collection of May 2021’s fintech news headlines, providing a ‘wide angle’ view of financial technologies.
The May 2021 fintech news summary brings together items on subjects including mobile wallet interoperability in India, Vietnam’s state-run Mobile Money test-run, Malaysia’s e-money licensing, cashless payments in Sri Lanka, and many more.
The headlines below give you a bullet-point grasp of developments in the fintech world, focusing on Asia where applicable and also providing wider banking technology news in order to deliver a larger context around financial technologies.
Fintech news is also included in Startup News Asia’s daily tech news updates, sent out via mobile app and social media
- Google Pay expands personal finance moves, adding features including deals at Safeway and Target, public transit payments and spending monitoring
- European Investment Bank, lending arm of the European Union, issued $121M in 2-year digital notes using Ethereum tech, a digital bond on a public blockchain
- Expara FEX Innovation Challenge 2021 now open for applications, seeking fintech professionals to demonstrate their solutions for the commercial market
- A brief look at the opportunities, and challenges, presented to financial institutions by cryptocurrency and decentralized finance
- “For an asset, particularly one with little…financial market infrastructure…there is a big incentive to tokenize on a public blockchain. It gets immediate access to a global financial infrastructure.”
- A video round-up of 16 recent fintech and banking technology news headlines, at-a-glance and QR coded to connect you to the online articles behind each headline
- Central Bank of Bahrain to pilot digital currency settlement project, partnering with JP Morgan and local Bank ABC, focusing on instant cross-border payments
- Switzerland’s software giant Temenos giving more than 3K client banks ability to offer crypto features to customers via Taurus crypto/blockchain firm partnership
- The Australian Fintech Market online event set for May 18th, a panel discussion to highlight key market information and insights for firms considering entering Australia
- German stock exchange and Commerzbank partner 360X to develop blockchain-based platforms for ‘real assets’ like art and real estate
- Cambodia: ARSAR fintech takes overall win and $10K in Reverse Innovation competition with platform focused on digital onboarding and user authentication
- Mastercard investing in smart contract tech to pair with central bank digital currencies, aiming to help governments evaluate the utility of CBDCs beyond payments
- CBDCs: “It is not obvious that new forms of private money that reference fiat currency, like stablecoins, can carry the same level of protection as bank deposits or fiat currency”
- Download: Crypto Theses For 2021 – Key trends, people, companies and projects across Crypto, Bitcoin and Ethereum (pdf)
- ICYMI: WeWork office-sharing major to accept payments in cryptocurrencies, partnering with Coinbase and Bitpay payment app
- 3rd Global Cryptoasset Benchmarking Study results, from the Cambridge Centre for Alternative Finance (pdf)
- PayPal payments giant to allow users to withdraw cryptocurrency to off-platform third-party wallets
- Hong Kong: FormationFi closes $3.3M funding round with platform simplifying creation of decentralized finance portfolios, helps users better manage risk
- India: Paytm, PhonePe, Google Pay and other mobile wallets to be interoperable from April 2022, allowing sending and receiving of payments
- India: Stockal raises $3M pre-Series A with platform allowing investors to take stakes in assets including shares, ETFs and hedge funds outside of the Indian market
- Indonesia: GajiGesa fintech startup gains new backers with earned wage access and other services for workers in Indonesia’s 60M small businesses
- Indonesia: Bibit raises $65M with digital investing app and robo-advisory service, helping first-time investors invest in mutual fund products
- Japan: An interview intro to Minna Bank, gearing up for launch as an app-based digital-only challenger bank
- Malaysia: MyMy fintech gains conditional Bank Negara e-money licencing, aiming to be world’s first Shariah-compliant digital bank and with sights on e-wallet services late 2021
- Malaysia: Finology takes global win at Seedstars World 2020/2021 Competition, landing $500K with fintech services across loans, banking, insurance and more
- Download: Philippines – Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas Digital Payments Transformation Roadmap 2020-2023 (pdf)
- Philippines: An intro to PearlPay, providing end-to-end digital and banking services with a focus on the marginalized and underserved population
- Philippines: Rizal Commercial Banking Corp partners PayMongo digital payments firm to boost reach of financial products and services
- DBS Bank, JP Morgan and Singapore gov’t-owned Temasek investment firm partner for Partior, new cross-border payments venture with CBDC considerations in the mix
- Singapore’s Global FinTech Hackcelerator applications close June 11th, this year focusing on ‘green finance’ and the role of Green FinTechs
- ICYMI: Google makes first foray into remittances, enabling Google Pay users in the US to send money to GPay users in India and Singapore
- ICYMI: Twitter launches Tip Jar function, allowing people to send and receive tips via payment services offered by Bandcamp, Cash App, Patreon, PayPal and Venmo
- Vietnam: Nano Technologies raises $3M with VUI app, allowing workers to get pay daily, based on hours accrued, instead of weekly or bi-weekly
- Fintech startups: FEXcelerate, Innovation Challenge from Expara and FEX Credit, is open for applications focusing on the Vietnam market
- Sri Lanka: A brief intro to DirectPay cashless payments fintech firm
- Facebook-backed Diem, digital currency project formerly known as Libra, to now operate from the US, withdrawing application for Swiss payment licence
- ICYMI: Mastercard New Payments Index infographic, drawn from survey results gained from over 15K consumers across 18 markets globally
- Indonesia: BRI Agro, lender primarily serving the agricultural sector over the last 3 decades, announces plan to transform into a digital bank as part of an overall rebranding
- Pakistan’s JS Bank launches Digi Cheque service nationwide, the country’s first digital cheque service, building on existing mobile banking services
- Philippines: Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas launches QR Ph, the Philippines’ national QR code standard for digital payments, with PayMaya e-wallet the country’s first to adopt
- ICYMI: Apple searching for hires experienced in digital wallets, fast payments, cryptocurrency and BNPL programs, suggesting focused moves into payment systems
- Thailand: Siam Commercial Bank to launch hotel booking app in 2022, focusing on hospitality SMEs by not charging a gross profit fee
- India: Farm Infinity gains funding with cloud-based, mobile/web platform to facilitate access to financial services for India’s 125M smallholder farmers
- China: A brief look at the rise of AI and automation in funds management
- Download: FinTech Market in Japan – Blockchain, via FinCity Tokyo (pdf)
- ICYMI: An intro to recently-launched Instars social media platform, decentralized and privacy-focused, paying users for participation with crypto-backed smart contracts
- An intro to WalletsClub, providing a Visa-like service for digital wallets, enabling money transfers possible between hundreds of electronic money services
- ICYMI: MoneyGram transfer giant to allow customers to buy and sell bitcoin for cash at 12K US retail locations in partnership with Coinme
- Singapore’s Alpha Impact cryptocurrency platform gains $3.1M via private token sale, with copy-trading platform allowing users to mimic more experienced traders
- Singapore’s DBS bank now offers offers clients tokenization, trading and custody services for Bitcoin, Ether, Bitcoin Cash and XRP
- Available to download now: The Chainalysis 2021 Crypto Crime Report
- ICYMI: The Digital Dollar Project – Exploring a US Central Bank Digital Currency, from Accenture and The Digital Dollar Foundation (pdf)
- A video-based round-up of 16 recent cryptocurrency and digital currency news headlines, QR coded to link you to the online articles behind each headline
- Australia: A round-up of recent tech, startup and funding news headlines, gathered over the past month
- Download: Asia’s Crypto Landscape, the key exchanges, funds and market makers that define crypto in China, Japan, Korea, Hong Kong, Singapore and SE Asia (pdf)
- Download: Payment Systems in the Digital Age – Case of ASEAN, via ASEAN Policy Brief (pdf)
- Australia: The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age launch new Entrepreneur section covering the country’s startups and entrepreneurs
- Australia: Wise global fintech firm launche ‘Wise 20 Under 20’, for the first time this year allowing Australian entrepreneurs to pitch alongside those from the UK and EU
- A video round-up of 16 recent fintech and banking technology news headlines, at-a-glance and QR coded to connect you to the online articles behind each headline
- South Korea: Gameper launches Bitro P2P cryptocurrency trading app, with payment methods including bank transfer, mobile gift cards, e-cards and mobile points
- Thailand: Opening new cryptocurrency accounts may require in-person machine verification of identity once new Anti-Money Laundering Office regulation kicks in
- Download: Digital Dollar Project – Exploring a United States Central Bank Digital Currency – Proposed Pilot Programs (pdf)
- Philippines: Bayad bills payment firm gains central bank Electronic Money Issuer license, allowing users to soon be able to pay over 1000 different bills by app
- China’s Alibaba backs South African telco group Vodacom’s ‘super app’ launch, providing peer-to-peer and QR payments, alongside loans and online shopping
- ICYMI: Jay-Z and Andreessen Horowitz back $19M investment in Bitski, platform simplifying creation, purchase and sale of non-fungible tokens
- SPACs: ‘Of the 41 special purpose acquisition companies…since the start of 2020… 18 have more than halved, and several are down by more than 80%. The average decline is 39%’
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