Tencent’s WeBank and OpenNodes a deep tech ecosystem platform backed by IMDA and powered by Tribe, have joined hands to offer the financial blockchain platform, FISCO BCOS, as an ‘innovation playfield’ to technology students and academics in Singapore The move is said to be aimed at advancing blockchain use within the academic community and encouraging them to pioneer innovations that can shape the future of different industries. In their statement, they said that students will receive support from this joint ecosystem to test their disruptive ideas, as they use FISCO BCOS like LEGO bricks to build. If the development is…

Wave Money and Ant Financial today announced a strategic partnership to promote financial inclusion in Myanmar. Wave Money is a joint venture between Telenor Group and the Yoma Group. As part of this partnership, Ant Financial plans to invest US$73.5 million in Wave Money to become a substantial minority stakeholder, alongside existing shareholders Yoma Group and Telenor. Ant Financial’s stake in Wave Money will come by way of a new share issuance which is subject to certain conditions, including regulatory approval. Wave Money provides digital financial services in Myanmar, they claim to be running a network of over 57,000 agents…

Fintech has been named one of the top priorities for South Korea this year. The government has said it will go all out to nurture the fintech industry in 2020 and has set aside a budget of 19.8 billion won (US$16 million) to support the sector, up 96.1% from 10.1 billion won last year. Since the beginning of 2020, the Financial Services Commission (FSC) has launched and unveiled several initiative aimed at boosting fintech. These include the FSC’s Fintech Plan, which seeks, among other things, to improve biometric verification regulations, establish a more robust digital finance user protection system, develop…

Despite the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, 20 Swiss DeepTech startups will be taking the virtual stage in Asia this 10 June. Organized by swissnex China in collaboration with SwissTech, CES ASIA and Venture Leaders, with the support of institutional partners, the SwissTech Pitchinar 2020 will serve as a testament to Switzerland’s leading position as a center of technology and innovation. Out of the 20 deeptechs two of which are in fintech and blockchain. Following Switzerland’s record-performance at CES ASIA 2019 winning 6 CES Innovation Awards, SwissTech will be taking the stage again in Asia this 10 June – virtually!…

ZA Life announced that it has received regulatory green light from the Insurance Authority to operate as a digital insurer in Hong Kong. ZA Life is a result of a joint venture between insurer Fubon Life and ZA International who operates Hong Kong’s first fully launched virtual bank. ZA Life touted that its onboarding process take only few minutes without a requiring a medical check-up. In its website, the digital insurer also advertises that their insurance premium starts as low as HK$2 and that family medical history does not affect the customer’s premium. Mr. Jerry Chou, Chief Executive Officer of…

Although Bitcoins were considered to be one of the safest methods to protect privacy, several questions have been raised on it. In the earlier days of cryptocurrencies, users did not pay much attention to behind the scenes while transacting in cryptocurrencies. Gradually, they began to understand the implications associated with the transactions. For example, many crypto users are interested in using privacy coins such as Zcash & Monero. Hence, it is extremely important for a user to adopt right practices in order to maintain their privacy. We have listed a few reasons to underline why privacy is important while transacting…

WeLab Bank Limited  has commenced a pilot trial under the Hong Kong Monetary Authority’s (“HKMA”) Fintech Supervisory Sandbox (“FSS”). During the FSS phase, WeLab Bank will be offering banking services to selected individual users prior to an official launch to the public. WeLab Bank will invite approximately 2,000 individual users from its waiting list which will consist of WeLab staff and their friends and families. During the WeLab Bank Pilot, customers will be able to access a range of fully digital services including — remote account opening, time deposits and saving accounts, virtual Debit Card, and payments with Faster Payment…

MYbank, an online private commercial bank under Ant Financial Services Group, stated in its annual report released today that it has served 20.87 million small and micro businesses in China as of the end of 2019. As part of the Star Plan launched in June 2018, MYbank has worked with over 400 financial partners to provide business loans to Chinese SMEs as of 2019. 80% of MYbank loan users had previously never received business loans from banks. The average outstanding loan size for MYbank users was RMB 31,000 (approximately USD 4,300) in 2019, an increase of nearly 20% compared to…

SoFi, the digital personal finance company, announced today an expansion into its first international market, with the introduction of SoFi Invest in Hong Kong. SoFi is launching its international presence in the Hong Kong market based on its acquisition of the parent of online brokerage firm 8 Securities, based in Hong Kong. By localizing the SoFi brand in Hong Kong, SoFi will continue to serve existing 8 Securities customers, as well as expand to an ever-growing member base. SoFi’s acquisition of 8 Securities remains subject to customary closing conditions. Following closing, the 8 Securities platform will be rebranded as SoFi…

Arrano Capital, which is the blockchain arm of Venture Smart Asia Limited, today announced the launch of Hong Kong’s first regulated virtual asset fund. The fund, which tracks the price of Bitcoin, provides Professional Investors (as defined under the Securities & Futures Ordinance) access to Bitcoin through a traditional fund structure. Venture Smart Asia Limited, is licensed by the SFC to manage virtual asset funds. The fund targets a first-year size of US$ 100 Million “This fund comes at a pivotal time for Bitcoin. By bridging the gap between the regulated finance and virtual asset world, institutions can gain secure…

Ant Financial announced the launch of OpenChain, a blockchain platform that enables small and micro enterprises (SMEs) and developers to tap into Ant Financial’s proprietary consortium of blockchain technologies and deploy blockchain-powered smart contracts and decentralized apps (DApps) with higher efficiency and lower cost. “Applications of blockchain technology have ballooned over the past few years,” said Jin Ge, General Manager of Blockchain Platforms at Ant Financial. “Through the launch of the OpenChain platform, we aim to help one million SMEs and developers innovate and explore more use cases in the next three years.” Ant Financial’s OpenChain provides developers with dozens…

Airwallex today announced that it has closed its Series D fundraising round at US$160M, marking its biggest capital raise to date. The round includes majority participation from a group of new top-tier global strategic investors, including ANZi Ventures (the corporate venture capital arm of ANZ Bank) and Salesforce Ventures (the global investment arm of Salesforce Inc). Existing core investors Tencent, DST Global, Sequoia Capital China, Hillhouse Capital and Horizons Ventures also returned for this latest fundraising round, bringing Airwallex’s total equity raise since it was founded in 2015 to US$360M. Airwallex plans to use the new funds to continue its…

DBS Hong Kong is transforming the traditional business account opening process for SMEs into a fully virtual and contact-free banking experience that can be completed in as quickly as just two days, anytime and anywhere. By making business account opening as simple and convenient as possible, the online fast-track solution enables our SME customers to enjoy a virtual, contact-free and hassle-free experience with video conferencing function to meet our Relationship Managers online. Alex Cheung, Managing Director and Head of Institutional Banking Group, at DBS Hong Kong, said, “As a leader in SME banking, DBS Hong Kong understands the needs of…

OneDegree Hong Kong announces today that it has been granted a virtual insurance license by the Hong Kong Insurance Authority (“IA”). This virtual insurance license is granted under the IA’s “Fast Track” scheme that was launched in 2017 to promote the development of InsurTech in Hong Kong. OneDegree describes itself as full-stack TechInsurer that has built its own digital platform from scratch to support the entire insurance process. The company will soon be launching a range of products – its first product will be pet insurance, followed by health and cyber insurance products and more. Alvin Kwock, Co-Founder of OneDegree,…

ZA Bank, the first virtual bank in Hong Kong, has chosen Wolters Kluwer’s OneSumX for Regulatory Reporting as its regulatory reporting software. Their media statement describes OneSumX for Regulatory Reporting combines bank data into a single source of data to ensure consistency, reconciliation and accuracy and includes Wolters Kluwer’s Regulatory Update Service. This service is maintained by Wolters Kluwer experts who actively monitor regulation in 30 countries, according to their statement. ZA Bank became Hong Kong’s first fully-operational virtual bank on March 24, 2020, “marking the beginning of a new era of innovation in the local market,” according to a…

IDC Financial Insights released the 2020 update of its FinTech Fast 101 research which details a list of fast-growing FinTechs in Asia/Pacific excluding Japan (APEJ) from 11 key markets. IDC’s FinTech Fast 101 research refers to fast-growing fintech players based on extensive on-ground analysis of fintech players from China, India, Indonesia, Singapore, Hong Kong, Thailand, Malaysia, the Philippines, Vietnam, South Korea, and Australia. 41 Fast Growing FinTechs in China Note: The list is arranged alphabetically. Source: IDC, 2020

Mox is now available on an invitation basis to selected external customers, following its brand launch in March. Mox is among the 8 entities granted a virtual banking license by the Hong Kong Monetary Authority in 2019,it is backed by Standard Chartered in partnership with PCCW, HKT and Trip.com This external pilot is aimed at gathering feedback from select customers and to prepare the virtual bank for a broader public launch later this year. Deniz Güven, CEO of Mox, said: “ This external pilot is a critical step for selected external customers to use Mox, share their feedback with us…

Since 2016, South Korea has seen a horde of robo-advisors come on the market. As of June 30, 2019, more than 30 financial institutions had launched robo-advisor offerings, either by teaming up with other companies or by creating their own in-house, and over seven technology firms had been providing robo-advisory platforms to banks and securities firms, according to a research by the Korea Capital Market Institute (KCMI). Brokerage houses Mirae Asset Daewoo, NH Investment & Securities, Daishin Securities and Kiwoom Securities have all launched their own robo-advisor platforms, and Shinhan Financial Investment offers an artificial intelligence (AI)-powered stock recommendation service…

IDC Financial Insights today released the 2020 update of its FinTech Fast 101 research which details a list of fast-growing FinTechs in Asia/Pacific excluding Japan (APEJ) from 11 key markets. IDC’s FinTech Fast 101 research refers to fast-growing fintech players based on extensive on-ground analysis of fintech players from China, India, Indonesia, Singapore, Hong Kong, Thailand, Malaysia, the Philippines, Vietnam, South Korea, and Australia. 5 Fast Growing FinTechs in Hong Kong AIRWALLEX Airwallex is a fintech company redefining payments globally. In the span of three years, Airwallex has secured over US$102 million in external funding, supported by top-tier investors including tech…

Neat, a Hong Kong-based fintech company offering modern financial solutions to SMEs and startups, today announced raising an $11 million USD Series A funding round. Pacific Century Group (PCG) led the round with participation from Visa, and MassMutual Ventures Southeast Asia, among others. With the investment, Neat plans to continue its international expansion to support businesses that trade across borders. Neat’s vision is to enable the entrepreneur economy, starting with multi-currency business accounts that can be opened online with a 15-minute application, corporate expense cards, and the ability to send and receive money globally. Additionally, Neat and Visa have entered…