APAC FinTech Weekly Newsletter powered by Marcel van Oost

Hello FinTech Community!

Welcome back and lovely meeting you! I look forward to the insights and connections we’ll get by interacting here

?? Weekly Takeaway:

MAS Outlines Standards for Digital Money

??What happened?

• MAS proposed a common protocol for digital money. The aim of the whitepaper is encourage greater research among Central Banks, Financial Institutions, and FinTechs and understand the design considerations in the use of digital money.
• The new proposed model is “Purpose Bound Money” (PBM). PBMs are bearer instruments, which are transferrable. Under this new model, PBMs contain digital money as a store of value and the programming logic is transferred alongside store of value.
• The protocol is the result of collaboration between the IMF, Central Banks, and industry partners like Amazon, Grab, NETs, UOB and DBS among others.
• Given the collaboration, use cases include cashback and rewards in ecommerce journeys, and disrupting the payments flow by allowing the payment to be released to the merchant only when the customer receives the items purchased.

?? Why is this relevant?

• This is not just a whitepaper. The parties involved are building the tech and doing trails.
• It creates a new category or “term” for the industry - Purpose Bound Money. Which I recommend you read about in detail here
• It sets design considerations for implementation, including: Interoperability, Privacy, Digital Readiness, and Secure Programming.
• Use cases include: prepaid packages, ecommerce, commercial lease, donations, and cross-order payments among others.

?? Read the full fintechnews.sg article here.

Also, keep in mind the following:

?? Ripple gets in-principle approval to offer digital payment token services in Singapore

?? Alipay partners with Mastercard to allow travelers to China to ‘pay like locals’

Exciting times,

Monica

Onwards to the news!

REPORT

Today’s FinTech report is from India.

Key findings include:

? B2C e-commerce will continue to dominate digital services, growing five to six times to US$350 billion-380 billion by 2030; the number of online shoppers is expected to double to 500 million-550 million in the same period, with over 60% currently coming from smaller towns.

? SaaS, eCommerce and EdTech will lead the upswing in India’s digital exports.

? Investors rank Fintech, SaaS and B2C/B2B eCommerce among the most appealing sectors over the medium term.

Subscribe now

?? NEWS HIGHLIGHT

Google to open major fintech centre in India’s new smart city.

The move comes as Google earmarks India as a key market and invests $10bn in India’s digitisation fund.

The operation centre will be located in Gujarat International Finance Tec-City (GIFT City), which is a central business district and “smart city” under construction in the Indian state of Gujarat, India’s fifth biggest state.

?? ARTICLE

Apple is in talks with banks and regulators to launch its credit card, dubbed "Apple Card," in India.

The company's CEO, Tim Cook, met with HDFC Bank CEO and MD Sashidhar Jagdishan during his trip to India in April, according to two sources familiar with the matter.

?? ?? BLOG

Are Aussie banks closing the door on crypto?

Australian cryptocurrency exchanges are running out of options to let local customers convert their crypto into dollars, as new measures brought in by a wholesale banking provider under the guise of stopping scammers could also prevent exchanges from providing essential services.

NOW, ON TO THE SUMMARY OF LAST WEEK'S?NEWS

?? REGIONAL HIGHLIGHTS

??Cape selects Thredd as its payments issuer processor to power its Asia-Pacific expansion.

?? ScotPac and Dancerace team up to deliver faster, world-class invoice finance experience.

??Ripple gets in-principle approval to offer digital payment token services.

?? JPMorgan set to establish commercial bank in Singapore.

AUSTRALIA

Zepto confirmed that it has made 20 per cent of its workforce redundant following a strategic review of its operations.

Cuscal, through its partner Zepto, has brought new banking restrictions on cryptocurrency exchanges in Australia, according to a statement criticizing the move from Blockchain Australia.

INKPAY collapses after claiming the cost of new regulations that treat BNPL like a traditional credit product will be too much to bear.

Nine25 set the benchmark for the rest of the Australian banking and financial services industry to follow by announcing the launch of the fastest transaction account opening in just 30 seconds.

SINGAPORE

dtcpay raises US$16.5M pre-series A to expand global presence. The firm said that the funding will be used to further invest in product development, building more robust operations and infrastructure capabilities.

Citibank, DBS, OCBC and Swiss Life were penalised a combined S$3.8 million by the Monetary Authority of Singapore for breaches of AML/CFT requirements.

HONG KONG

AsiaPay announced the partnership with PayMe by HSBC in Hong Kong to help local merchants provide more flexible payment options in a single device and enhance the purchase experience for consumers.

CHINA

Mastercard and Alipay extend partnership to boost cashless payments in China.

THAILAND

GHL Systems (GHL) has enabled Alipay+ for over 2,600 businesses in Thailand to accept cross-border digital payments from leading Asian mobile wallets.

INDIA

Pillow plans to discontinue all its services and app in the coming weeks, citing regulatory uncertainty that has claimed countless other crypto startups in recent quarters.

The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) intends to introduce further incentives to promote sustainable and green financing in the Philippines.

SOUTH KOREA

SCBX, the financial technology business group of Siam Commercial Bank, announced its readiness to apply for a license to establish a virtual bank with South Korean digital bank KakaoBank.

INDONESIA

PayerMax obtains payment services licence in Indonesia. The license allows PayerMax to gain a foothold in Southeast Asia’s largest digital economy.

PHILIPPINES

Tonik posts 38% rise in customer deposits but losses widen to $33.4m in 2022.