The Polycrisis and the Future of FinTechs: View from Singapore FinTech Festival.
Dear Readers,
A pandemic, followed by war led to supply chain crisis, currency fluctuations-and more. There is no term to define it all. Until now. The Chief Economist of DBS Bank calls it a polycrisis.
“We are living in a Polycrisis. From all things that's affecting us today, pandemic, war, record floods, soaring inflation, interest rates list goes on and on,” said Taimur Baig, a renowned Chief Economist and MD at DBS Bank.
He started off his narration at the opening of Singapore FinTech Festival (SFF) by using a quote of Raghuram Rajan, Former Governor of RBI.
“Until you have defeated the virus everywhere, you haven’t really defeated it anywhere.”
Baig explained the current state of geopolitics from a huge stage in eight slides. His narration was the outcome of his conversation with the world’s famous economists that included Rajan.
Baig actually showcased the real picture of the world economy, but that's the only one side of the story. The other hand, there is a huge growth story. A great innovation in the FinTech space. It has challenged financial institutions and made central banks rework on their strategies.
Rise of FinTechs.
FinTechs, the term which came into existence in the last few years, has emerged as the most exciting and futuristic sector. FinTechs have come up with unimaginable and unbeatable innovations. The rise of FinTechs is unstoppable and today the world has 1191 Unicorn FinTech companies.
SFF, which showcased the world of FinTechs in its seventh event, had hundreds of sessions and speakers. It had a remarkable line up from the top bankers, FinTechs, Central banks, Tech companies from more than 100 countries. Along with the global plenary sessions, there were specific segments like capital meets policy dialogue, coder workshops, elevandi insights, global FinTech Hackcelerator, Founders Peak etc.
The idea of unveiling the 50 founders' ideas about their innovation, achievements and their journeys was truly remarkable. Founders from different regions narrated their journeys and shared unique business ideas. The former CEO of India Post Payment Bank (IPPB) also shared how they transformed India's finance with a postman and many others. At the same time, there were many sessions related to FinTechs which included the VCs and their investment profiles and pitches.
The current state of FinTechs.
What I specifically learnt from the SFF by meeting many speakers and attendees is that FinTech narration has changed from creating value to building business. It's not that the investors are not ready to infuse funds, but they have folded their red carpet and not just allowed entry with prior approval, but also scrutinising their existing portfolios. In my view the Fintech funding winter is real and the repercussions will be visible very soon.
MAS’s FinTech Strategy.
There is no end to the curiosity of cryptocurrency. What is interesting is Mr. Ravi Menon, MD of Monetary of Singapore took the stage and spoke for almost 35 minutes on the core strategies that MAS is following. Menon compared his strategies to the five fundamental elements of Chinese philosophy of Wu Xing, which function as cosmic agents of change. Such as, Water, Metal, Fire, Wood, Earth. The five key outcomes that MAS want to achieve through collaborative FinTech projects are:
1. Instant remittance
2. Atomic settlement
3. Programmable money
4. Tokenised assets
5. Trusted sustainability data
More importantly, Menon said that “Yes to Digital Asset Innovation and big no to Cryptocurrency Speculation”
The curious case of crypto
But the interest for crypto is huge. The auditorium was full when Vitalik Buterin, the co-founder of Ethereum and Researcher at Ethereum Foundation took over the stage. He spoke about “The Great Merge”, digital economy Vs the race of Net Zero.
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In another session on building the crypto economy and scaling Web3 Innovation Brian Armstrong, Co-founder & CEO, Coinbase was part of the fireside chat which was moderated by Sopnendu Mohanty, Chief FinTech Officer of MAS. Along with the crypto there is enough attraction for CBDC. There were many takers for RBI’s CBDC launch and also the participation of RBI at the event.
Where are central banks heading?
The Biggest challenge that the central banks are facing today is how to keep pace with fintech innovation? How to ensure that they are not taking customers for granted? How to solve the world’s largest problem, which is cross border payments and how to keep away from the crypto speculations? SFF under its segment Elevandi Insights, arranged dozens of invite only discussions which was a candid conversation amongst the regulators on various topics such as,
Also, Central banks and financial institutions are looking for strong use cases of block chain. Given the interest of the world is huge, they want to look into it diligently.
Inspirations at SFF
The four personalities which I found inspiring at SFF were,
1.?Stuart Haber, co-inventor of blockchain. While blockchain has been the thing today, all over the very few know that 65 year old Cryptographer Haber is the co-inventor. His name was also mentioned in Satoshi Nakamoto’s who’s known as Bitcoin. Haber said, the blockchain story is more than 30 years old, it started in the 1990s even before the world wide web existed.
2. Can you imagine a 16 year old boy can travel 54,000 kilometers from a small aircraft which has a single engine. Wearing a pilot jumpsuit?Mack Rutherford, who is a Guinness book record holder narrated his story of a breathtaking journey.
He is the youngest person to fly solo around the world.
“I was exhausted. I had not food left and I had no other alternative but to wait for fog to lift. After hours of waiting, the sunlight appeared and I flew”. He narrated a breathtaking story of his journey.
3.?Nobel Laureate Kailash Satyarthi?said while the world is looking at Internet of Things (IOT), it should also look at the Internet of Responsibilities (IOR). He spoke about the core values that humans should follow and his life experiences.
4.Sonam Wangchuk, Founder of Himalayan Institute of Alternatives?discussed his thoughts on, How to become a problem solver.. With or without schools, he was also part of The Social Compass - Purposeful and Progressive Entrepreneurship.
The SFF in-person event took place after a gap of two years it covered all the most trending and futuristic topics from payment to credit, SME to pension, climate change, financial education and various aspects of cryptocurrency. In the wide spread exhibition area it was nice to see various innovations from metaverse to robots and POS terminals to SAAS makers. It was a treat to meet a few known and many unknown faces and the excitement. Each one was sharing its?own innovation. Just to add it to the flavor, there was a special counter where robots were making coffees for the attendees. The speed and accuracy at which the robot was making coffee stunned me. Future is not just innovation but automation of many things that you and I didnt even think of.
Well, I have interviewed many change makers and top leaders at SFF, including Taimur Baig, Stuart Haber, Kailash Satyarthi etc and you will see these copies next week.
In a regular series of?ETBFSI Fintech Diary , this week I interviewed Ajinkya Kulkarni, CEO and co-Founder of Wint Wealth.
For?ETBFSI Explains segment , we featured NARCL’s first bid: Will it help clean Bank’s balance sheets?
Like always, I am adding here the top five stories of the week that you shouldn't miss.
If you have any thoughts or feedback, please feel free to share them with me at?[email protected] .
Happy Reading, Happy Weekend
Editor,
Amol Dethe
ETBFSI
Aspiring Corporate Director / Management Consultant / Corporate Leader
2 年Thanks for sharing, & Best wishes, ETBFSI Syed Awees