What The FinTech #87: 6 Mar 2022
Medhy Souidi
Transformation Lead - Head of Innovation & Experiences at DBS HK | Host of What the FinTech | Senior Editor at Money20/20
Happy Sunday, welcome back to?What The FinTech,?your regular FinTech & Innovation?Newsletter?focusing on Hong Kong & Asia ! Here are the selection and the top headlines for this week.
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What was the FinTech this week in:???
BLOCKCHAIN - CRYPTO - DIGITAL ASSETS - DE FI
Binance, the world’s leading crypto exchange by trading volume is returning to the Malaysian markets with a strategic stake in the country’s regulated digital asset trading platfrom MX Global. Binance and Cuscapi Berhad acquired a key stake in MX Global, one of the four Recognized Market Operators - Digital Asset Exchange licensed by the Securities Commission (SC) in Malaysia. Binance’s recent slew of partnerships also reflects a pattern of sorts, especially in regions where the exchange has found it difficult to mitigate regulatory compliance requirements independently. The crypto exchange had restricted its services in Malaysia back in July 2021 after an order from the SC over non-compliance with the regulatory laws. A spokesperson from Binance told Cointelegraph that the recent partnership will help the crypto exchange understand the local regulatory approach.?
South Korea’s Ministry of ICT, Science, and Future Planning pledged 223.7 billion Korean won ($186.7 million) to create a broad metaverse ecosystem to support the growth of digital content and corporate growth within the country. Funds will be spent on completing four main objectives in creating what appears to be an all-encompassing metaverse ecosystem titled the “Expanded Virtual World.” The government agency intends on using its metaverse as a platform for expanding the virtual industrial growth of cities, education and media. Content creators will enjoy support on multiple fronts to attract the right talent to help build the platform.
Articles that may interest you on this subject:
HONG KONG
Hong Kong-listed virtual asset platform Huobi Technology Holdings has launched a cryptocurrency over the counter (OTC) service, the firm announced to Cointelegraph on Wednesday. According to the latest announcement, Huobi Technology now allows investors to trade crypto via OTC using crypto block trading services and fiat currencies like the U.S. dollar. The firm plans to expand it to the euro, the British pound and the Hong Kong dollar in the near future. Huobi Technology has introduced several crypto services in recent years, now supporting virtual asset management, custody, trust and lending. The company holds a wide number of licenses, including the security and asset management licenses from the Securities and Futures Commission of Hong Kong, as well as a trust of company service provider license in Hong Kong. Huobi Tech has also obtained a retail trust company license in the United States state of Nevada via a wholly owned subsidiary.?
A new NFT project in Hong Kong sell shares of expensive virtual land created in the metaverse. The Metaworld Development project aims to sell NFTs in the form of “keys” with different designs. Each NFT key represents a percentage ownership of the project’s total portfolio of virtual land, which the team will buy from popular metaverse platforms The Sandbox and Decentraland. It will be “an easy vehicle to invest in metaverse directly”, according to the project’s website. The Metaworld team’s strategy for managing its virtual land portfolio include trading these digital properties, renting them to major brands and then distributing the capital gains back to holders of the NFTs, according to the project’s website.?
Enterprise technology and services firm R3 has established an official presence in Hong Kong, opening its "Innovation Lab" at Cyberport. Cyberport has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with R3 to provide Hong Kong's financial services and FinTech sectors with blockchain technology innovation resources relating to Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDCs).The collaboration will bring R3's suite of trust technology - Corda, its distributed ledger platform, and Conclave, its confidential computing platforms, closer to Hong Kong's FinTech startups and enterprises to support the creation of next-generation software applications based on digital trust technologies.
SINGAPORE
Under the deal, iCapital will take over the management and operation of the private bank’s feeder funds, while Bank of Singapore retains client-servicing responsibility, according to a press release Monday. Bank of Singapore is the private-banking arm of Singapore’s OCBC Bank, which also filed a statement to SGX on the deal. Bank of Singapore will continue to source private market investments and provide advice for its clients, while iCapital will provide custom private market funds to the bank’s clients, the statement said. ICapital said the deal will bring the amount of global private assets it services to $114 billion, across more than 940 funds.?OCBC said the feeder funds were called Straits 01 - Dover VII, formerly known as BOS Global Secondary Private Equity Investment, and Straits Private Equity Investment SPC, formerly known as BOS Private Equity Fund Investment SPC.?
领英推荐
Volopay, a Singapore-based fintech startup, will use new funds to build new technologies that complement its existing product and enhance its integration with enterprise resource planning, human resource management and customer relationship management software. Volopay wants to disrupt traditional business banking and offer companies a control center for all their financial management needs without the hassle and limitation of a traditional bank. Volopay’s platform provides startups and enterprises flexibility by issuing virtual and/or physical prepaid multicurrency corporate cards in their local currency (SGD, AUD, INR, IDR, PHP, etc) with up to 5% cashback on all card transactions.?
Three in five (60%) small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in Singapore believe in the importance of incorporating sustainable practices in their businesses. They said having sustainability core to their business will help to improve the company’s reputation (54%), make it easier for them to work with multinational corporations (MNCs) who care about their sustainability goals (45%) and enable them to help build an environmentally- and socially-responsible Singapore (44%). The key ESG-related practices SMEs plan to implement include clear operational policies and processes such as risk management and financial control (45%), more efficient use of resources to minimise waste (43%) and use of energy efficient equipment and technologies (35%).
CHINA
TikTok videos, the Chinese app, is rolling out the ability for users to upload up to 10 minutes of content in a single post. a longer video “can give creators more time and flexibility when filming things like cooking demos, beauty tutorials, educational content, comedic sketches, and more.” As you can imagine, this new option will be the end of the “part 2” excuse, after all, do we need 10 minutes videos?. The option to film these videos on the app will roll out to global users over the weeks ahead, which means it can take a while until you’re able to use this extended feature. TikTok also requires users to be using the latest version of its app to make sure all new functions properly work.
Over the past few weeks, there has been a new kid on the block on Chinese social media feeds. Users have been posting screenshots showing 3D avatars of themselves decked out in hip outfits, hanging out in virtual “apartments.” The images were taken from a metaverse app called Jelly (or “Zheli” in Chinese). Despite allegations of copyright infringement and subpar user data security, Jelly is the next big thing for China’s Gen Z users, who are increasingly forgoing WeChat’s static experience for a more interactive, animated environment. Jelly topped the free app category in the Apple App Store—the first time WeChat was bumped from the highest ranking in China since 2019.
Aurora Mobile Limited, a leading mobile developer service provider in China, has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire a majority equity interest in Wuhan SendCloud Technology Co., Ltd. (“SendCloud”), China’s leading Email API platform for consumer marketing and user-centric transactional email services, with the total cash consideration to be paid upon completion of the transaction. In addition, the Company plans to grant equity awards to the management of SendCloud.
ASIA
Two million DBS Bank cardholders in Singapore, Indonesia, and Hong Kong SAR to benefit from the ‘Mastercard Instalments with Pine Labs’ program which makes it easier for consumers to convert their purchases into monthly instalments Mastercard, DBS Bank and Pine Labs have partnered to launch ‘Mastercard Instalments with Pine Labs’ - a new program that allows DBS/POSB credit cardholders to pay via interest-free instalments at merchants with the ‘Pay Later’ identifier, simply by presenting their DBS/POSB cards at checkout. Launching in March, the program will be accessible to all DBS/POSB credit cardholders initially in Singapore, followed by Indonesia and Hong Kong SAR in 2Q 2022. Consumers will enjoy a seamless and secure experience to access Buy Now, Pay Later (BNPL) offers at checkout across a variety of merchants. DBS is the first regional issuer in Asia to offer this program to its customers.
7-Eleven’s conversational AI kiosks voice promotional information, discounts and newly stocked items
DeepBrain AI, a company specializing in real-time conversational AI Humans, successfully launched 7-Eleven's AI Kiosk in 2021. A subsidiary of Lotte Group, 7-Eleven's AI Kiosk includes DeepBrain AI's AI Human technology and additional innovative technologies for use in unmanned convenience stores. The "AI Clerk'' provides promotional information including discounts and newly stocked items, as well as background on the company and technology. With AI Kiosks, the 7-Eleven staff is more productive and can focus on essential and timely tasks while customers are getting important information quickly upon entering the stores.
HD Bank, a banking and financial services provider in Vietnam, has announced a strategic collaboration with Thought Machine, the UK-headquartered core banking technology company. HD Bank is embarking on a multi-year strategy to develop and deploy modern technology as part of a transformation programme, starting with their core platforms and internal workflows. As part of this strategy, HD Bank intends to implement Thought Machine’s core banking platform Vault as it sets out to reinvent the financial services ecosystem in Vietnam and accelerate financial inclusion across the country. HD Bank is collaborating with the world’s most forward-looking financial technology companies, such as Thought Machine, so it can innovate faster, and more efficiently. Thought Machine has been selected for collaboration due to its unique flexibility and control which will enable the bank to both migrate existing systems and design highly innovative financial products and services at scale.?
Standard Chartered has partnered with the International Air Transport Association (IATA) to launch IATA Pay in India. IATA Pay is an airline industry payment platform leveraging the Unified Payment Interface (UPI), a domestic real-time payments scheme in India, enabling consumers to instantly pay for airline tickets from their bank accounts. It enables participating airlines to offer instant payment options such as UPI Scan & Pay and UPI Collect.
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Thank you Medhy Souidi for featuring us!
Management Consultant at UBS | Growth Manager at What The FinTech | Ex FinTech Analyst at DBS | Strategy Consulting | Transformation | Video Content
2 年NFT of shares of virtual land sounds very interesting ???? , ready for #metaverse