FinTech Connect Asia 2024 Blog

In this exclusive blog with Niels Mærkedahl and Abhijit Dey, we cover burning topics about agile business model implementation, from a top-down or bottom-up approach, to the placement of product managers in the organisation.

In an exclusive post-event quickfire Q&A with Aly Madhavji, we dive into the dying question everyone wants to know about technology gap, challenges in a fintech ecosystem, and strength in a community.

In this exclusive interview, Abhijit Dey Vice President – Product Head at Axis Banks gives us insight into how improvements need to be made daily and how we can measure them.He also highlights the difference between going digital VS digitalising and how you can measure the success of a transformation by looking at 4 factors.

As Co-founder and ex-Chairman at PictureWealth, Neal Cross is continuously making a big splash in the fintech scene, winning Finnovator of the year – 2021, Lifetime achievement award for Innovation 2020, and 2019’s Meaningful Business 100. With more than 20 years in the fintech industry working for major corporations such as Microsoft, MasterCard, and DBS Bank, he explores the needed marriage between banks and fintechs, where powered by the innovations born from AI, will change the finance world as we know it.

As the Managing Director at Fern Software, John McGucken shares about the SaaS trends that he’s expecting to hit the industry in 2024 with a huge impact, such as the use of AI for cloud hosting, open APIs, blockchain digitisation, and data mining analytics. But it goes deeper than that, because to make any AI approach work, businesses need to do down to the fundamentals and ask themselves “What’s my current pain point?”.

Tanvi Ratna, Founder and CEO of Policy 4.0, is experienced in the digital space, where her emerging tech portfolio work in India’s digital public infrastructure has led to countless digital innovations. With experience working with the Indian Prime Minister and US Foreign Affairs Committee on Capitol Hill, appearances on leading media networks such as BBC and CNBC, Tanvi speaks about the how risk regulations, particularly in cryptocurrency, AI, and quantum technology, is the most challenging question to address.

With more than 20 years of experience in the B2B technology and SaaS space, we had an exclusive interview with Nick Stipp, Vice President & General Manager Asia Pacific at Ekata, a Mastercard company. He delves into the increased adoption of instant payments (such as mobile wallets, contactless payments, QR code payments). With the fast-paced advancements in technology-driven payments methods, fraudsters are becoming more sophisticated at a matching pace, especially with the use of generative AI increasing the rate and quality of fraudulent attempts.

Ashley Thomas, head of strategy and operations at Revolut Singapore, is no stranger to launching multiple products and developing business growth strategies. With over 12 years of experience in traditional banks, management consulting firms and tech startups, she believes digital transformation has prompted Fintechs to embrace innovation and prioritize customer-centricity.

We caught an exclusive interview with William Mun, Head of Digital Products at Yoma Bank. With 7 years in the banking industry in Myanmar including AYA Bank, he is responsible for the strategy and delivery of product roadmaps for banking apps and portals. William highlights how it’s crucial for banks to consider the maturity of the market before addressing their consumers’ needs, such as how cashless societies run differently in mature and emerging markets, where mature markets are focused on ecommerce while emerging markets are heavily invested and transacted on social commerce.

He firmly believes in the collaboration between tech and green sector, where innovation can be driven, mutually benefitting both sectors. Dr Bo Bai dives into the industry’s hot topic, blockchain, and how it can be used to ensure a higher level of transparency and accountability for carbon reporting, while ensuring that the assets are carbon neutral. 

Jitesh Malik talks about the ins and outs of creating a loyalty program in the insurtech industry. How do you differentiate yourself from your competitors and put yourself in the forefront of customers’ minds, and how do you better retain your customers in a world where switching between different insurance companies is the norm?

In this exclusive Q&A with Anupam Dey, Digital Product Head at Zurich Insurance, he speaks about the challenges he solved to bring Zurich Insurance to the forefront of the very competitive insurtech industry. Read more about how working with regulators heightens regulatory compliance and customer data privacy, and many more!

In this interview, Dr. Thee Chanyaswad, Head of Data Analytics, Kasikorn Line who manages the Data Science, Risk Modelling, Data Engineering, and Data Management teams for Kasikorn Line highlights how Kasikorn Line has utilized AI to create a more personalised experience for their customers whilst overcoming the obstacles in AI integration. He gives an inside look to use cases they have created to bridge the gap in data engineering and how Kasikorn Line uses AI-driven features to help customers manage their money. Dr Thee shares what he is looking forward to at FinTech Connect this year and a sneak peek into what he would be sharing at the event. Read the full interview now! 

Ekta Singh, Regtech SubComm Member at Singapore FinTech Association (SFA), believes that Fintech can revolutionise the way we interact with money and its agility is something that attracts the best minds in the finance sector. Ekta tells us why technology can be used to improve customer service, her excitement for the development of new financial products using blockchain-based applications that allow more secure and transparent financial transactions and why FinTech has the potential to help people who have been traditionally excluded from the financial system.

Why is there a need for capitalising on crypto popularity now? Irfan Ahmad, Head of Commercialization, APAC & MENA at State Street Digital, shares about how the company recognised a need for a dedicated team of subject matter experts to address the growing opportunities using digital assets and the technology underpinning it.

Both cloud-agnostic and cloud-native solutions have their benefits and challenges, and banks in Asia must carefully weigh their options to determine which solution best suits their needs. While cloud-native solutions are becoming increasingly popular, some banks may find that a hybrid approach using both cloud-agnostic and cloud-native solutions is the best way to balance flexibility, scalability, and control, but of course, this would vary from one bank to another, and we are still at the tip of the iceberg.

In this article, we seek to unravel the rapidly evolving changes to the banking sector, including how finance is changing, a sample case study of adopting cloud solutions, and why this trend will persist as we veer towards cloud solutions as the future of banking.

As the complexity of regulatory compliance continues to mount, Asian banks are turning to Next-Generation Regulatory Reporting (NGRR) solutions in order to maximize their compliance efforts.

By leveraging data automation, advanced analytics and sophisticated AI solutions, banks are becoming more agile and adept at meeting the demands of regulators and staying compliant​​ able to quickly and accurately as identify systemic risk more quickly and efficiently while streamlining their reporting process across the board.

However, many remain hesitant about adoption due to concerns regarding the costs of implementation and adoption. As these regulations become more stringent, with potential risks for noncompliance growing each day, it’s crucial for financial institutions across the region to consider the benefits of NGRR when making business decisions.

For almost a decade, open banking has been an increasing important factor affecting global banking. While some information sharing has always existed within the banking industry, especially related to borrowing and credit scores, it was highly limited. More recently, the concept of open finance has evolved as way of applying the principles of open banking to the wider financial services industry. Like open banking, open finance revolves around the use of APIs (application programming interfaces) to securely transfer financial data from firm to firm within the financial services industry.

In this article we will discuss how the Fintech industry is shifting from Open Banking to Open Finance

Sitting at the global economy’s heart, banks are responsible for steering the world towards a greener economy. Many banks in various economies are realizing the significance of this mission, which is a defining feature of their future as we enter a new era of banking.

Globally, Europe remains the leader in financial sustainability through climate fintech, supported by policies and government initiatives. Though the climate fintech sector in Asia remains relatively small, government policies, increased awareness of sustainability issues, and dynamic fintech are setting the stage for a thriving climate fintech sector.

Read this article to find out more on how some banks are spearheading financial sustainability at the top level.

Crypto prices have registered bullish trends in 2023, igniting the view that the ‘crypto winter’ is finally over.

A lot of innovation is happening globally around cryptocurrencies, CBDCs and stablecoins, with more regulations expected around the crypto industry, which may also have a positive impact on crypto adoption. Project Sela by BIS innovation Hub Hong Kong, for example, aims at enabling payment service providers and commercial banks to provide CBDC services without cyber security threats. It’s a project that has potential to drive adoption of CBDCs.

In this article we will discuss the future of Crypto and if it requires controls, transparency and risk management.

Managing Director of Krungsi Finnovate, Sam Tanskul is looking to invest and experiment with new emerging tech like Metaverse & Web 3.0. With technological change rapid and relentless, they are forging digital transformation, moving their customers onto a digital platform and upgrading their banking services to improve customers' experiences. Tanskul shares their focus on collaboration projects between the bank and startups to explore new digital models like neobanks and DeFi, providing a ‘short-cut’ to meet a comprehensive digital bank goal.

The cybersecurity landscape is constantly shifting, with threats getting sophisticated. Edgio’s Senior Director of Product Management, Richard Yew shares how cybercriminals are using bots to perform various forms of cyber attacks and how fraud prevention can be mitigated if companies understood and analysed their consumer’s behaviours. If you want to avoid costly, time-consuming or legal action by aggrieved customers, find out why a multi-layered approach to security infrastructure is critical now and ways to safeguard your company’s website, APIs, and assets from threats.

Paroma Chaterjee, CEO at Revolut India is leading her team in establishing a foothold in the Indian market with a $45 million investment. The second-largest unbanked population and one the world’s largest financial hubs in the world, India is proving to be a lucrative market. Hear how she plans on building and implementing strategies to transform the way people in India access and manage their money, tap into the Indian talent pool to help Revolut go from strength to strength and become the world’s first truly global financial superapp.

With an extensive career in law and finance, Brian Tang is the ideal person to share his knowledge on Legaltech, Blockchain and all things FinTech. He shares his thoughts on the progress of regtech awareness by the industry and regulators in the past year, challenges in adoption, and upskilling of skillsets and mindsets. Find out how you can achieve a common goal to stay ahead of the regulatory curve, and combat financial crimes globally in this exclusive interview!

Anytime, Anywhere is the way that Hugosave provides customers from all walks of life the ease of spending, saving and investing with just one click in their app. David Fergusson, CEO & Founder shares how Hugosave has been targeting and engaging Gen Z through gamification and incentivisation with a holistic approach. With Gold being relatively resilient against risks, learn how it can give you more stability and a better balance adding this asset into your portfolio and work towards financial management with consistency, transparency, fun and engagement all in one place!

Shadab Taiyabi, President of Singapore FinTech Association (SFA) highlights how they are working to promote a net-zero economy through collaboration and the constant evolution of ESG business models. Over time, the entire ecosystem will need to translate their commitments into actions that lower emissions. We have our work cut out for us and with SFA striving to gather the community to share perspectives and brainstorm ideas to achieve our collective goal - find out how this is a convening platform towards a more sustainable planet!

Asia-Pacific has grown into the world's largest market for cashless transactions and Jeffrey Liu, Founder of Xanpay is helping businesses cater to customers from all over APAC while being compliant with local regulations. A platform that supports alternative payment methods, find out how Xanpay prioritises the safety of client transactions and how interoperability makes growing your business a cinch. As we know, Real-Time Payment (RTP) platforms are gaining traction worldwide, so join us to find out more on the advancements and massive development in the near future.

In this exclusive interview Ajith Jayaram, Chief Transformation Officer for AEON Digital Bank shares how they have been working to establish a digital bank given a license in 2022 - they have high aspirations of creating the greatest bank in Malaysia and ensuring more financial inclusion and wealth for their customers. We talk to Ajith about the strategies to win and retain customers, the advantages digital banks have over traditional players and key differences in how they prioritise CX..

Working towards strengthening and expanding the payments industry to benefit all stakeholders as the leading branch to the payments industry is a key goal for Emerging Payments Association, Asia (EPAA). In this stellar interview, Camilla Bullock, CEO of EPAA dives into the future of automation and the future direction of EPAA. She highlights the importance of collaboration between public and private sectors whilst ensuring that innovation is the key driving factor for the FinTech community.

Winner of 2022 Regional and Global AWS Partner Award, Sendbird is an in-chat platform for application programming interfaces (APIs) allowing brands to drive loyalty and higher transactions using their technology. Vishal Kapoor, Head of Sales for APAC at Sendbird highlights the importance of digitalising conversations that serve highly specific individual needs, allowing for better customer experience. Find out the secrets to incorporating interactivity into the CX without disrupting it as it's quickly becoming the next frontier for capturing consumer interest.

As one of the leading global IT companies, Endava helps world-leading FinTech companies to accelerate their rapid, ongoing transformation to take full advantage of market opportunities. In this exclusive interview, Adrian Bugaian, Delivery Partner at Endava dives into key trends he’s observed within the APAC region - including the rise in cross-border and real-time payments. The next milestone would be regional interoperability and connectivity and we understand how more digital innovative products will be launched in the coming years.

The Crypto Craze isn’t going anywhere but how many of us know how to find new opportunities and avoid common mistakes?

Leading experts unfold the quirks of crypto - what makes it the most written-about space, how to position crypto in your investment portfolio, the pains and pitfalls and what makes crypto so appealing at this crucial time. If you’re interested in knowing the problems it solves in society at large, who’s adopting in Asia and the profit to be made - check this out!

The Metaverse Revolution: Do you want to be a part of it?

The visual world, the immersive future where we co-exist in augmented reality…it’s so so much more than you think..

In this infographic - we cover a range of topics like  investment trends, no-code gaming, non-fungible tokens, how to navigate risk and what investments to pick

And much, much more…

The Metaverse is the next frontier in technology - merging real and unreal realities into a digital landscape in which we can exist. Despite being in it’s nascency, banks and FinTech's have begun investing in the metaverse, looking to take advantage at an early stage and exploit the opportunity to engage with customers in immersive new ways. 

We debate if banks are simply investing into the Metaverse to "occupy the field" and ensure competitive advantage or staying two steps ahead of the game because the future as we know it, is indeed at the dawn of change.

Regional Head of Payment Products for Global Payment Solutions, Nicholas Soo from HSBC gives key insight on how to overcome the real-time payment infrastructure and what we can expect in the next few years in the banking industry in this quick fire interview.

He highlights the key elements of better connectivity and sustainability in the Fintech industry.

This blog is endorsed by the Fintech Association of Hong Kong

Having made a huge impact in Indonesia with the success of their app GoJek, the Indonesian unicorn - GoToGroup has over 500,000 merchants in their ecosystem, 90 per cent of whom are MSMEs.

WHY? Pratyush Prasanna, Head of Merchant Payments for the GoToGroup reveals the bigger picture, his perspective on how “alternate payments will hugely impact societal change”, the crucial importance of customer privacy and what trends he’s seeing across the payments industry. 

“Catching up with Armaan Brar, Payments Partnerships at Uber” is our quick-fire conversation on partnership innovations, conquering compliance, and exceeding expectations with both customers & drivers.

Armaan reveals how Uber is growing and evangelicalizing the brand by expanding financial products in APAC and what he is most excited about in the alternative payments space.

Balaji Natarajan is the Head of Payments and Cash Management, Asia for ANZ - one of the top 4 banks in Australia and top 50 banks in the world. Balaji, who heads the development of new payment, liquidity and collection propositions and digital solutions for the bank gives us his perspective on CBDCs.

We dive into use cases, the far reaching impact on consumers, merchants and banks as well as CBDC constructs and the potential “good” CBDCs may bring to finance.

The ‘king’ of the sharing economy, Uber, knows the potential of partnerships. In this exclusive interview, we talk to Armaan Brar, Payments Partnerships at Uber about how innovation can drive better outcomes for customers, how conquering regulatory and cross border challenges will drive greater efficiencies and the implications of Web 3.0 for Fintech’s Future.

NFTs or Non-Fungible Tokens are digital assets which can be bought and sold on the Ethereum blockchain. The topic has been hitting headlines regularly for the last few years with some NFT transactions – such as Jack Dorsey selling the rights to his first tweet – generating millions of dollars and significant media coverage.

The most common type of NFT is procedurally generated art [and we use that term very loosely] such as The Bored Ape Yacht Club as pictured below. Each character has an NFT token attached to it which people are buying and trading for significant amounts of money. However, there are other potential applications for NFT technology – particularly in the finance industry which we’ll cover in this article. 

As the latest proposed evolution of the internet, Web 3.0 has been making headlines around the world. Driven largely by blockchain, cryptocurrency, and NFT advocates and Mark Zuckerberg’s virtual society Metaverse project, some are hailing Web 3.0 as a new era of decentralized online services and experiences.

For the finance industry, proponents of Web 3.0 see a future where decentralized finance [DeFi] uses AI, blockchain, IoT, 5G and other digital technology to provide services using cryptocurrency and smart contracts and removing the need for a financial institution to authorize transactions.

Thanks largely to the rise of fintech disruptors, an increasing number of non-bank brands are starting to provide financial services as a supplementary component to their core offering. 

Where these services are available, there is still a bank somewhere down the line running the tech, ensuring regulatory requirements are met, and everything is running smoothly, but the operation is white labelled as a non-bank organization

Cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin and Ethereum have been making headlines for some time now – and not always in the most positive context.

Originally touted as the future of finance and heralding to a new world of financial inclusion to give more people access to such services than ever before, cryptocurrencies have instead garnered significantly more attention for their status as a fluctuating investment opportunity than as a means of financial exchange.

RegTech is the management of regulatory processes within the financial industry. The main functions of regtech include regulatory monitoring, reporting, and compliance. The rising number of fraudulent activities such as money laundering in the financial sector is increasing and financial organizations need a greater RegTech framework to help risk and compliance teams manage the deluge of ever-increasing regulatory compliance and progressively sophisticated breaches successfully.

In this blog we look at how AI, ML, and blockchain technologies have emerged as a key trend in the RegTech market, why it’s booming in APAC, the biggest considerations in technology and regulatory compliance and key regulatory issues impacting Asia-Pacific and the ways technology solutions are offering support.

From banknotes to coins, plastic cards to mobile phones - payments are evolving before our very eyes. A cashless transition is happening in Asia. This shift has been catalyzed by access to technological innovation like real-time payments using mobile devices, high smartphone penetration, the entrance of new innovative market players outside of traditional banking, the rise of e-commerce, and favorable government policy and regulation.

To understand how the industry is adapting, this blog will help you to know the key trends fundamentally transforming global payment systems and discuss how banks are introducing multiple options for customers to make payments when, where and how they choose. As we move from conceptualization to proofs of concept, let us look at the challenges and opportunities and how the industry participants can help navigate this evolving landscape.

In this interview, Grace Chong, Head of Financial Regulatory SG at Gibson Dunn shares how to navigate the complex regulatory matters and data ownership. 

She also shares what investors should pay attention to when looking into the cryptospace and how the Metaverse will play a role. 

Watch the interview now ! 

In this episode of Digital Transformation & Leadership Danny Levy talks to Bandan Jot Singh, Lead - Advanced Payments, Booking.com (Fintech Business). They get into what makes BNPL different from other credit, factors driving its growth, geographical nuances and future possibilities, including what will happen to BNPL companies.

Cryptocurrencies, NFTs, and blockchain technology (oh my!). To discuss the unstoppable rise of digital assets, experts from ING Bank, State Street, BNY Mellon, Simmons & Simmons came together during the Fintech and Paytech Connect Summit to give their thoughts with the moderation from Aly Madhavji, Managing Partner, Blockchain Founders Fund.

The rise of alternative forms of payment, the digitization of business, and the move towards cashless societies have been important topics of conversation for years. A few months ago, we had the pleasure of hosting an All-Star Panel, with expert speaking from HSBC, Gojek, Flip.id, Flipkart, Uber and Disney lending their knowledge on all things alternative payments, including how they are evolving to grow commerce and ensure customer success. Watch the session here and read this wrap up to find out what they shared.

We had the enlightening opportunity to interview Aly Madhavji, Managing Partner at Blockchain Founders Fund, where we dive into the company's focus within the buzzing crypto market and the blockchain ecosystem including its innovations, shortcomings and mainstream adoption.

In this episode we welcome back Steven Scheurmann, a member of IBM's Data, AI and Automation Division that assists organizations with their AI journeys. We get into the future of payments, including borderless and real-time transactions, the technology ecosystem in China and the impact this has had on payments (and why nothing else comes close), and what the end goal is when it comes to payments.

Cyber criminals have exploited new opportunities to target the weak points of merchants in this wave of digitalisation, presenting a big challenge for many financial institutions. In this interview, we sat down with Walter Lee, Evangelist & Head of Public Safety Consulting, NEC APAC who shares his thoughts on how one can combat fraud, how the competitive landscape is heating up, the use of cutting-edge tech and the trends we’ll be seeing in the next few years.

In the run up to FinTech Connect Asia 2021, we interviewed Benjamin Quinlan, CEO & Managing Partner at Quinlan & Associates, who shares industry insights into financial services and FinTech, his honest thoughts about digital transformation, the challenges intrinsic to Asian banks, and what he foresees for the future of banking in what is an inevitably digital age.

Now more than ever, data shows that young people in particular have been turning to buy now pay later payment channels to finance those quick hit shopping highs. With predictions of becoming the fifth most commonly used eCommerce payment method by 2024, what exactly is the appeal of buy now pay later for both customers and retailers? We examine the rise and impact of buy now pay later in a rapidly evolving marketplace. 

Since the signing of The United Nations Paris Agreement on climate change way back in 2015, countries all over the world have been working towards the green targets set out in the legally binding document. FinTech has its part to play too - from climate change to financial inclusivity, green fintech has the potential to benefit the world and its people in so many ways. In this article, we take a look at the noteworthy developments surrounding the state of green FinTech in recent years.