The study also conducted a survey on 170 Southeast Asia-headquartered fintechs across 16 key sub sectors, which include payments, blockchain, money transfer, data analytics and robo advisory, reported New Straits Times.  

Partner and Malaysia Financial Services Banking & Capital Markets Advisory Leader at Ernst & Young Advisory Services Sdn Bhd Shankar Kannabiran, said: “In line with this, continuous dialogue with ecosystem players and the drive to push policy momentum further to ensure our financial markets remain competitive and secure are key.”

“Venture capitalists and banks are often the first port of call for fund-seekers, although most will not take on the credit risk of companies with a track record of less than three years.

“That said, there are many incubator and accelerator programs, and even government channels that FinTech firms can leverage for seed funding.”

19% of fintechs in Malaysia are content that there is full support from the government in terms of funding, 50% of respondents say there is medium to moderate levels of funding support, and 27% believe there is low support.

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TransferWise launched the Borderless Account for businesses and freelancers in May 2017. The account allows businesses to hold money in up to 28 global currencies, with local bank details available for British Pound, Euro and US Dollar. The low cost, online account allows businesses to make fast international money transfers to over 50 countries and save up to five percent per transaction compared to the banks or PayPal. A debit card to accompany the account was launched in January 2018 to select customers and will launch publicly later in 2018.

TranferWise has also developed a payouts API for businesses and banks, which enables companies to make faster, lower-cost payments to customers, suppliers, employees, freelancers and investors around the world and can be integrated into existing systems.

As part of these efforts, TransferWise recently appointed MSL as its business PR agency. As well as promoting TransferWise’s services for and wider perspectives on business, and will help clients with specific queries, providing background information, enabling clients to be in touch with the right people or setting up and interview or written contribution.

The post With 2mn users, TransferWise is transferring over £1.5bn every month appeared first on International Finance.

This mode of service is the first in the UAE. Emiratis and residents can enjoy round-the-clock money transfer. payit customers can avail other transaction services such as payments by scanning QR codes, or through merchant partner apps and websites can be done effortlessly.

Using UAE issued debit or credit cards or FAB Cash Deposit Machines, account top-up is possible. In addition, the payit customers can easily withdraw cash at ATMs without cards or transfer the money back to their account, according to a report on Arabian Business.

Group Head of the Personal Banking Group, Hana Al Rostamani, said: “In line with our objectives to become a leader in innovation and customer-centric banking experiences, payit is a new mobile wallet solution that allows UAE residents to send and receive payments whenever and wherever they are, instantaneously.”

payit is a fully-digitised service that is safe and secure to use. The Bank said in a statement, all that users need is a valid Emirates ID to utilise the money transfer service.

“It provides an easy and convenient alternative to physical cash, which benefits merchants and customers and is aligned with the UAE’s ambition to become a cashless economy,” Al Rostamani added.

The post UAE’s digital start transforms to a cashless economy appeared first on International Finance.

Ripple on CoinDesk said, “This ground-breaking pilot program is the first of its kind to be launched by a central bank. Participating banks from the [Kingdom of Saudi Arabia] will use xCurrent to instantly settle payments sent into and out of the country, with greater transparency and lower costs.”

Most GCC countries are focused on fintechs to enhance their banking efficiency. UAE’s money transfer and forex giant Western Union has also partnered with Ripple to push real-time cross-border payments using blockchain.

Western Union CEO Hikmet Ersek told Bloomberg, “We are looking especially in the processing settlement and working capital optimization, also in the regulation part, on the compliance part on the blockchain capabilities. And we do test, we do have some tests with Ripple.”

Saudi Arabian could easily save up to US$400mn each year using the blockchain software, according to Moody’s Investor Service.

The Moody’s Report reads “Moody’s estimates that even a 10 percent reduction in the cost of completing and managing a cross-border transaction will translate to savings of roughly $200m-$400m per year system-wide.”

The post Saudi Central Bank and Ripple to carry pilot test for cross-border transactions appeared first on International Finance.

Vietnam’s PVcomBank, in its quest to provide the most updated facilities to clients by developing digital channels, has released a chain of mobile banking products called PV Mobile Banking for Android operating systems.

The product has met most utility services for customers – it has a user-friendly interface and allows for easy operation by customers. While logging in to the app for the first time, PVcomBank has a screen introducing basic features to help visualize interface functions but you can also click “ignore” if you do not want to review the content. Thanks to smart technology, customer data from the previous login can be saved, with the customer just having to enter his password to use the application again.

The Mobile 2.0 version is designed with a new, flat interface that allows customers to experience better applications. Customers can navigate various options such as ATM and Branch Network search, regular newsletters, and promotional schemes. While continuing to explore the app, the transfer function simultaneously allows customers to transfer through the ATM card or account number. The inbuilt software manages the list of beneficiaries as well, avoiding the need to remember user account numbers. With the phone working as a “transaction counter”, users can add money to their phones and manage activities such as recharge and billing information. The technological benefits aside, PV Mobile Banking 2.0 offers a slew of economic benefits such as promotions through the rental charge phone calls, network reduction charge by 10% for Vinaphone, free regime when interbank transfer takes places with any Vietnamese bank, the ability to open savings online and superior interest rates – higher than the interest rate of saving at the counter from 0.1 to 0.4%. The company made a significantly large investment in the technology to build the application for KH. Moreover, as PV-Mobile Banking products were available in two versions, initial launch of the service or project was challenging due to change of personnel and contractors participating in the project. With a dedicated team working to keep up the pace of the project, the objective of PVcom Bank was to make e-banking accessible and convenient for business development. A representative from the company said, “This is reflected in the number and value of strong transactions in monthly months in the first three months of implementation, KH responded well. The service was successful.”It is important to note that the service was deployed during the period when PVcomBank had not changed its CORE banking system, because of which the staff did not experience a lot of difficulty connecting and testing the systems.Due to careful review and testing, service connection systems are stable and smooth leading to a more than satisfactory customer experience, said PVcomBank officials.

“I am quite satisfied with PVcomBank’s Mobile Banking service as most services can be performed quickly with just a few touches on the device. E-banking, bank account inquiry, ATM, money transfer in the same system or inter-bank, payment of monthly bills (electricity and telephone), to Shopping for goods through electronic payment gateways, buying airline tickets, booking hotels. I can easily send my savings without having to go to the transaction room to be served. My smartphone has become a real “counter”.

– A satisfied PVcomBank customer

The mobile banking application is largely successful, evident from the number of transactions and their values. In 2015, 373,000 transactions were made, equivalent to 2,500 billion VND and in 2016, the number has doubled to reach 677,620 transactions with 5,999 billion VND. On the partner side, PVcomBank also received positive reviews for professionalism in the business as well as the coordination in the process of interaction, service deployment as well as the process of support for answering the complaints of the following plan when the application is put into operation.

The post Vietnamese bank scales operations to democratize banking appeared first on International Finance.

The company quietly launched its new Eurozone accounts to existing customers a month ago and has already seen 6,000 accounts opened. Over 50 different nationalities now have both a UK and Eurozone Monese account and already there is a Monese card in each of the 20 countries.

Customers are free to move anywhere in the Eurozone and the UK, safe in the knowledge that their local bank account will be accessible and usable consistently via the app in any one of eight languages. To celebrate, Monese has launched its ‘Free Movement of Money’ campaign. Giving its customers the ability to transfer their money, fee free, offering the service to the total value of €350 million across its existing and new users.

Norris Koppel, Founder and CEO of Monese, said, “Our expansion is aimed at breaking down financial barriers when crossing borders within the EU, by providing a simple way to manage your money on the go. We believe that people should be able to live, travel, and work freely, without the administrative burdens and restraints of legacy financial systems. Monese takes the stress and hassle out of making this possible — and I’m delighted that we’re already seeing a growing demand from our existing customers. To celebrate our official launch to everyone, we wanted to give all our customers an additional benefit to using Monese, by enabling them to send their money, fee free. To drive this message home, we’re taking the now infamous Brexit Bus on a tour across Europe. But changing it to a promise we know we can keep.”

Monese launched in September 2015 and was the first 100 per cent mobile bank account in the UK. In order to join, users download the app and use it to take a video selfie, providing a snap of their passport or national ID, alongside some basic profile information.

In addition to the Eurozone account, Monese users can now benefit from eight new languages.

The post Monese enters Eurozone with ‘Free Movement of Money’ offer appeared first on International Finance.

The 30 states with regulatory clearance are: Wyoming, Washington, Oregon, Kentucky, North Dakota, Nebraska, Utah, Michigan, Rhode Island, Oklahoma, Connecticut, West Virginia, Tennessee, New Hampshire, Arkansas, Maine, Arizona, Delaware, Wisconsin, Iowa, Mississippi, Indiana, Kansas, Florida, New Mexico, South Dakota, Alabama, Missouri, Montana, and South Carolina.

Conotoxia, Inc. will provide money transfer services to US citizens. A seamless and systemised global software process ensures a rapid execution speed and the safety of client funds. Conotoxia, Inc. is a subsidiary of the Cinkciarz corporate group.

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