Singapore notches record US$229m fintech funding in ’17: KPMG
BUOYED by US$122.75 million of funding in the fourth quarter, Singapore achieved a record high of US$229.1 million of fintech funding in 2017, according to KPMG’s Pulse of Fintech report. The record was attained despite a dip in the number of deals done throughout the year – from 37 in 2016 to 29 in 2017. Additionally, the smaller deal base in the past year meant that each was worth an average of US$7.9 million in 2017, bettering the US$5.9 million average in 2016. The high in fintech funding was mainly attributed to two of Asia’s 10 biggest deals – with a combined value of over US$130 million – taking place […]
Malaysian company partners with Chinese Alipay in digital wallet
Malaysia has witnessed a growing mobile wallet sector since the entry of the Ant Financial’s mobile solution Alipay into the country. Many Malaysian players have hurried into the mobile payments bandwagon to step into Malaysian e-commerce market, including MOL Global Inc. The group has launched its owned mobile wallet One2pay in the last month, after partnering with Ant Financial in offering Alipay to Chinese tourists in the country. MOL Global’s CEO told Xinhua: ‘When Malaysians see Chinese tourists come to Malaysia and use Alipay, they may ask why they cannot use that? So, I think that is good that Alipay has come to the region as it has excited the […]
Belgium’s crowdfunding market doubles in size in one year
Belgium’s crowdfunding market has doubled in one year to over 22 million euros invested in 80 funding operations, according to the annual barometer of the FinTech Belgium Federation, which represents professionals in this sector (start-up, scale-up and investors). Look&Fin is the biggest lender in this sector, providing a total of 15.2 million euros for 46 operations, and thus accounting for close to 70% of the market, followed by MyMicroInvest, which financed 19 operations for a total of 4.3 million euros. The last of the top three, Bolero, funded eight operations to the sum of 1.4 million euros. Meanwhile, the market for this alternative mode of financing has become more professional […]
U.S. states join forces on fintech licenses
Banking regulators of seven U.S. states have agreed to simplify the way financial technology companies can apply for licenses, in a bid to make it easier for businesses to offer their services nationwide. The states of Georgia, Illinois, Kansas, Massachusetts, Tennessee, Texas and Washington, will recognize each other’s findings when assessing the suitability of companies applying for money service business licenses, the national organization of state bank regulators said on Tuesday. Money business licenses are used by a wide range of young digital companies that provide financial services, from money transfer startups to bitcoin exchanges. The initiative responds to longstanding complaints by fintech startups about the costly and time consuming […]
Singapore says no strong case to ban cryptocurrency trading
Singapore’s central bank has been studying the potential risks posed by cryptocurrencies, but there is as yet no strong case to ban trading of the digital coins in the city-state, Deputy Prime Minister Tharman Shanmugaratnam said. “Cryptocurrencies are an experiment. The number and different forms of cryptocurrencies is growing internationally. It is too early to say if they will succeed,” Shanmugaratnam said. “If some do succeed, their full implications will also not be known for some time,” the deputy prime minister said in a written answer to questions from members of parliament on banning the trading of bitcoin or cryptocurrency. To read more, please click on the link below… […]
North Korea is a suspect in the $530 million Coincheck cryptocurrency heist
North Korea is no stranger to cryptocurrencies: The rogue regime has been accused of launching a global ransom attack to raise bitcoin, hacking South Korean exchanges, and mining crypto both within its borders and secretly on your computers. Now, it has become a suspect in the world’s largest crypto heist, Reuters has reported. South Korea’s national spy agency told a parliamentary committee on Monday that North Korean hackers may have been behind the theft last month of about $530 million worth of digital tokens from Japanese exchange Coincheck, according to the Reuters report, which cited anonymous sources. On Jan. 26, Tokyo-based Coincheck said someone hacked into its digital wallet and […]
Cybersecurity dominates EU Fintech Action Plan
Cybersecurity takes top billing in the European Union’s upcoming Fintech Action Plan, with a draft emphasising efforts to improve cooperation and coordination between market participants and regulators. Recognising its potential threat to the stability of the financial sector, the European Parliament has called on the EC to make cybersecurity “the number one priority” in the FinTech Action Plan. In response, a plan draft identifies three specific moves: A public-private workshop to investigate barriers limiting information-sharing on cyberthreats, followed by a look into how these can be fixed. A call for the three European supervisory authorities (ESAs) to map, by Q1 2019, the existing supervisory practices across financial sectors around ICT […]
Alibaba is picking up 33% of Ant Financial, its fintech affiliate that’s valued at over $60B
Alibaba has added an additional angle to the announcement of its latest financial report today with news that it is taking a 33 percent stake in Ant Financial, its fintech affiliate that operates Alipay and other financial services. The deal, which both parties said stems from an agreement made in 2014, will see Alibaba pick up newly issued shares in Ant, seemingly paving the way for a public listing. It will also mark an end to a profit-share agreement which saw Ant give Alibaba “royalty and technology service fees” equal to 37.5 percent of its pre-tax profits each quarter. The agreement will give Alibaba direct ownership of Ant, which is […]
