The CEO of DBS Group Holdings in Singapore believes that Singapore may follow Hong Kong in offering virtual banking licenses;...
Local lenders in Singapore are offering consumers and small businesses relief during the current crisis; this includes a freeze on...
Marvelstone Capital is working with fintech startup Smartfolio to develop a robo advisor solution for family offices; it will target family offices based in Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, Myanmar and India; the robo advisor solution is being designed as a hybrid service for family offices with less than US$1 billion in AUM however Marvelstone will also market to family offices with AUM of US$1 billion to US$10 billion; it plans to launch the new solution in the third quarter of 2017. Source
Online lending platform Crowd Genie has obtained regulatory approval from the Monetary Authority of Singapore; launched in mid-2016 the platform seeks to match accredited investors with SMEs for a fast and efficient alternative loan financing solution; the firm has been focusing on back office processing to meet regulatory guidelines and is now planning to increase its lending with the new regulatory approval. Source
Singapore-based marketplace lender MoolahSense has added invoice financing; the service will provide another lending product for businesses; the firm's CEO says the product is intended to extend the business services it provides to underserved small businesses; the product will be available for short-term capital needs of up to $15,000 and is expected to target returns of 12% for investors. Source
The Singapore Exchange has closed a deal with online debt and equity crowdfunding platform Crowdo with terms of the deal including support for raising small and medium enterprise (SME) awareness or capital funding availability in Singapore, information sharing and cross-referral of clients; similar deal terms were included in the Singapore Exchange and PwC deal with promotion of the Singapore startup ecosystem a central component of the deal. Source
Toast aims to make cross-border payments easier and cheaper for migrant workers living overseas; the Singapore-based startup closed the $2.5 million pre-Series A round with Aetius Capital, 1776 and Pepper Group; historically, migrant workers have relied on services like Moneygram or Western Union to send money back to their families; company works with existing local remittance stores and kiosks and originally set out to use blockchain and bitcoin to power the service; CEO Aaron Siwoku stated they aren't going to replace banks and traditional lenders, but want to be meaningful partners with people who have distribution. Source
The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) has reported successful use of blockchain in inter-bank payments; the MAS blockchain inter-bank payments project began in November 2016 and was tested in partnership with R3 and a consortium of financial institutions; Deloitte will provide a report on all aspects of the project and its successes; MAS has reported a continuation of blockchain testing, next in fixed income securities trading and settlement at the Singapore Exchange and also in cross border payments using central bank digital currency; the country's active role in blockchain technology testing is also likely to influence the UNCITRAL Working Group IV which meets in April and is leading initiatives around a legal framework for cross border transactions which is likely to be based on blockchain technology. Source
Singapore based fintech company Trade Finance Market (TFM) recently launched their Invoice Check solution to cut down on trade finance fraud; the new blockchain based registry will help stop invoices from being paid more than once; they built the solution in the past year on the ethereum blockchain and it uses smart contracts; "Our system is in public beta and provides a manual method of entering invoices and having them checked against a blockchain-hosted database. This data is stored on the blockchain and funders are alerted if there is a potential risk of double financing," Raj Uttamchandani, the company's executive director, tells Global Trade Review. Source
SmartFunding has raised S$700,000 in a seed funding round led by Fintech Asia Group; the firm is marketing 20% to 30% annual returns for invoice financing investors; the invoice financing business seeks to capitalize on the Singapore market's small and medium-enterprise businesses which account for half of Singapore's GDP and approximately 70% of the country's jobs. Source