DigFin VOX: Recent Episodes

Jame DiBiasio

Leading voices in digital finance, fintech, and digital assets, brought to you by DigFin, Asia's expert fintech media.

David Runacres, president APAC at Broadridge, talks about LLM adoption among capital-market players in Asia.

Tookitaki’s co-founder Jeeta Bandopadhyay discusses how AI is transforming banking compliance.

Chris Perry of Broadridge describes how agentic AI is beginning to transform capital markets.

Alex Ypsilanti is CEO of Quantifeed, a Hong Kong-based wealthtech company that helps financial institutions with digitalized wealth solutions, for private and retail banks’ relationship managers, for asset managers (the manufacturers of fund products), and for financial advisors serving high-net-worth clients.

He spoke with DigFin‘s Jame DiBiasio about trends in B2B wealthtech and how Quantifeed navigates relationships with its clients; the ongoing drive for growth; issues around data and insight; and how he sees the interplay with specialist B2C wealthtech companies.

Ypsilanti provides a window into how fintech is growing in Asia and in Europe, with Asia’s major financial centers growing into enormous wealth booking centers, and Europe continuing to lead in sophistication.

Amanda Cassatt and Caroline York of Serotonin.io speak with DigFin‘s Jame DiBiasio about their digital-marketing venture catering to both startups and financial institutions involved in emergent technologies.

Crypto relies on narrative more than a traditional financial product. Amanda and Caroline discuss the ways that conventional banks and institutions are adopting new ways to reach consumers, particularly younger, mobile-savvy people.

Amanda lays out the big trends, including AI agents and other disruptive tools, while Caroline describes the evolving nature of fintech in Asia.

Venture GP Evan Thorpe discusses how fintech is changing and how he’s investing in the space in Asia.

Wealthtech entrepreneur Chandrima Das has a new startup, Teleskop, whose evolution tracks her own story.

Circle’s Yam-ki Chan discusses stablecoin regulations, business models, and role in payments.

Chetan Karkhanis, head of ventures in APAC at Franklin Templeton, talks tech in asset management.

With experience in startups and as a bank CDO, Shameek Kundu explains how genAI is impacting fintech.

Custody is even more critical in crypto than in TradFi, argues Alessio Quaglini, founder of Hex Trust.

Hubert Knapp of Chavanette Advisors discusses the deeper implications of CBDCs on commercial banking.

The CEO of Bhutan’s sovereign wealth fund talks about building out decentralized digital identity.

Digital-money pioneer Amnon Samid argues CBDC projects based on DLT are on the wrong track.

Ned Phillips shares lessons from Bambu, the B2B wealthtech in Singapore that has shut its doors.

HSBC’s Bugra Celik describes how the bank has tokenized gold investing for retail, why, and what’s next.

Wise’s SK Saraogi talks platforms versus remittances, new products, and new competition in Asia.

Sebastien Gaudin of insurtech The CareVoice discusses how insurers are engaging digitally – and about his $10m funding raise.

Kalidas Ghose of UNO Digital Bank discusses the latest fund-raise and challenges in the Philippines.

Laurent Ischi of Tradeweb describes how automation is expanding opportunities in trading Asia bonds.

Jacqueline Pang of Artius and Claus Christensen of Know Your Customer talk regtech developments for 2024.

Octopus CEO Tim Ying talks about new pain points to solve, from cross-border payments to personal finance.

Raha Adrit of CoverGo discusses how insurers’ needs for digitalization are changing, along with the tech.

Julian Anderson, co-founder of Divit, talks about combining merchant acquiring with real-time payments.

Florian Spiegl of Evident Capital discusses why asset tokenization is on the rise.

The co-founders of Hong Kong personal-finance app Planto discuss how they’ve expanded to B2B.

Herston Powers is co-founder and partner at 1982 Ventures, a Singapore-based venture capital firm that focuses on fintech.

Herston says now is a great time for seed investing into new fintech companies in Southeast Asia. He is backing the next wave of founders, many coming out of the region's giant e-commerce businesses.

He discusses what sectors of fintech are attractive, the state of fund-raising in today's tough macro environment, and the future of IPO opportunities.

Timecodes:

0:00 - Herston Powers, 1982 Ventures

1:03 - Founding a VC company focused on fintech

5:15 - The growth thesis for Southeast Asian fintech startups

8:36 - Innovation versus regulatory arbitrage

10:39 - Managing the costs of financial compliance

11:45 - What differentiates today's fintech founders

14:46 - Which financial services verticals are promising

20:00 - Helping portfolio companies navigate surprises

22:13 - Fund raising from LPs

25:17 - Valuations

26:36 - Exit opportunities

28:11 - IPO prospects in Asia and the US

Sell-side firms are coming to grips with fees and expenses by gaining visibility over their trading costs.

Sam Rhee, co-founder of Endowus, discusses fund raising, growth versus profits, and disrupting private banks.

PropTech venture investor Ariel Shtarkman talks ESG, wealthtech and tokenization in Asia real estate.

Bancassurance is all about selling insurance products through banks. The banking channel has become extremely important to insurers throughout Asia. We are seeing the first steps toward digitizing bancassurance, which means end-to-end automation and personalization of the selling of insurance products to bank customers.

George Kesselman, Singapore-based founder of Asia InsurTech Association, tells Jame DiBiasio why digitizing bancassurance is now on the table, and what that means for making products, targeting new business segments, and the balance of power between banks and insurance companies.

Timecodes:
0:00 – George Kesselman, Asia InsurTech Association
1:56 – The beginning of digitized bancassurance
3:27 – Simple versus complex products, offline to online
5:17 – Is digital insurance bought or sold?
7:58 – How banks acquire data and share it with insurers
11:48 – Banks are realizing the full business potential of insurance
14:28 – Widening the product suite to go digital
16:29 – Whose tech stack dominates the relationship
17:59 – Bundling insurance with lending products, targeting SMEs
20:17 – Data governance and responsibilities
21:23 – Balancing of power between banks and insurers
24:05 – Opportunities for second-tier and new insurers
25:39 – Is there a role for insurtechs in distribution?
26:52 – Which Asia-Pacific markets are fastest, or slowest, to digitize bancassurance

DigFin teamed up with Guillaume Huet to explore how ChatGPT can help fintechs with business ideas.

Guillaume Huet is an A.I. and data specialist and consultant.

We asked ChatGPT to recommend the optimal business model if we were to launch a fintech startup today, with the goal of reaching $100 million in annual revenues within five years.

Huet used his prompt process to get a deeper, more insightful response. Along the way we learned more about how language-learning models work, and discussed many of the ideas that it presented us.

Timecodes:
0:00 - Guillaume Huet and our project
2:09 - Using language-learning models and external data
3:36 - Guillaume's solution to apply GPT to our goal
6:34 - Creating personas within GPT to interrogate our model
9:20 - Promising if mixed results, and what to expect
11:48 - Some of the fintech themes that GPT raised
13:03 - What to make of answers that surprise
14:44 - GPT's ideas about revenue models, like automating investment banking
16:42 - GPT's suggestions for using emerging technologies, eg quantum computing
19:23 - Jame's persona within the GPT asks some bizarre questions
22:08 - GPT's thought process behind persistent themes, eg open banking
24:42 - Predictive failure analysis and other new ideas
27:57 - AR/VR in capital markets and other glimpses of the future

Fintechs often need to change business strategy to survive. Co-founders Victor Lang and Ray Wyand discuss how they realized their earlier versions of their fintech, Gini, was not working – and how they eventually found a product that could scale.

Wyand and Lang tell Jame DiBiasio the issues they have faced in both B2C and B2B markets, the challenges of going market by market, and what kind of revenues a VC-backed startup has to aim for.

They also share how they have worked with their investors, the solution they have found, and new challenges around going global from a base in Hong Kong.

Timecodes:
0:00 – Victor Lang and Ray Wyand, gini
1:07 – From open banking in B2C to the “death zone”
3:15 – The hard path of B2B and trying to shorten sales cycles
5:14 – Can startups control their own destiny?
7:01 – Finding a path to revenues and scale
8:08 – Being ready to sell globally as a fintech
9:49 – Selling data insights to the VC industry
14:49 – When to ask investors for help, and what to ask for
18:23 – How to defend your idea against the competition
21:04 – Gini’s journey to eventual big-time revenues
23:30 – The challenges of going global

Maaike Steinebach is founder of Femtech Futures, a Hong Kong-based venture investment firm supporting startups in the tech space dedicated to women’s health and wellbeing.

Steinebach tells Jame DiBiasio about her journey from fintech to femtech, and how they are similar. She discusses the opportunity set, including backing B2B and B2C startups, and where she sees the space headed.

She puts femtech into the context of Web3, data sovereignty, and digital identity – particularly in the context of Asia’s many societies.

Timecodes:
0:00 – Maaike Steinebach, Femtech Futures
2:15 – From fintech to femtech: Maaike’s journey
3:56 – Democratization and equal access to healthcare
5:49 – Leading venture investment into femtech
9:14 – The corporate landscape: employers, big pharma
9:56 – B2B business models versus B2C in femtech
13:34 – Driving market awareness and creating B2B opportunities
15:42 – Femtech’s place within the fintech universe
17:42 – Data sharing and open finance
18:20 – Web3, data sovereignty and digital identity
22:14 – Gamification and Web3 experiences for women
23:12 – Femtech in Asia and women’s health as software

Paul Harapin is APAC leader at payments fintech Stripe.

He discusses two topics: how Stripe is leveraging artificial intelligence, and its roadmap in Asia Pacific.

Harapin tells DigFin‘s Jame DiBiasio that Stripe is incorporating ChatGPT and other language-learning models. This is partly to support clients such as ChatGPT’s creator, OpenAI, but also to help derive better outcomes in Stripe’s business.

Following layoffs at the company in the wake of the tech crash, Harapin outlines Stripe’s priorities in Asia and where the company sees innovation from the region making its way to other parts of the world.

Timecodes:
0:00 – Paul Harapin, Stripe
1:16 – Stripe’s strategy for artificial intelligence
4:38 – What AI companies are doing in the payments space
6:11 – Managing risks of ChatGPT
7:33 – The impact AI may have on payments processing
9:39 – The risks as AI gets more powerful
11:20 – Stripe’s valuation rollercoaster, where it’s cutting, where it’s investing
17:03 – Cross-border expansion in Asia
17:44 – Asia’s importance to the Stripe business
19:18 – Asia’s different competitive landscape for Stripe
22:36 – Innovations from Asia that can go global

Gourab Mukherjee is co-founder and CEO of Singapore-based insurtech Aktivo Labs. Aktivo provides wellness apps to insurance companies and reinsurers that are meant to help change people’s behavior.

As Mukherjee explains to Jame DiBiasio, about 30% of longevity is within people’s control. Smoking, substance abuse and poor diet, versus good diets, exercise, and getting a decent night’s sleep all impact our health. And digital technology is getting better at turning that into scores that insurers use to price policies.

But are these apps really changing behavior? Are they personalized enough to be effective? As the reward the virtuous, are they making inequality worse, particularly in emerging markets? Mukherjee fields these and other questions about wellness and insurtech.

Timecodes:
0:00 – Gourab Mukherjee, Aktivo
1:37 – Longevity and the challenges of “healthspans”
3:17 – Demographics of health and at-risk populations in emerging markets
5:19 – Impact of Covid-19 on the wellness industry
6:13 – Do health apps change user behavior – at scale?
9:49 – Personalization and creating scores for individuals
14:51 – How insurance companies and reinsurers use these apps
17:51 – The challenges of socio-economic inequality and insurance premiums
20:43 – Integrity of data and gaming the system
22:30 – Aktivo’s funding, and moving from startup to sustainable business

Naveen Mallela of JP Morgan explains how tokenized deposits will enable commercial banking on blockchain.

Emmanuel Daniel is author of "The Great Transition: The Personalization of Finance is Here".

He discusses the themes of his book (reviewed here) detailing how technology renders financial intermediaries unprofitable, and the need for both banks and fintechs to reassess what value they deliver to customers.

"ED" is founder of The Asian Banker, a Singapore-based business magazine for consumer and corporate banks. He has been delivering forward-looking speeches at his events for years and has now encapsulated his thinking into "The Great Transition".

He speaks with Jame DiBiasio about why personalization and data are finally dragging financial services into the Information Age and what that means for products, starting with the most basic of all, the bank deposit account.

Timecodes:
0:00 - Emmanuel Daniel and writing his book
2:05 - How the Information Age is empowering individuals
4:43 - Personalization and its data, and how fintechs become disrupted themselves
9:52 - Innovating financial products and the financialization of just about everything
14:14 - Disintermediating bank deposit accounts away from banks
19:27 - Turning digital wallets into tokens and the utilization of deposits
22:41 - The corruption of B2B fintech
25:18 - The speed and direction of change, problems platforms, and reimagining value propositions
28:10 - M&A, marketing, and creating an enduring business in financial services

Alice Chen and Julian Kwan are co-founders of InvestaX, a Singapore-based fintech focused on digital-asset tokenization.

Chen and Kwan discuss the evolution of tokenization, as a concept and a real-world activity, and how that is different from crypto markets. They discuss the future of financial intermediaries and the role of smart contracts.

They also talk about Asia’s return to the spotlight in wake of regulatory battles over crypto in the US, and what should happen next to help tokenization become a mainstream reality.

Timecodes:
0:00 – Julian Kwan and Alice Chen
1:45 – Founding InvestaX and bridging TradFi and DeFi
4:15 – Selecting a domicile for a tokenization startup
7:53 – What is tokenization?
9:03 – Tokenized assets versus derivatives
11:33 – A brief history of tokenization
16:37 – Eliminating intermediaries in the post-FTX world
20:24 – Are smart contracts “ready for prime time?”
23:32 – Opportunities in Asia Pacific
27:09 – Importance of CBDCs and stablecoins
29:56 – Working together

Dušan Stojanović and his colleagues at True Global Ventures invest in blockchain and artificial-intelligence companies, backing many businesses in Web3 and metaverse-themed businesses.

He spoke with Jame DiBiasio about the convergence of generative AI models (such as ChatGPT) and Web3 businesses as a medium-term play. In the short term he is investing in AI businesses that sell to non-tech companies.

Stojanović talks about how startups are faring against giant corporations, data uses, and how the tools of AI are transforming the business of venture capital.

Timecodes
0:00 – Dušan Stojanović, True Global Ventures
2:40 – Framing a medium-term focus on investment themes
4:18 – Why did the AI+ blockchain theme not work in recent years?
6:41 – How can VC and startups compete in AI versus corporate giants?
8:50 – Real-world applications for various industries
11:55 – Finance industry issues around data, security, sovereignty
14:31 – Decentralized data in Web3 versus controlling big data sets
18:25 – Inserting generative AI into Web3 business models
23:11 – Governance in Web3 and metaverse spaces
26:39 – The impact of generative AI on Web3 and traditional businesses
28:52 – And its impact on the VC industry and investment decisions

Bertrand Billon is founder of Singapore-based fintech iLex, which is pioneering a digital platform for syndicated loans and other forms of private debt.

Loans, unlike bonds, are designed to be bespoke, and traditionally have been difficult to trade. iLex is trying to foster a digital marketplace among private capital players and banks, to create new sources of liquidity in loans.

Billon speaks with Jame DiBiasio about the challenges of creating such a platform from scratch and the possibilities for transforming this large but opaque segment of capital markets.

Timecodes:
0:00 – Bertrand Billon, iLex
02:09 – Why haven’t loans been digitized before?
03:32 – How to accommodate the idiosyncratic nature of loans
05:49 – Creating liquidity
7:24 – Changing conditions: the rise of private capital, rising interest rates
9:43 – Securitization and its risks
11:28 – Developing the ecosystem for trading loans
14:36 – Asia versus Europe versus US
16:44 – Chicken and egg: jumpstarting a marketplace
20:01 – Size of digital loans market versus traditional syndication business
22:40 – Developed versus emerging markets
23:45 – VC funding conditions for fintechs, iLex’s valuation
27:02 – Future exit goals

Ambre Soubiran is founder of Kaiko, which provides market data on crypto to institutional investors.

She talks about the impact on the digital-assets industry from the closure of crypto-friendly banks in the US, why banks are still building infrastructure for digital assets, and the promise of smart contracts for traditional structured products and derivatives.

Soubiran looks at challenges such as public versus private blockchains, how to source data from blockchains, standards, and interoperability.

Timecodes:
0:00 – Ambre Soubiran, Kaiko
2:00 – Data for smart contracts and founding Kaiko
5:18 – Pace of banks adopting blockchain infrastructure
8:12 – Public versus private, permissioned chains
11:16 – Is Ethereum now a security?
14:06 – New sources of demand for crypto data, Asia’s promise
18:38 – Standards and teaming up with Bloomberg
22:20 – Engaging with risk teams on trading floors
24:25 – How to source data in a blockchain world
26:25 – Kaiko’s business risks post bank closures in the US
29:56 – Fundraising

Monica Jasuja is an engineer and product manager who has led payments teams at PayPal, Mastercard, GoTo and elsewhere. She is one of the most knowledgeable people in the region when it comes to fintech.

Jasuja speaks with Jame DiBiasio about the key trends in the post-Covid era. Her analysis is balanced, noting the failure by many fintechs, banks, and governments to change consumer habits away from cash. On the other hand she discusses where she sees great potential for uptake.

As she goes through changing business models, Jasuja also touches on the implications for valuing fintech startups, lessons from China, and the foundational importance in Southeast and South Asia of government initiatives for financial inclusion.

Timecodes:
0:00 – Monica Jasuja and her career
2:58 – Challenges in Southeast Asia for super-app models
4:53 – The enduring use of cash, the limits of financial inclusion, how to change habits, and how to get users to pay for services
7:51 – Creating sustainable fintech businesses, the changing business playbook, reassessing a product’s value post-Covid
11:07 – What makes a product successful, Asia’s peculiar needs, neobanking in Asia, identifying the right problems to solve
14:24 – The essential role of government in Southeast Asia fintech, digital literacy, how to grow consumer spending
18:01 – Financial literacy, gamification, knowing customers, why UPI hasn’t grown faster, reaching beyond top-tier cities
21:52 – Lessons from China, what works and what doesn’t, why Southeast Asia is different
25:02 – How to value tech companies, rethinking how we fund startups
27:48 – Are CBDCs relevant? Finding use cases, integrating the region’s domestic payment systems, benefits for business users

CUSTOMIZE

Kevin Kang, co-founder of payments fintech Reap, discusses the trends behind virtual cards for SME and enterprise users.

This is a segment of the fintech segment industry that brings credit-card like features to businesses using credit to manage working capital and cash needs. How big is it, and how disruptive?

Kevin discusses with Jame DiBiasio the market’s trajectory post Covid, compares it to traditional card and transaction banking businesses, and Reap’s funding situation.

Timecodes:
0:00 – Kevin Kang, Reap
1:55 – Fintech business after Covid
5:15 – What’s a virtual card, pricing, fees, economics, comparison with traditional card business
9:49 – Reap’s B2B business segments, pain points for enterprises
12:41 – Data
13:33 – The virtual cards industry and growth areas
16:10 – Disrupting traditional finance
17:45 – Looking beyond B2B
20:38 – Card cash management versus transaction banking
22:28 – Web3 users, pain points, crypto fallout
26:24 – Role of AI
27:14 – Reap’s funding, VC milestones, valuation, exit
30:34 – Growth versus profitability

Helene Li is co-founder and CEO of GoImpact, a startup advisory and investment firm focused on sustainable finance.

She spoke with DigFin‘s Jame DiBiasio about the state of ESG in Asia, the role of fintech, and reasons why financial institutions will be able to manage ESG exposures more effectively.

Timecodes
0:00 – Helene Li, GoImpact
1:33 – State of ESG in Asia
2:46 – The different roles of Hong Kong and Singapore
8:18 – Convergence among standards and investment practices
13:36 – ESG transformation versus digital transformation
16:16 – Pricing carbon markets and integrating them into balance sheets
19:43 – What’s needed to accelerate change
22:10 – The role of fintech
25:10 – Important skillsets and experience for ESG careers
27:06 – What’s next for GoImpact and measuring success

Benjamin Quinlan of Quinlan & Associates argues that Hong Kong’s incumbent insurance companies are now at risk of losing market share if they do not adopt digital, direct-to-consumer businesses.

Quinlan discusses the rise of virtual insurance companies, which are bringing policies to market that are cheaper and sometimes better.

He speaks with Jame DiBiasio about the costs of maintaining the status quo, the possibility that incumbents will opt to maintain agency networks, and the challenges of digital transformation.

Timecodes:
0:00 – Benjamin Quinlan, Quinlan & Associates
1:00 – Why Hong Kong’s insurance companies must go direct to consumer
4:33 – Early uses of digital to support insurance agents
6:48 – Incumbent apps, engagement, traction
8:16 – Confronting old and new business models
10:06 – Impact of digital on products and margins
12:28 – Challenge of legacy IT systems
15:36 – The allure of business as usual post-Covid
17:32 – Can bancassurance replace lost revenues?
20:14 – Embracing health and fitness apps
21:47 – Risks to the virtual insurers post-Covid

Ganesh Rengaswamy is managing partner at Quona Capital, based in Bangalore. His VC firm has just raised a fund focused on fintech in emerging markets.

Rengaswamy speaks with Jame DiBiasio about why invest in fintech now, making decisions in the new macro environment, and what fintech business models look attractive – and which do not.

He also discusses how fintech can scale across the region, the importance of public digital infrastructure, and the rewards of backing companies that drive financial inclusion.

Timecodes:
0:00 – Ganesh Rengaswamy, Quona Capital
1:45 – Why raise a fintech fund, and why now
4:05 – Standalone versus embedded fintech use cases
6:41 – Opportunities in the new macro environment
9:14 – Attractive early-stage fintech business models
15:30 – Unattractive business models
19:47 – Investing in digital banks
20:51 – Hard tech/IP versus business model innovation in fintech
24:13 – Impact of public digital infrastructure
27:59 – Scaling fintech businesses internationally
29:23 – Making money via financial inclusion strategies

Andi Taufan, founder and CEO of Jakarta-based fintech Amartha, discusses financial inclusion and creating digital financial services for the unbanked.

Many of his customers (both individuals and small businesses) in Indonesia don’t even own a mobile phone, let alone have a bank account, and they depend on cash. How is he building a digital world for them?

Taufan talks about his hybrid business between offline and online, giving people access to digital finance, and the surprisingly lucrative business and investment returns this can create.

Timecodes:
0:00 – Andi Taufan Garuda Putra, Amartha
1:01 – Amartha’s founding and building microfinance in Indonesia
3:27 – Enabling digital access and financial inclusion
6:20 – Sourcing data in an offline world
9:44 – Why banks and fintech partners like the business
12:12 – Migrating cash-based users to a mobile app
14:15 – Competing versus Big Tech and SEAsia platforms
17:00 – Macro challenges
19:02 – Funding, working with VCs
20:40 – Outlook for growth in 2023
22:00 – Challenges for a P2P platform
24:24 – Scale, mission, and the business model

Mark Munoz is managing partner at Vectr Fintech Partners, a global venture-capital firm based in Hong Kong.

Munoz speaks with Jame DiBiasio about the new, challenging macro conditions for startups and VCs, the new landscape for valuations, and his approach to investing in fintech companies in Asia.

Munoz also discusses his take on digital assets, artificial intelligence, and what he’s looking for in the next pitch deck.

Timecodes:
0:00 – Mark Munoz, Vectr Fintech Partners
1:40 – Comparing today’s turmoil to the Dot-Com bust
4:46 – Macro impact on Vectr’s portfolio
6:56 – How company valuations in Asia are changing
9:56 – VC operating models in the new macro environment
12:20 – What he’s looking for in different fintech segments
15:00 – Investing in Asia and emerging markets
17:50 – Challenges of scaling portfolio companies
20:12 – Blockchain and digital assets
23:27 – Artificial intelligence in fintech
26:40 – Advice to founders making a pitch

How are the global payments companies, which built their legacy business on credit cards, growing in Asia?

Ari Sarker, president for Asia Pacific at Mastercard, tells Jame DiBiasio what opportunities are emerging for his industry. He discusses the economic outlook and managing the risks of deglobalization, along with the opportunities of e-commerce and digital economies in Asia.

He says debit now makes up as much business as credit cards, and describes how the firm is positioning itself to support financial inclusion, narrow the digital divide in societies, and find ways to drive new businesses.

Timecodes:
0:00 – Ari Sarker, Mastercard
1:01 – Macro volatility and momentum in Asian economies
4:15 -Debit cards and wallets versus legacy credit card business
8:43 – Competition in new-economy payments and finance
11:53 – Asia’s digital leapfrog and tech’s role in meeting financial needs
15:21 – Narrowing the digital divide, boosting domestic growth
16:25 – Risks of deglobalization and the need for domestic partnerships
18:02 – Acquirer business, new revenues
20:22 – BNPL, crypto, and managing innovation and risk
24:39 – Tokenization in e-commerce and the future direction of digital payments

Benedicte Nolens is head of the Hong Kong Innovation Hub at the Bank of International Settlements. Her team has just released technical details for the workings of retail and wholesale central-bank digital currencies: digital cash. The project is called “Aurum”, Latin for gold.

Nolens, a former Goldman Sachs compliance head and fintech regulator at the Securities and Futures Commission, is at the forefront of CBDC research in Asia.

She speaks with DigFin‘s Jame DiBiasio about CBDC design choices, why many central banks are going to adopt them, and the particular experience in Hong Kong that can help shape the underlying structure of the future of money, both here and worldwide.

Timecodes:
0:00 – Benedicte Nolens, BIS Innovation Hub HK
1:22 – Why she’s excited about releasing Project Aurum
2:08 – Do ordinary people need a CBDC?
4:07 – The differences between intermediated CBDCs and stablecoins
6:48 – The roles of central banks and of commercial banks
8:33 – HK’s example of commercial-bank issued notes as inspiration
10:03 – Counterparty risk and private stablecoins
11:04 – Aurum as a potential model for global adoption
13:32 – The tech: how distributed or permissioned is Aurum?
15:41 – Crossborder use cases and interoperability among CBDCs
18:28 – Private fintech initiatives, what drives change and adoption
23:24 – what’s next: pilots, use cases, privacy, financial inclusion

How quickly will robo-advisory take off in Asia?

\Kelvin Lei is co-founder of Magnum Research, the Hong Kong company behind Aqumon, a robo-advisor business that caters both to wealth managers and has a direct consumer platform.

Aqumon is also notable for working for banks both in mainland China and externally.

Lei discusses with Jame DiBiasio why robo and wealthtech is growing fast in Hong Kong, the opportunities for Hong Kong-mainland integrated business (“the Greater Bay Area”) and the next drivers of the industry.

Timecodes
0:00 – Kelvin Lei, Aqumon
1:08 – State of robo advisory in Asia
3:16 – SaaS portfolio construction versus product selection
5:07 – Serving retail and private banks
7:38 – Robo’s value proposition for private banks
9:59 – Wealth management’s future
11:05 – HK/SG versus mainland Chinese clients
16:40 – What to expect from Greater Bay Area
18:13 – Accessing engineering talent in Shenzhen
21:07 – Assets under management, profitability
22:26 – Fund raising from VCs
23:22 – Project with Two Sigma
25:15 – The direction of technology’s travel
26:28 – Gamification in wealth management
27:20 – The future of wealthtech in Hong Kong

Jesse Chenard is founder of MonetaGo, a Singapore-based fintech specializing in digitizing trade and detecting fraud.

Chenard discusses his career with Jame DiBiasio, beginning with his entrepreneurial history in video advertizing and his eventual move into fintech.

He talks about the startup’s various pivots, including starting as a blockchain solution but evolving more to a cloud-based software provider for financial services.

Chenard also touches on the business’s early days in India, its partnership with SWIFT, and its new onboarding with global banks.

Timecodes:
0:00 – Jesse Chenard, MonetaGo
0:59 – Early tech career, inventing video ad tech, mentoring startups, dabbling in crypto
4:06 – Exploring trade finance, early setbacks for crypto business, landing in India
8:26 – Relations with RBI, developing fraud-detection, partnering with SWIFT in India
11:38– Pitching banks, expanding their trade finance books
12:59 – Expanding cross-border, fragmented trade registries, pricing models, APIs
14:29 – First fintech API partner with SWIFT global, problems scaling with blockchain, moving to Google secure computing, remaining elements of DLT
18:00 – Use cases for blockchain in supply-chain finance
20:28 – Is there a future for DLT consortiums?
22:10 – Ethereum and other public blockchains
23:44 – Next for MonetaGo, new data uses, assembling bank networks
26:39 – Fund raising in 2022
29:22 – Banks using data to detect trade-finance fraud, future of the industry
33:42 – What’s next

Ned Phillips, co-founder and CEO of Singapore-based Bambu, discusses the state of robo-advisory business in Asia.

Based in Singapore, Bambu is one of several leading B2B wealthtechs, designing A.I.-led investment solutions for financial institutions to serve to their consumers.

Phillips speaks with DigFin‘s Jame DiBiasio about growth in the business, its impact on banks’ traditional role as distributors of investment products, and how it is changing the way asset management companies see their role.

He concludes with why robo needs to stay boring even if that means short-term underperformance for the industry.

Timecodes:
0:00 – Ned Phillips, Bambu
1:10 – State of wealthtech, AUM still small but gaining momentum
4:38 – Why banks are worried about robo’s business model, pace of business, customer experience
7:31 – Digitizing wealth management, fees versus customer retention
8:51 – What are the long-term advantages of banks and asset managers, how do they remain relevant
11:30 – Asset managers acquiring robo-advisors, and going direct to consumers
13:54 – Retirement-focused products stay boring, and use of data to understand customers
16:38 – Embedded finance, data sharing, and robo, products and incentives to reward long-term investing
18:50 – Changing long-term investing behavior, what are the appropriate goals and how to reward meeting them
20:55 – Robo-advisors versus mobile brokers, the dangers of gamification, and why robo businesses may disappoint
24:33 – The endurance of Asia’s bank-distribution model for funds

Coenraad Jonker is CEO of Tyme Bank, a neo-bank that originated in South Africa and is now serving customers in the Philippines.

Coen speaks with Jame DiBiasio about how challenger banks can be profitable while pursuing goals around financial inclusion, as well as the business, data and tech models required to succeed.

Tyme has a hybrid model involving in-store kiosks that gives it a twist in the market. He outlines the factors that made Tyme decide to enter the Philippines and why it is also now looking to get a license in Pakistan, and concludes by thinking about what digital banking may look like in the coming years.

Timecodes:
0:00 – Coen Jonker, Tyme Bank
1:24 – Coen’s transition from traditional banking to digital banking
2:14 – How challenger banks can make money: cost base, tech, user experience
4:07 – Balancing a digital bank within a regulated environment, banks versus fintechs
5:46 – Funding sources, deposits, transactions
7:58 – What differentiates Tyme as a neo-bank
10:36 – Tyme’s physical kiosks
12:46 – Making a neo-bank a customer’s primary account
14:11 – The opportunity in the Philippines…
15:58 – …versus other emerging markets in Asia
17:36 – Competing with other digital banks in the Philippines
19:51 – Managing relations with a powerful distribution partner
20:45 – The strategy behind entering Pakistan
22:37 – Open banking, data in and data out, data use cases
25:48 – Scaling digital banking across countries
28:21 – 5G, IoT and the digital bank of the future

Custody for digital assets remains a hurdle for licensed financial institutions. Swen Werner and Irfan Ahmad of State Street Digital speak with Jame DiBiasio about the challenges of a traditional custodian building a new way of doing business in the world of digital assets.

The premise of peer-to-peer crypto is for users to "be your own bank". But institutions have compliance, risk, and licensing requirements that require a third-party custodian.

There are also issues around how to reimagine custody for assets that are currently either stored in hot wallets, exposed to risk, or offline in cold wallets and inert.

Building solutions for traditional investors is also complicated by the fast-moving nature of crypto markets. But as traditional players in securities and asset services such as State Street to advance the nature of custody for digital assets, they are also bringing those innovations back to the world of traditional securities.

Timecodes:

0:00 - Swen Werner and Irfan Ahmad of State Street Digital

1:00 - Challenges of custody in digital assets, building a platform for institutions

4:07 - Making P2P tech work for regulated institutions, processes versus code, new concepts of workflows

7:44 - Regulation and what is permitted in different jurisdictions, how regulators perceive ownership

10:31 - With custody solutions, how big will inflows be from traditional investors?

11:52 - What kind of digital assets will be in demand, and for what purposes - building for new transaction models

14:06 - Security and overcoming the division between hot and cold wallets

15:43 - Multiparty computation, how it works, risk management in traditional custody versus relying on onchain security

19:02 - How traditional institutions keep pace with change in digital assets

21:38 - Agreeing to definitions and taxonomy in digital assets

24:41 - What standards does State Street Digital hope to set?

27:48 - Convergence between crypto and traditional markets, bringing digital-asset infrastructure to the traditional securities world.

How close are financial institutions to operating on blockchain rails – and why do they want to be there? Nicole Olson and Patrick Campos speak with Jame DiBiasio about foundational changes.

Nicole is with State Street Digital, the new division at the global custodian bank, working on product design and innovation. She discusses how State Street is approaching blockchain to serve asset managers and asset owners, and how the technology is sweeping through the industry.

Joining her is Patrick from Securrency, a blockchain-related technology company that works with banks such as State Street to help build the tools so they can integrate traditional operations with blockchain models, from DeFi automation to compliance.

Timecodes:

0:00 - Nicole Olsen and Patrick Campos

1:06 - The big questions in DLT and tokenization for buy sides

4:11 - Crypto innovations adapted for institutional DLT

6:36 - Are banks playing offense or defense?

9:07 - Building hybrid apps that can interface with blockchains without being native

12:57 - Financial institutions are still stuck on mainframes so how can they ever do blockchain?

16:00 - Public versus private chains, ecosystems and interoperability

18:29 - How to create interoperability, standards, and "SWIFT on steroids"

21:52 - Turning the role of intermediaries inside out, helping clients know the asset rather than reconcile positions

23:16 - How ready are buy sides, do fund management CEOs really understand digital assets?

26:03 - Next milestones, from private markets to a digital dollar

Alex Manson is a leader at SC Ventures, the fintech venture arm of Standard Chartered Bank.

He speaks with Jame DiBiasio about SCV's structure, which is partly corporate venture, partly venture capital fund, and partly an incubator of the bank's own "intrapreneurs". SCV now has about 30 portfolio companies, from trade finance to digital assets.

Alex discusses how SCV defines success, its impact on the parent bank, its investments in licensed digital banking businesses, and what's next.

Timecodes:

0:00 - Alex Manson, SC Ventures

1:31 - Lessons from investing in fintech companies

4:00 - SC Ventures' impact on Standard Chartered Bank

6:07 - Working with fintechs, whether third party or via SCV, from onboarding to projects

9:13 - SCV's model versus classic venture capital

12:23 - How agile are fintechs spun out of the bank, are they independent enough?

15:34 - The business logic of how SCV builds portfolios of fintech companies

19:27 - Portfolio companies versus platforms, and the role of Mox and Trust virtual banks in the SCV stable

23:41 - Challenges for virtual banks versus tech companies - market fit, scale

29:35 - External financing and exits

31:00 - What's next!

Scott Treloar is founder of Noviscient, a fintech that is creating digital solutions for asset managers.

Treloar, who has a background in asset management, discusses why it's been difficult for the industry to go digital, and what Novsicient is bringing to the space.

He describes how technology makes it easier to allow emerging managers – often the ones with the best performance compared to large, more marketing-oriented businesses – to provide their strategies to big institutional investors.

Timecodes:

0:00 - Scott Treloar, Noviscient

1:13 - Asset management companies are struggling with going digital

2:52 - Turning information flows into digital info - how Noviscient does it, adding value to AM clients, helping AMs with operational efficiency

6:14 - How fintechs can help asset managers move beyond legacy processes

9:54 - Versus traditional outsourcing of middle office functions to banks

11:30 - New tech stacks, open source, modular plug-n-play

13:32 - Who are Noviscient's clients?

16:05 - The needs of scale and giving large investors access to small and emerging managers

21:40 - Using cloud and AI

24:10 - Sequential decision analytics, big data versus structured data

26:37 - Catalyzing deep change in the asset-management industry

Miles Wen is CEO of Hong Kong startup Fano Labs, a developer of deep networks and other AI tools to understand voices - to translate what people say, as well as add insights around the context of those conversations. It's a service that financial institutions are using today for monitoring wealth managers, among other things.

Wen speaks with Jame DiBiasio about the state of AI today, how banks are integrating (or struggling to integrate) AI solutions, regtech's growth prospects, and Fano Labs' going IPO.

Timecodes:

0:00 - Miles Wen and Fano Labs' work with AI

3:05 - Generating insights from people speaking multiple languages

5:44 - Real world uses for AI and regtech, including how firms sell investment products

10:48 - How special is Fano Labs' work and how different is its business model?

15:53 - Evolution of AI and deep learning models

18:29 - Working with banks in fintech/AI

19:25 - Fano's bank clients and creating new use cases

23:46 - How good are banks at integrating AI solutions?

28:04 - Regulators pushing for regtech solutions

30:05 - Fano Labs' IPO plans

Stacey Lacy is managing director at Citi where she leads its technology and operations for Asia, including consumer and corporate banking, capital markets, and wealth management.

A 25-year veteran at the bank, she is helping the bank digitize across all of its products, so as to better serve its clients and improve time to market.

Lacy spoke with DigFIn's Jame DiBiasio about migrating operation to cloud, using data to personalize services, navigating Asia's data sovereignty laws, and partnering with fintechs. She concludes by explaining where financial institutions lie along the curve of next-gen tech, including AI, blockchain, and 5G.

Timecodes:

0:00 - Stacey Lacy, Citi

1:59 - Digital transformation at Citi as it pivots out of some consumer markets

3:15 - Adopting cloud and cloud infrastructure

5:01 - Digitizing the client onboarding process

6:29 - Client data becoming an asset

8:37 - Legacy systems and transitions to the new

10:15 - Seeking operational efficiency in diverse Asia region

11:57 - Citi's approach to cloud architecture

13:38 - Personalization for HNW and corporate clients

15:00 - Asia's data sovereignty laws, and compliant solutions

17:35 - Partnering with fintechs, sourcing them, onboarding

21:34 - What fintech solutions is Lacy looking for today

22:26 - Are banks resisting digital transformation, and their end-to-end strategy

23:40 - Quick tour of next-gen tech, AI, digital assets, tokenization, 5G, IoT

28:36 - Talent and how to keep learning

Today in many countries we can send a payment locally with just a phone number or email address – so why can't companies do the same internationally?

Navin Gupta, MD of Ripple for South Asia and MENA, speaks with DigFin's Jame DiBiasio about the technological and business race to solve this massive problem.

He talks about the challenges, the benefits of a blockchain-based solution, the impact if we see central-bank digital currencies appear, dealing with regulators, and Ripple's progress.

Timecodes:

0:00 - Navin Gupta, Ripple and his career in banking, startups, and tech

3:15 - Trends in global payments, demand for instant settlements for crossborder transactions

4:34 - Why do we need blockchain for this problem, benefits of decentralization, combing messaging with value transfer

6:44 - Ripple's consensus mechanism, just how decentralized is it, its service offering, impact on liquidity

10:26 - Is there value for banks to retain their nostro/vostro correspondent accounts if they have RTGS?

12:13 - Does RTGS require a cryptocurrency to operate, how does this scale the network

14:40 - Impact on Ripple's model if central banks issue digital currencies

16:47 - Aftermath of this year's crypto meltdown on regulation, due diligence

19:31 - What's "good" regulation mean? Examples?

22:16 - Bank adoption of RippleNet versus use by fintechs

24:23 - Ripple's legal battle with the US SEC over XRP

25:33 - Asia markets where Ripple is gaining traction, or not

26:55 - How long until large crossborder payments are just one click?

29:40 - Reaching escape velocity

Jennifer O'Rourke is head of digital design and strategy at Depository Trust and Clearing Corp. She discusses DTCC's latest blockchain experiment, Project Lithium, to support the post-trade processing of a "digital dollar", should the Congress and Federal Reserve promote a US central-bank digital currency.

Timecodes:

0:00 - Jennifer O'Rourke, DTCC

1:10 - Impact of innovation on financial services

2:55 - Lessons from previous blockchain experiments

5:01 - Why blockchain technology?

7:19 - Project Lithium and supporting a digital dollar

9:10 - Versus modernizing America's legacy infrastructure

12:33 - Industry demand for instant settlement

16:02 - What comes first, digital securities or digital cash?

19:20 - Interoperability among CBDCs and other assets

21:40 - Lessons from Asia's pilots

24:29 - How to create standards with new tech

27:30 - Immutability, and public vs private chains

29:31 - Stablecoins and regulation

32:20 - How to measure Lithium's success

25:42 - Is the US at risk of falling behind China?

Adrian Chng is an investor in fintech companies whose group, Fintonia, is now focused on crypto – in particular, trying to bridge the traditional world of finance with Bitcoin. He spoke with Jame DiBiasio about Fintonia's ambitions and what the crypto industry looks like in the wake of recent turmoil, such as the collapse of a leading stablecoin.

Timecodes:

0:00 - Adrian Chng, Fintonia

1:31 - From banking to fintech

4:55 - Investing in the thesis of mainstream Bitcoin

6:43 - The stability of payments using crypto

9:16 - Bridging traditional finance and Bitcoin

11:56 - Balance-sheet tools in digital assets

12:58 - Is Bitcoin suitable for treasuries and institutions?

15:36 - Is Bitcoin really a store of value?

19:27 - Lessons from the collapse of Terra stablecoin

23:06 - The centralized nature of crypto markets

25:40 - Purpose of crypto versus stablecoins or CBDCs

26:37 - ESG concerns

30:28 - What's next

Rama Sridhar is responsible for all of Mastercard's new payments, emerging tech, and digital solutions in Asia Pacific. She speaks with DigFin's Jame DiBiasio about how technology is changing the way Mastercard makes decisions, exciting changes afoot in payments, and the massive opportunities as millions of people diversify from relying solely on cash.

Timecodes:

0:00 - Rama Sridhar, Mastercard

1:20 - Sridhar's career in tech, banking, payments – and tech again

2:41 - How technology now drives decision-making

3:29 - Legacy models, advantage or handicap?

5:37 - Changes in the payments landscape, and how to adapt

7:48 - Accessing new customer segments and demographics in Asia

10:32 - Assessing the viability of new business models

13:12 - Managing individual market variation

14:22 - Financial inclusion – practical outcomes versus buzzword

19:27 - Blockchain, metaverse, and other new models of interest

21:26 - Managing the risk of new tech/business models

22:36 - Real-time payments, digital banks, and other success stories

25:34 - Interoperability and the biggest gaps to bridge

28:18 - Workforce inclusion and mentoring

Jason Tu is founder of MioTech, one of Asia's pioneers in bringing data analytics to environmental, social and governance risk for investors and corporations. Jason speaks with DigFin's Jame DiBiasio about ESG trends, Asia's role, and how fintech and data are making new business models possible.

Timecodes:

0:00 - Jason Tu, MioTech

1:10 - MioTech and ESG data

2:22 - China/Asia ESG requirements

4:34 - Pace of change for financial institutions

6:39 - Some ESG factors count more than others!

8:10 - Collecting ESG data

9:56 - Stakeholder v. shareholder capitalism

13:12 - Does ESG create greenwashing?

14:40 - The necessity of global standards

15:41 - Powering investors via data

16:58 - Tech's role, innovations, and future in ESG

Amber Group is a crypto business that moved to Singapore and is now backed by Temasek, among other investors, with a soaring valuation. Annabelle Huang, managing partner, discusses the firm's valuation and potential IPO plans, managing the changing regulatory landscape, and the extension of a prop-trading start to a new embrace of retail business.

Timecodes:

0:00 - Annabelle Huang, Amber Group

1:54 - Amber expands out of pure institutional business

4:20 - Institutional needs in crypto versus TradFi

7:54 - Convergence between crypto and traditional finance

9:07 - How Amber views regulatory uncertainty

10:43 - Amber switches HQ from Hong Kong to Singapore

12:59 - Crypto's prospects if CBDCs emerge

14:52 - Adapting institutional products for retail wealth mgmt

16:56 - Is gamification healthy?

18:31 - Why NFT valuations are falling

21:55 - Web3, institutional versus retail demand

22:41 - Are there social benefits to financializing games?

23:30 - Stablecoin and Tether risks

25:32 - Amber Group's IPO plans

27:00 - Most exciting development for 2022

Ben Quinlan of Quinlan & Associates breaks down the big problem for buy-now pay-later fintechs: they don't make money, and never will, without substantive changes to the business model. Ben tells Jame DiBiasio what went wrong and how BNPL firms can find a path to long-term success.

Timecodes:

0:00 - Ben Quinlan, Quinlan & Associates

1:34 - The threat to buy-now pay-later (BNPL)

2:40 - Non-performing loans and funding issues

4:11 - What makes BNPL a hot trend

6:12 - Drivers of growth

7:52 - Issues with balance sheets and merchant acquisition

11:02 - Acquiring and analyzing user data

13:38 - Breaking down why BNPL firms lose money

15:39 - Lots of competition!

16:25 - Can the BNPL model change?

19:11 - M&A in Asia Pacific's BNPL industry

21:03 - Banks and BNPL

22:20 - Regulation

25:40 - From BNPL to virtual banking

Jack Momose, founder of Tokyo-based gaming company Degica, talks about payments and fintech in Japan, creating payments platform Komoju, and the challenges of going global.

Timecodes:

0:00 - Jack Momose, Degica

1:13 - Japan's payments biz in the spotlight

2:06 - Outdated tech stacks in Japan

5:30 - The innovation scene in Japan

8:00 - Entrepreneurs and startups in Japan

10:11 - Degica's story

14:40 - Cash and other payment methods

16:41 - The birth of Komoju

18:45 - Size of the business

19:26 - Going international

21:21 - Payments infrastructure, Japan and the world

22:39 - Buy now, pay later trends in Japan

24:16 - Challenges to expansion

25:10 - Games, fintech, NFTs

Blue is a purely digital life insurance company. CEO Charles Hung tells Jame DiBiasio how the business is evolving, the use of data in marketing, competing versus incumbents, and his path to profitability.

Johnson Chen is founder and CEO of Singapore fintech CapBridge Financial and its blockchain-infrastructure subsidiary 1X. CapBridge is enabling corporate bonds, unicorn-company equities, real estate and private-equity funds to be accessed and traded by family offices. Johnson speaks with Jame DiBiasio about building CapBridge's investor base and improving markets through next-gen technology.

Timecodes:

0:00 - Johnson Chen, CapBridge Financial

1:30 - CapBridge's two business lines

2:29 - Providing access to unicorn company equity

3:20 - Fractionalizing private equity funds

4:08 - Asian demand for private equity

5:07 - Real estate

7:15 - Facilitating allocations to alternative investments

8:40 - 1X and DLT (distributed ledger technology)

11:25 - Piloting 1X for equities

12:20 - The problems that DLT/blockchain can solve

13:48 - Creating secondary-market liquidity

15:18 - The challenge of adoption

17:14 - Building CapBridge's investor base

19:22 - Backing by AMTD

21:37 - The ceremonial blade

Brad Jones is CEO of Wave Money, a digital payments fintech in Myanmar. In the past year the business has had to weather a military coup, telco outages, deadly Covid, and shareholder changes. Brad speaks with Jame DiBiasio about managing multiple crises and returning to a path of growth.

Timecodes:

0:00 - Brad Jones, Wave Money

1:29 - Multiple shocks to the business

2:50 - Crisis decision making

6:06 - Keys to survival

7:33 - Staying committed

8:43 - Returning to business as usual

9:54 - Ant Group transaction hit

12:36 - Shareholder Telenor exits

14:14 - Ambitions for the tech stack

16:35 - Building in resilience, InfoSec

18:22 - Digitizing Myanmar

19:42 - Marketing and branding

Val Yap is founder and CEO of Singapore-based insurtech PolicyPal, a unit of AMTD Group. She tells Jame DiBiasio about her company's recent acquisition, growth plans, the state of insurtech today, and feedback from writing her memoir.

Timecodes:

0:00 - Val Yap, PolicyPal

1:28 - PolicyPal's mission and evolution

3:46 - Acquiring Value Champion

5:08 - Entering new verticals

5:24 - Creating new insurtech products

7:14 - Platform competition

10:55 - Winning customer attention and trust

13:42 - Competing versus partnering with insurance cos.

15:29 - State of insurtech v Big Tech, incumbents

20:11 - Expanding PolicyPal into new geographies

23:09 - Val's memoir "Balls Inc." as a female founder

Gaming, crypto, NFTs, the metaverse...what's it all about, and should this matter to the finance industry? Gil Bashan, chief product officer at U.S. tech company StrongNode, discusses the nexus between gaming and fintech with DigFin's Jame DiBiasio.

Regtech – regulation technology – is now critical for financial institutions, but needs vary by market. Ashish Rai of FIS discusses the big-picture challenges in capital markets.

Timecodes:

0:00 - Ashish Rai, FIS

1:13 - Trends in capital-markets regulation

2:56 - Differences between Hong Kong and Singapore

5:37 - Are back offices ready for compliance tech needs?

7:10 - Regtech's strengths in capital markets

8:25 - And its shortfalls; has A.I. delivered?

10:33 - Banks and asset managers' benefits in future

11:45 - Risk management in machine learning and regtech

15:28 - Most important upcoming regulations

17:10 - What about Asia's developing markets

18:22 - Is it getting easier to scale financial businesses in Asia?

19:17 - Goals for FIS in Asia in 2022

20:59 - Your regulatory wishlist for next year

WeLab operates a virtual bank in Hong Kong as well as banking, payments, and tech businesses in mainland China and Indonesia – with an IPO on the cards. Founder Simon Loong speaks with Jame DiBiasio about metrics for a virtual bank, doing business in the Greater Bay Area, and what's next.

Timecodes:

0:00 - Simon Loong, WeLab

1:36 - Metrics for virtual banks

2:57 - Comparing with incumbent banks

5:27 - Fintech and virtual-bank lending practices

6:52 - Is tech really a differentiator?

8:54 - Incumbents also catching up in digital

11:06 - WeLab's other businesses and markets

15:17 - Strategic investor AllianzX

17:14 - Wealth business in Greater Bay Area

20:56 - Tech's role in GBA wealth and banking

23:27 - VCs and strategic investors

26:19 - IPO, profitability, and WeLab's future

Technology now makes it possible for banks to track and manage cash on an intra-day basis. Nadeem Shamim of SmartStream Technologies explains the benefits this brings to transaction bankers and their corporate clients – as well as the challenges of making this become an industry norm.

Timecodes:

0:00 - Nadeem Shamim, SmartStream Technologies

1:16 - Liquidity lessons from COVID-19

3:08 - Understanding counterparty risk

4:52 - Cash pledged, versus "pure" cash

7:15 - Reducing operational losses

11:31 - Managing market risks such as credit

12:45 - What being ready for intraday liquidity looks like

15:50 - From intraday positions to intraday valuations

18:20 - Being ready for open banking and APIs

OneDegree has spun a niche business doing digital pet insurance in Hong Kong into a multi-pronged insurtech business that aims to be active in five continents within five years. Co-founder and CEO Alvin Kwock discusses the changing trends in insurance and insurtech, and his ambitions to transform OneDegree into a leading insurance player.

Timecodes:

0:00 - Alvin Kwock, OneDegree

1:28 - The vision from Day One in 2016

7:14 - Getting started in pet insurance, the whys and hows

13:16 - Extending into B2B for third-party insurers

14:48 - What big insurance companies need from tech companies

16:55 - The challenges of partnering with giant legacy insurers

20:25 - Going global, can you maintain the same focus?

22:39 - Design pitfalls for insurance mobile apps

Banks are now expected to provide instant payments and other services on demand. Roland Brandli explains this is creating pressures on legacy core systems that must now be changed. He is head of digital payment controls at SmartStream Technologies, helping banks around the world from his base in Dubai.

Timecodes:

0:00 - Roland Brandli, SmartStream

1:03 - Unexpected impact of banks handling instant payments

2:15 - The problem with international standards

3:56 - Why systems aren't interoperable, yet

4:51 - Hidden costs, competitive issues for legacy I.T.

6:32 - Incumbent banks versus fintechs, neobanks with built-for-purpose tech stacks

8:34 - Choosing partners, understanding processes

9:45 - This is the turning point for legacy tech

13:50 - AI, blockchain, buzzwords versus real use cases

16:50 - From traditional silos to just-in-time processes

20:11 - Vendors also changing their tech stacks

22:10 - Dealing with the complexity of integrating control systems, eg APIs

24:03 - Lessons for banks from Facebook's big shutdown

Kelvin Teo is co-founder of Funding Societies, an SME-dedicated SaaS and platform lender, with operations in Singapore, Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand. He speaks with Jame DiBiasio about plans to securitize loans, obtain a banking license, and issue credit cards – and a path to IPO.

Timecodes:

0:00 - Kelvin Teo, Funding Societies

1:30 - P2P versus lending

3:55 - How it works in different markets

5:00 - Where do you get capital to lend?

5:55 - How much skin in the game do you take?

7:05 - Lessons from China on P2P and platform risks

8:40 - Plans to securitize loans, investor base, licensing

11:40 - What's next after not winning a virtual-bank license in Singapore

12:55 - Benefits to a bank license or partnership

14:55 - Competing against banks, ride hailing apps, ecommerce

16:20 - Challenges to growth

17:10 - Payments and credit-card strategy

19:20 - Drivers of new market entry

20:20 - Can you scale in Southeast Asia?

21:36 - Becoming profitable and exit strategy

Richard Turrin is a Shanghai-based consultant and author. He speaks with Jame DiBiasio about his latest book, "Cashless: China's Digital Currency Revolution", why digital currencies matter, and the relevance of China's fintech experience for the rest of the world.

TImecodes:

0:00 - Richard Turrin, "Cashless"

01:08 - What makes central-bank digital currencies (CBDCs) useful

4:11 - CBDCs versus our existing payments infrastructure

5:41 - Use cases, benefits of digital currencies

9:47 - Financial services in a world of digital currencies

12:00 - Governments and programmable money

15:07 - Cryptocurrency (eg Bitcoin) versus CBDCs

16:39 - Role of commercial banks

19:00 - Disrupting credit card companies and payments fintech companies

22:16 - The role of CBDCs in tokenizing assets

25:00 - Cybersecurity of digital cash

Ian Gillard is senior executive vice president at Bangkok Bank as well as a member of the board at blockchain vendor R3. He speaks with Jame DiBiasio about Bangkok Bank's digitization strategy as Thailand goes cashless.

Timecodes:

0:00 - Ian Gillard, Bangkok Bank

1:10 - About Bangkok Bank

2:39 - Bangkok Bank's first digital products

3:09 - The bank goes mobile

3:18 - Corporate versus consumer banking digitization

4:30 - How well do you really know your consumers?

7:13 - Gaining customer insight, the learning process

8:06 - Where tech can take banking

9:09 - Fintechs as competitors and as partners

10:56 - Prospects for virtual banks in Thailand

13:30 - Thailand is going cashless, and Bank of Thailand's work

17:41 - Retail CBDCs / digital currency, and tokenization

19:45 - Developing blockchain-based trade finance

Nicki Ramsay, founder of Singapore payments fintech CardUp, talks about making the leap into lending, drivers behind credit-card fintech, and challenges to the business.

Regulator MAS is driving the financial-services industry to embrace sustainability – and that means a huge need for data, policy, and digital transformation, says Sopnendu Mohanty, MAS's chief fintech officer.

Sandy Peng, partner at Fission Capital, speaks with Jame about her investment strategy for blockchain tokens and companies.

Can Crypto.com go from 10m users to 100m users? That's the goal of CEO Kris Marszalek. He speaks with Jame at DigFinVOX about what it takes. Hint: regulation!

Payments fintech Wise must navigate a complicated network of regulators, competitors, and partners to grow cross-border payments in Asia Pacific, says Venkatesh Saha.

Charles D'Haussy discusses his new book, "Block Kong", profiling 21 of Hong Kong's leading blockchain entrepreneurs.

Why do banks still find digital transformation so hard – and can the process be improved? Navin Suri, co-founder of Percipient, a Singapore-based AI fintech, discusses transformation post-COVID, the new problems banks are facing with data, and what can help the process of bank/fintech collaboration.

Michael Shaulov is founder of New York-based Fireblocks, a startup building infrastructure for crypto. Michael brings two decades of cyber-security and fintech experience to the world of digital assets. He talks about how security is evolving in crypto, his work on the Diem stablecoin, how to make digital assets greener, and how he will use the proceeds from Fireblocks's latest $133m Series C funding round.

Andreas Burner is chief innovation officer at SmartStream Technologies, where he leads development of artificial intelligence and other next-gen tech for financial institutions. Andreas discusses where AI and machine learning is at; how it is being used by banks, asset managers and insurers; challenges such as "explainability"; and how AI is combining with blockchain.

Varun Mittal discusses his book, "Singapore: The Fintech Nation"; his views on how fintech companies can scale in Southeast Asia; where capital is flowing; what would make for the ideal fintech startup in 2021.

Varun is partner at EY and has worked at Ant, Samsung and Singtel.

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