Following our previous article highlighting 12 of the hottest fintech startups in Malaysia, we thought it’d be appropriate to come up with a “Fintech Influencers Malaysia” list to highlight some of the movers and shakers within the fintech space in Malaysia.
This “Fintech Influencers Malaysia” list is gathered through a combination of public votes and the opinions of our editors on who we believe are heavily influential in the fintech landscape in Malaysia.
Please note that list is in alphabetical order and does not indicate rank.
Aznan Abdul Aziz
Aznan is the head of the Financial Technology Enabler Group (FTEG) in Bank Negara Malaysia. The group was established by the Central Bank in June 2016 to support innovations that will improve the quality, efficiency and accessibility of financial services in Malaysia. Since the inception of the FTEG it has introduced the Fintech Regulatory Sandbox and the group has also been actively engaging the fintech community through their regular Fintech Regulatory Bootcamp.
Amran Hassan
Amran is the Head of Innovation in Maybank, one of the largest banks in Malaysia. In his capacity as the Head of Innovation in Maybank, Amran has been an actively reaching out to the Malaysian fintech startup community to explore possible collaboration opportunities. Recent fintech initiatives includes the “Maybank Fintech” accelerator and the “Maybank Fintech Sandbox”.
Chang Chew Soon
Chang Chew Soon is the founder of Soft Space, a digital payments company that focuses on the development of solutions for the e banking and payments industry. Soft Space is considered as one of the first companies to successfully introduce mPOS to the market. The company has since expanded to more than 20 banking clients in 10 countries.
Chin Wei Min
Chin Wei Min is the Executive Director at Securities Commission Malaysia, a key regulator in Malaysia responsible for the securities and capital markets aspect of fintech regulation. In his role as the Executive Director he oversees the innovation and digital strategies of Securities Commission Malaysia. The regulator has since introduced several key regulatory reforms around the areas of equity crowdfunding, peer to peer lending and robo-advisory.
Dato’ Ng Wan Peng
Dato’ Ng Wan Peng is the Chief Operating Officer of the Malaysia Digital Economy Corporation (MDEC), a lead agency under the Malaysian government with the mandate to drive the digital economy in Malaysia. Aside from her duties of overseeing various departments within MDEC she’s been seen to be very active in supporting the fintech community. Recent initiatives from MDEC includes partnerships with fintech accelerator Supercharger.
Honorable mentions: Jenna Beh & Tang Mun Wai
Jenna and Tang are both the key drivers under Dato’ Ng Wan Peng’s team in realising MDEC fintech initiatives. They have been very active in the community in driving the Malaysian fintech scene forward.
David Fong
David Fong is the current President of the Fintech Association of Malaysia (FAOM) which aspires to be the key enabler and a national platform to support Malaysia to be the leading hub for FinTech innovation and investment in the region. David was previously the Chairman of the Malaysia Venture Capital & Private Equity Association.
Lon Wong
Lon Wong is a Malaysian born entrepreneur and the President of NEM Foundation whose purpose is to introduce, educate, and promote the use of the NEM blockchain technology platform on an international scale to all industries and institutions. The foundation will be opening a blockchain centre in Malaysia reported to be 10,000 sqf in size.
Shamsul Jafni Shafie
Shamsul Jafnie Shafie or more fondly known as Sam Shafie is the founder of WTF Accelerator and and CEO of pitchIN one of the top performing license holder for equity crowdfunding in Malaysia. pitchIN and WTF accelerator was responsible for helping notable fintech startups like Money Match and MyCash Online to get funded.
Raja Teh Maimunah
Raja Teh Maimunah was an early advocate for fintech even during her days as the CEO of Hong Leong Islamic Bank, she currently serves as the CEO of AmInvestment Bank. She is also known to be very vocal in pushing the development of Islamic Fintech within Malaysia
Nazrin Hassan
Nazrin Hassan is the Group Chief Executive Officer of Cradle, an organisation incorporated under Malaysia’s Ministry of Finance that provides early stage funding for technology start-ups. His organisation has provided funding for fintech companies like PolicyStreet, MyCash Online and Grab which recently secured it’s e-money license from Bank Negara Malaysia. On top of that Cradle has also invested in WORQ, a popular co-working and events space among the fintech community in Malaysia.
Vincent Fong
Vincent Fong is a keen observer and a community builder in the fintech space. He currently serves as the Chief Editor of Malaysia for FintechNews which will be launching a Malaysian dedicated portal very soon. Prior to his role in FintechNews, He was the General Manager of an events company that ran the annual BankTech Asia conference where he spent nearly a decade educating and keeping bankers abreast on the latest trends and disruption within the space.
Wilson Beh
Wilson Beh is the co-founder of insurtech startup PolicyStreet, he currently also serves as the Treasurer for the Fintech Association of Malaysia. Prior to his entrepreneurial journey, Wilson was an active fintech community builder running regular meetups. He was also part of the early team that was instrumental in the formation of the Fintech Association of Malaysia.
Do you agree with our Fintech Influencers Malaysia list ? Let us know in the comments below
Disclosure: Vincent Fong is an employee of FintechNews, the editorial decision was initially to exclude Vincent from the list for the purposes of impartiality. However, having reviewed the number of votes coming in we made an editorial decision to include him as he is considered by the community as influential.
This article was first published on fintechnews.sg
