MoneyMatch and Kuwait Finance House (KFH) today announced a strategic collaboration to provide cross-border payments for KFH’s customers. This partnership marks MoneyMatch’s maiden entry to provide enterprise solutions via its newest product BankFX. According to their press release Kuwait Finance House will be able to enjoy low-cost and simple cross-border transfers with 38 available currencies across 58 countries. Their statement also seems to indicate that transactions done on BankFX rides on blockchain technology. In 2018 MoneyMatch completed their first trial with Ripple. To celebrate the launch of this collaboration, KFH Malaysia customers will be entitled to a 100% service fee…

Hong Leong revealed today at their media briefing, a growing customer adoption of its digital platforms. They shared that over 64.4% of its customers are now utilising digital and mobile platforms for banking transactions as at the end of 2018, an increase of more than 20% from last year. While going digital often been associated with the younger demographic Domenic Fuda, MD & CEO of Hong Leong Bank revealed that this is no longer the case — at least with Hong Leong’s clients “Where we normally would see younger users taking to technology, we have instead seen the growth coming…

Silverlake Digital INX Sdn Bhd, a member of Silverlake Group, and Japanese fintech Money Design Co., Ltd. today announced the launch MYTHEO, a robo advisory service offered through a joint-venture company, GAX MD Sdn. Bhd. Silverlake is a name that is familiar to many of us within the financial services industry as the locally bred software champion providing core banking system to many of our banks locally and regionally. Ronnie Tan, CEO of GAX MD, told reporters during their press conference that they’ve been exploring this business model since Securities Commission Malaysia announced the launch of their Digital Investment Management…

Following the earlier virtual banking announcement by Bank Negara Malaysia Governor, Datuk Nor Shamsiah, it was revealed to the press at MyFintech Week 2019, that the framework is 50% ready. BNM’s financial development and innovation department director Suhaimi Ali said despite the fact that the framework was not launched yet, more than 10 parties have expressed interest to set up digital banks in the country. Henry Ma, CIO, WeBank, who was also present at the event yesterday expressed interest to establish a virtual bank in Malaysia during his presentation. Backed by Tencent, WeBank was the first fully virtual bank launched…

It’s official, MoneyMatch is now the first to graduate Bank Negara Malaysia’s regulatory sandbox. This was announced during a session titled “Thinking Inside the Sandbox” at MyFintech Week 2019 jointly organised by Bank Negara Malaysia and MDEC. This announcement follows the news of MoneyMatch’s approval in principle for a class-b remittance license just last April. Concurrent with the graduation, MoneyMatch also received full approval from the regulator to conduct their remittance business Speaking at the event, Adrian shared that MoneyMatch entered the sandbox with the mentality of a regulated entity and hired an experienced compliance team. He added that it’s…

UOB Malaysia announced today, the launch of Jom Transform, a programme aimed at helping SMEs adopt digital technology to drive productivity and growth. The Jom Transform programme is run by The Finlab, an innovation accelerator under UOB, which first launched its business transformation programme in Singapore in 2018. A similar programme was also launched in Thailand late last year. During its initial inception in 2016, Finlab was primarily geared towards accelerating fintech startups. The programme helped shape familiar names like HelloGold and Turnkey Lender who recently expanded into the Malaysian market. The Jom Transform Programme is 3 months long, participating…

HelloGold, a gold-based savings platform, announced yesterday its expansion into the Thailand market. This news comes on the heels of their recent expansion in to Africa. Similar to its rallying call in Malaysia of investing into gold with as little as RM 1, HelloGold’s aim is to also make gold savings accessible to middle and lower income groups in Thailand with savings amount as low as 10 Baht. For its first year in Thailand, the startup is targeting to 120,000 downloads and they intend to use their partnership with local retailer Central Group to help achieve that. Through this partnership…

Following the finalisation of the regulatory framework for cryptocurrency exchanges in Malaysia, Securities Commission Malaysia announced today that it has registered 3 recognised market operators to establish and operate digital asset exchanges in Malaysia. Also known to many as cryptocurrency exchanges, the operators who received conditional approval from the regulator are namely; Luno Malaysia Sdn Bhd, SINEGY Technologies (M) Sdn Bhd, and Tokenize Technology (M) Sdn Bhd. These 3 operators are given up to 9 months to fully comply with all regulatory requirements prior to receiving a full license. David Low, Luno’s South East Asia General Manager, voiced support for…

Securities Commission Malaysia today announced 3 new licenses for equity crowdfunding and 5 for P2P lending. This new batch sees names that are familiar to those in the startup scene and some new names. The new equity crowdfunding players are; 1337 Ventures, Ethis Ventures and MyStartr. Whereas on the P2P lending front the new players are; CapitalBay, Capsphere Services, Crowdsense, MicroLEAP and Money Save Capital. They received their letter of registration from Datuk Syed Albar, Chairman, Securities Commission Malaysia and was witnessessed by Finance Minister YB Lim Guan Eng. “The SC will continue to facilitate development of innovative digital…

The insurance industry is changing, and its changing fast. The forces driving the change in insurance include skyrocketing healthcare costs, rising protection gap and a shift in the way consumers prefer to interact with brands. These new realities are pressuring the insurance industry to embrace insurtech. Prudential is among those in Malaysia’s insurance scene that have adopted this digital doctrine. Nic Nicandrou, CEO, Prudential Asia, revealed to us that the group as a whole has stepped their tech investment to over £400 Million this year. On Malaysia’s front we were also informed that they are looking to invest over RM…

In an announcement that took many by surprise, it is reported that Axiata and Telenor are in talks to merge their Asian operations for form a global entity. If the merger talks comes to fruition the combined entity will be serving a total of 300 million customers and could potentially reap up RM 50 billion in revenue before taxes, according to a statement from Axiata. A centerpiece of this negotiation include the potential merger of Celcom and Digi, will firmly put the new entity as the mobile network with the most subscribers* Observers of the telco space may attribute this…

DAX Venture is the latest startup to throw its hat into Malaysia’s burgeoning proptech scene. It announced today that they have successfully raised RM 5 million in seed funding for its subsidiary RentDax. The company is co-founded by successful fintech entrepreneur Chang Chew Soon who served as the Group CEO of Soft Space and Timothy Hor a former General Manager of iProperty. Timothy shares that rentDAX’s goal is to make renting easier, safer, and hassle-free for both landlords and tenants. He further elaborated that landlords in their platform will enjoy protection provided under their rentProtect scheme that is powered by…

RHB Bank announced the launch of their brand new mobile banking app today. From first impressions, the new app appears to sleeker and have a more intuitive UI. Dato’ Khairussaleh Ramli, Group Managing Director, RHB Banking Group shared that with the launch of this new mobile banking app, they are targeting to double the number of mobile banking users from 500,000 to 1 million by the end of this year. Through this new mobile banking app, they are also eyeing to increase transaction value via digital channels from 66% to over 80% by 2022. RHB is intending to achieve these…

The Malaysian fintech scene has grown considerably since its early days. Our 2018 Fintech Report shows that the number of fintech companies operating in Malaysia has more than doubled compared to its previous year. This should come as no surprise to most, Malaysia’s increasingly digitised economy will naturally necessitate a more mature fintech ecosystem to fuel its growth. The custodian of Malaysia’s digital growth, MDEC, seems to concur with that line of logic as they continue to increase their efforts to prop up Malaysia’s fintech scene. In order to find out more about what is MDEC’s game plan for Malaysia’s…

Branch banking is dead. A statement that we’ve heard probably a million times or more. The very same statement that normally comes accompanied with the cause of death and murder weapon being shifting demographics and digital technologies. A quick glance at the news cycle seems to quickly confirm that fact, with stories being littered with terms like “branch rationalisation” and “branch optimisation”. However we at Fintech News Malaysia being the stubborn bunch that we are, we refuse to just accept that notion wholesale and decide to dig a little deeper into the matter. By “dig a little deeper” I…

Bank Negara Malaysia will soon release its requirements for a virtual banking license by end of this year, according a NST report. Virtual banking license seems to be all the rage these days with Hong Kong announcing their 3 approved licensees the same day Malaysia announces its ambitions to regulate this space. The introduction of such a licensing regime will likely bring about a wave of neo-banks from both incumbents and disruptors alike. The concept of neo-banks was first popularised by fintech firms like Moven, Monzo, and Starling. To put it simply neo-banks are like mobile banking on steroids –…

Equity crowdfunding in Malaysia was brought to the mainstream when Securities Commission Malaysia became one of the first within the region to introduce guidelines to regulate the space. It is part and parcel of the regulator’s strategy to provide a more diverse investment portfolio to the Malaysian public and provide more access for startups and SMEs to raise capital. Currently there 7 players operating in the equity crowdfunding space in Malaysia with Fundnel being the latest to be granted a license by Securities Commission Malaysia Since its introduction, 50 SMEs have raised RM 48.87 million through equity crowdfunding. More…

UOB Malaysia today reported that its customers’ use of digital payment methods in 2018 has grown by almost 50 per cent over the year before. This increase reflects changes in the way customers’ choose to make payments, a report compiled by Fintech News Malaysia also indicated an overall increase in the adoption of digital payment in Malaysia. Digital payments via UOB Malaysia’s internet banking service have grown by 25 per cent between January 2017 and December 2018. Customers also made three times more digital payments through the Bank’s mobile banking service, UOB Mighty, in December 2018 compared with 12 months…

In recognition of the growing public interest in ICOs, its increasing popularity among business seeking to raise funds and a need for a well regulated space, the Securities Commission Malaysia  (SC) has issued a consultation paper to seek the public feedback on its ICO framework. Securities Commission Malaysia stated in the consultation paper that the lack of regulatory framework exposes investors to risk and makes them vulnerable to fraud and manipulation. They added that regulation is required in order to protect investors and promote confidence in the ICO market There are few key components that are outlined in this consultation paper…

Securities Commission Malaysia has unveiled the list of crypto exchanges that have opted to continue operations following its earlier imposed deadline for exchanges to seek regulatory approval by 1st March 2019. Out of the 42 exchanges who were in the transitional period, only 22 were opted to submit their application to the regulator. These exchanges are allowed to continue operating for another transitional period until further notice from SC. During this extended transitional period, these platforms are not allowed to accept new investors and will only be allowed to facilitate the withdrawal or transfer of client assets with the written instruction…