Earlier this February, CIMB Group Holdings Bhd chairman Datuk Seri Nazir Razak told The Edge that the current strict regulations in the banking industry is not creating a conducive environment for banks to be creative or innovative to respond to the oncoming threats from the Fourth Industrial Revolution. Indirectly responding to Datuk Seri Nazir and perhaps even taking a jab at him, Bank Negara Malaysia Tan Sri Muhammad Ibrahim said “Using the disguise of being tied by regulations is not a valid excuse,” during his keynote address at the 40th Harvard Business School Alumni Club Malaysia anniversary. Is there merit to CIMB’s statement or is…

Sakae Holdings Ltd announced in Singapore yesterday that they will be partnering with MC Payment to jointly develop and launch an ICO for their own cryptocurrency known as Bitecoin. Sakae Holdings is known in Malaysia for their restaurant chain Sakae Sushi. Sakae Holdings is among many of the traditional players that have jumped into the blockchain bandwagon. According to the press release sent to us, Sakae Holdings claims the objective of Bitecoin is to empower the industry to achieve greater efficiency for both consumers and merchants while at the same time optimising food retail systems and maximizing marketing impact for…

More than half of Asia-Pacific banks, including those in Malaysia, expect to become digitally mature or digital leaders by 2020 Smart Contracts investments bank by banks will remain low in the near-future despite the hype surrounding it Overall Priority of Banks According to the EY Global Banking Report titled “EY Global Banking Outlook 2018”, 85% of banks globally cite implementation of a digital transformation program as a business priority for 2018, with greater investment in technology to drive efficiency and growth. Managing evolving risks is also viewed as critical for sustainable success. Globally, addressing cybersecurity is the top priority for…

Malaysia’s fintech scene is becoming increasingly active, it is sometimes difficult to keep track of all the important events, we figured it might be useful to our readers to do a summary. Here are some news roundup for the month of January keep a pulse on Fintech in Malaysia. MOL’s One2Pay Rolls Out in 7-Eleven MOL AccessPortal Sdn Bhd who is primarily known for it’s online gaming payments services and reload to-ups launched its mobile wallet called One2Pay late last year in December, in the month of January they announced the roll out of One2Pay at 7-Eleven outlets with plans to…

Merchantrade Asia Sdn Bhd a home-grown Money Service Business operator has launched a VISA multi-currency prepaid card that digitally converts pre-loaded Malaysian Ringgit into multiple currencies. This launch comes in the time of an increasingly competitive landscape with the likes of Alipay, WechatPay, BigPay, Boost, Vcash, One2Pay and countless others each coming up their own version of mobile wallet in Malaysia The service is known as Merchantrade Money, it consists of a pre-paid payments card coupled with a mobile app that enables users to buy and sell currencies at a lock-in rate, card to card money transfer and load up…

Malaysia shows significant growth in cashless transactions Mobile payments are the most dominant method Online banking is a preferred method over cards in the eCommerce space Malaysian-based iPay88, a provider of online payment service solutions in ASEAN shared its analysis findings of its 2017 data insights. As one of the dominant market player of Malaysia’s online payment system transactions, iPay88’s annual findings give a good barometer of Malaysia payments space within the fintech landscape Online Transactions & Sales Volume Over the past 12 months of 2017, iPay88 recorded a total of  58.5 million online transactions on its payment gateway systems,…

Peer to Peer Lending or better known as P2P Lending refers to an online platform that matches lenders to borrowers, the concept is widely believed to be introduced by Zopa and popularised by the likes of Lending Club. The framework for P2P lending in Malaysia was first issued by Securities Commission Malaysia in 2016 and Malaysia became the firsts ASEAN country to regulate P2P lending. However, unlike our western counterparts Malaysia’s P2P lending is permitted for businesses only and is not open to individuals seeking personal financing. Given Malaysia’s high household debt to income ratio of 84.6% it is understandable why…

Following earlier reports of the Securities Commission Malaysia’s (SC) query into the CopyCashCoin ICO the regulator has directed CopyCash Foundation to immediately cease and desist all its proposed activities including a purported plan to launch an Initial Coin Offering (ICO) on 10 January 2018 in Malaysia. This directive covers all activities as described in or incidental to CopyCash Foundation’s white paper pursuant to the CopyCashCoin ICO, including any roadshows, seminars or promotional events related to the scheme. The directive was issued by the SC following its inquiry after it found that there is a reasonable likelihood that disclosures in CopyCash…

The year 2017, has been an interesting year for the Fintech Malaysia scene, while there’s been progress in this scene in the past few years it was really in 2017 that we see fintech being increasingly mainstream in the Malaysian mindshare. As we usher in 2018 in anticipation for the development of the Fintech Malaysia scene, let’s take a walk down memory lane and review some of the key moments for 2017. Fintech Regulatory Developments in Malaysia 2017 saw the introduction of several key milestones in regulatory development for fintech in Malaysia, both Bank Negara Malaysia and Securities Commission Malaysia…

Malaysia’s equity crowdfunding scene is becoming increasingly vibrant, during the pitchIN Equity Crowdfunding Report 2017 event, the crowdfunding platform announced that they ended 2017 with 60% market share closing at a total of RM 14,022,132 with 12 issuers. Sam Shafie, CEO, pitchIN, shared that “Our success was only possible because of the support we received from great companies and we are happy that we were able to find companies that investors loved. We want to take this opportunity to thanks our partners, companies and investors who have made us the number one platform in Malaysia” Commenting on 2018…

Following media reports on the Singapore based CopyCash launch of its CopyCashCoin ICO next week, which claims to be the world’s largest blockchain-based social travesting platform, Securities Commission Malaysia has issued a statement to caution investors against being exposed to heightened risks of fraud as the ICO operates online and may not be regulated. According to the statement issued to the media, the regulator will be calling in key officers from CopyCash to inquire into its activities including the planned ICO launch given that the activities falls under the regulated areas of the Securities Commission of Malaysia. This statement comes amidst…

The Securities Commission Malaysia (SC) today announced that parties interested in establishing and operating an Alternative Trading System (ATS) in Malaysia can apply to participate in the Securities Commission Malaysia regulatory sandbox sessions. The Securities Commission Regulatory sandbox will be ran under the SC’s FinTech Innovation Lab (aFINity – alliance of FinTech community). This follows the Budget 2018 announcement on the introduction of ATS in the Malaysian capital market. The SC’s Innovation Lab will commence from 2 January to 30 March 2018. Since 2015, the Securities Commission Malaysia has pioneered the regulatory sandboxing approach where regulation is imposed on a…

The rapid development and adoption of cryptocurrencies have driven regulators from around the globe to adopt various approaches and regulatory measures and Malaysia is no exception. Following the announcement by Bank Negara Malaysia Governor, Tan Sri Muhammad Ibrahim in late November, Bank Negara Malaysia has issued for public consultation for digital currency exchanges as reporting institutions under the “Anti Money Laundering, Anti Terrorism Financing and Proceeds of Unlawful Activities Act 2001 (AMLA) This was done with the specific aim to ensure that effective measures are in place against money laundering/ terrorism financing risks associated with the use of cryptocurrenciesand to…

In November 2017, Securities Commission Malaysia announced that it will be embarking on a blockchain pilot project for the OTC markets. OTC is short for “over-the-counter” which are typically reserved for companies do not meet the listing requirements. It is also commonly known as unlisted stocks where these securities are traditionally traded by brokers. During the the SCxSC conference Tan Sri Ranjit Singh, Chairman, Securities Commission Malaysia commented, “By using distributed ledger as a technology underpinning the market infrastructure, all transactions and market activities would be recorded and made available to all market participants while maintaining transaction confidentiality” In efforts…

Southeast Asia’s leading ride-hailing app Grab has obtained regulatory approval from Bank Negara Malaysia to launch its mobile payment service in Malaysia following it’s earlier approval from the Singaporean authorities. This move is mirrored by it’s Indonesian counterpart Go-Jek who is also making a foray into the payments market. GrabPay will be rolled out in stages to Malaysian consumers and SMEs from the beginning of 2018. Jason Thompson, managing director of GrabPay says: “Cash is still the most important payment method for many Malaysian SMEs and middle-class consumers, despite most adults having a deposit account. As one of the region’s…

Malaysia’s insurtech company, FatBerry.com launched a digital marketplace for insurance providing Malaysians with a way to get insured in two minutes. In conjunction with the launch, FatBerry.com also announced its partnership with Tune Protect Malaysia, the an online retail portal of the General Insurance market in Malaysia. Fatberry.com is an Insurtech start-up which encourages and helps users in finding and purchasing the best-fit insurance online through a fast and intuitive chatbot-like interface. During the launch, Priscilla Lim, CEO, Fatberry commented, “FatBerry believes in empowering end-to-end consumers to make effective decisions, by providing this platform of convenience that helps consumer to…

Following the announcement by Deputy Governor Jessica Chew earlier this September, Bank Negara Malaysia has officially released the e-KYC guidelines which sets out the minimum requirements and standards that an approved remittance service provider must observe in implementing e-KYC. The guideline came into effect on 30th November 2017. KYC (Know-Your-Customer) is a process in which financial institutions are required to execute in order to authenticate a customer’s identity, which are typically done face to face, whereas e-KYC as the name suggests, is a method that relies on digital technologies to perform the same task in a more seamless manner. The introduction…

Equity crowdfunding is a mechanism that enables the general public to invest in typically early stage businesses. In return for the investment the investors are typically given a small piece of equity in return (think Kickstarter but instead of rewards you get a small ownership in the company). In Malaysia, the Equity Crowdfunding framework was first issued in 2015 by Securities Commission Malaysia and the country was considered the first in Asia Pacific to legislate it. There is a mix of local and foreign market operators, all of which are incorporated in Malaysia, as required by the framework. Through this…

ICOs are becoming all the rage these days, with startups from around the globe adopting it as a method of fundraising. In Asia this is especially true for Singapore who recently emerged as the third largest ICO hub in the world and the largest in Asia. How is Malaysia faring compared to its neighbour down south? We spoke Bobby Ong, co-founder of CoinGecko, a Malaysian based cryptocurrency data analytics & research platform that recently expanded its services to tracking ICOs, commenting on the ICOs in Malaysia Bobby said, “There are a lot of interest among investors to participate in ICOs. However, I would…

GoBear, a financial comparison website based in Asia, has appointed Pooi Chan Gan as the Country Director for Malaysia who has taken over the reins from Iskandar Ezzahuddin following his departure in November 2017. According to the company, GoBear has amassed 2.5 million users to date, and an average of over 120,000 users per month. GoBear was also among the first to be approved in the Bank Negara Malaysia Financial Technology Regulatory Sandbox. Pooi Chan Gan comes with more than 16 years’ experience in start-ups and international businesses. Her last appointment was as the General Manager of iCar Asia Malaysia where…