Author: Fintech News Malaysia

Got a fintech idea you’re dying to turn into reality? 1337 Ventures, in collaboration with MDEC and InnoStart Capital, will be launching their accelerator programme, Alpha Startups: Fintech Edition, this July. The Alpha Startup: Fintech Edition, which runs quarterly, accepts applications from startups of all stages, even those who are still at the ideation stage. The programme will teach you the ropes of entrepreneurship, starting your journey with the Lean Canvas, Market Validation, MVP Testing, User Experience Journey, Design Thinking, and Marketing. It’s no secret fintech space is heavily regulated in Malaysia, In order to equip entrepreneurs with the necessary…

A recent study conducted by research firm J.D Power shows that Maybank ranks highest with an overall satisfaction score of 77.3%. CIMB Bank is a close second with a score of 77% followed by Hong Leong Bank 75.6% who ranks third in the study. Since the study was fielded in March and April 2018, it might not reflect potential improved customer satisfaction from the recent launch of CIMB’s InstaApproval, which approves auto loans almost instantaneously. The 2018 Malaysia Auto Consumer Finance Study is based on responses from 2,504 new-car buyers who financed a vehicle in the past 12 months. The study…

Amidst rising interest in fintech, startups in this vertical have been dished a rude awakening to abide by tightening guidelines and protocols set by regulatory institutions. Disregarding stricter protocols, such as e-Know Your Customers (e-KYC), could be detrimental to all startups looking to compete in the fintech arena. To bridge the knowledge gap, the Financial Technology Enabler Group (FTEG), established by Bank Negara Malaysia (BNM), has organised quarterly regulatory bootcamps to educate industry players on evolving customer identification and verification procedures. The recent regulatory bootcamp curated by DOJO KL coworking space focused on Guidance to e-KYC in Malaysia. Supported by…

UOB Malaysia today announced it will partner with Funding Societies, a regional peer-to-peer (P2P) lending platform Through the partnership, start-ups and UOB Malaysia’s small business customers can access Funding Societies’ global investor network to raise additional working capital. UOB Malaysia’s customers will be able to raise up to RM500,000 in capital directly from individual and institutional investors using Funding Societies’ online P2P platform without the need to pledge collateral. Raymond Chui, Executive Director and Country Head of Business Banking at UOB Malaysia, said that the partnership with Funding Societies reinforces the Bank’s commitment to support Malaysia’s small businesses as they…

CIMB Group today unveiled the CIMB 1-Minute Auto Financing InstaApproval™, a digital platform that approves auto financing within one minute upon full submission of information and documents. This marks the latest addition to CIMB’s InstaApproval™ series, which also features the 1-Minute Home Financing InstaApproval™. This series offers a fast, secure, paperless and complete online financing approval process involving, among others, biometric fingerprint identification. The CIMB 1-Minute Auto Financing InstaApproval™ is a shift in approval time for auto financing, which typically takes a day. It reduces customers’ waiting time for the financing decision in the process of purchasing a car. Available…

Fresh off the back of winning the Fintech Company of the Year award earlier in 2018 and celebrating their one year anniversary, we spoke to Kaoru Arai, Managing Director, Rakuten Trade to get a better sense of why they became Fintech Company of the Year and their value proposition. Who is Rakuten Trade? Established in May 2017, Rakuten Trade is Malaysia’s only fully digital equity brokerage, the company was formed as a result of a joint venture between Rakuten and Kenanga Investment Bank. A partnership which signalled increased collaboration between incumbents and fintech companies in Malaysia. Rakuten Trade is a regulated…

36,000 workforce to be trained A combined total of estimated 2 million staff learning hours Aims to equip staff with digital competencies like UI/UX design, data science, and entrepreneurial thinking CIMB Group has pledged RM 75 million over the next three years to the CIMB 3D Academy which stands for digital, data and disruption. According to a statement by the bank the CIMB 3D Academy is aimed at helping CIMB embrace the Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR) to propel its digital ambitions via a Group-wide people development initiative. The Group aims to equip its 36,000-strong workforce – across all levels and…

South East Asia’s ride hailing giant, Grab and Malaysia’s largest bank Maybank, has announced their partnership to drive the acceptance and usage of GrabPay in Malaysia. This partnership also involves collaborative efforts to drive merchant acquisition. Maybank’s Malaysia customers will soon be able to use the GrabPay mobile wallet to conduct both payments at Maybank’s key merchants, and to top-up their mobile wallet directly from their Maybank2u accounts Grab secured its e-money licence from Bank Negara Malaysia in December last year, and it is reported that they will be launching a beta version of GrabPay in Malaysia in the coming…

Funding Societies, largest peer-to-peer (P2P) financing platform in Malaysia, has announced the launch of FS Bolt: a mobile microfinancing solution in the country that provides fast and collateral-free working capital financing for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), with approval from Securities Commission Malaysia (SC). FS Bolt offers up to RM50,000 in SME financing for companies incorporated in Malaysia, focusing on the micro SME segment. The app is available on both iOS and Android devices. The solution was previously launched in Singapore in 2017 FS Bolt boasts an application process that takes a mere two minutes to complete. Its automated credit…

Malaysian based fintech startup Jirnexu, has closed an US$11 million Series B round. Making their second investment in Jirnexu, Japan-based SBI Group led the latest round, joined by new US-based investor SIG Asia Investments (SIG). With total funding now US$17 million, Jirnexu is among the best funded startups in Malaysia. This follows their previous round in October 2017. Yuen Tuck Siew, CEO of Jirnexu said, “Jirnexu has been growing rapidly since our last funding round, achieving 100 per cent year-on-year growth in 2017. We will do that again in 2018. Already serving over 30 financial service institutions in Malaysia, this round…

Earlier last month, I had the pleasure of joining TM ONE’S BFSI Open Day as a panelist. Joining me was veterans from the TM ONE team and we discussed in depth the state of play for digital transformation in the banking and insurance sector. Digital Is No Longer a Matter of Why but How The immediate consensus that the panelists reached is that we are far beyond the point of why banks and insurance companies should go digital but rather a more relevant question would be how. As it stands, statistics from the Department of Statistics in Malaysia shows that…

United Overseas Bank (UOB) recently announced that they have signed a MOU with WORQ and Common Ground to offer up to 20% off the rental of the co-working spaces. Startups and SME’s who are customers of UOB will be able to access these preferential rates. On top of inking the MOU with WORQ and Common Ground, UOB has also signed the same agreement with 80RR Fintech Hub SG in Singapore and EV Hive in Indonesia. The recently signed deals combined with their existing partnership with Toong in Vietnam totals up to 33 co-working locations across South East Asia. According to…

Malaysia’s fintech scene is becoming increasingly active, it is sometimes difficult to keep track of all the important events, here’s April’s edition of our news roundup featuring the top  stories in the Fintech Malaysia scene. If you’re interested to check out March’s news round up you can read more here Fintech Funding Galore In the month of April, there seems to be an abundance of going around.  Below are the fintech companies that received funding last month: The increase of attention from international investor signals a positive outlook on this region and sector. 9 Cryptocurrency Exchanges in Malaysia Registered with…

Ripple, the enterprise blockchain solution for global payments, is announcing that five new customers across Europe and Asia will use xVia to power frictionless payments over RippleNet, among the companies announced is Malaysia’s very own fintech company MoneyMatch. xVia is an API solution that just requires one standard integration to enable payment originators to reap the benefits of Ripplenet, which includes faster entry into new markets, lower operational costs, increased speed and end-to-end visibility over payments journey. Though there are contentions in the community about Ripple with it being highly centralised, the community generally agrees that it uses a consensus…

Soft Space announced the closing of a Series B investment with Sumitomo Mitsui Card Company (SMCC)  a wholly-owned subsidiary of Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group (SMFG), which is one of the largest financial groups in Japan. Founded in 2012 Soft Space is one of the leading fintech players in Malaysia currently serving over 20 major financial institution across 11 countries. We’ve also previously selected Soft Space as one of the 12 Fintech companies that should be on your watchlist. Eyeing Expansion in Japan and Beyond The investment follows the signed Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) and Business Alliance Agreement that happened in…

Funding Societies, the largest peer-to-peer (P2P) financing platform in Malaysia, has raised RM100 million in Series B funding. Led by Softbank Ventures Korea, the funding round also includes existing investors Sequoia India, Alpha JWC Ventures (Indonesia) and Golden Gate Ventures. Qualgro and LINE Ventures also participated in this over-subscribed round. Additionally, the platform has raised credit lines from banks and financial institutions to further support SMEs. This fundraise, largest by a P2P lending platform in Southeast Asia, will help realize Funding Societies’ vision of financial inclusion for Southeast Asia. Softbank Ventures Korea, an early stage venture capital arm of Softbank…

Popular cryptocurrency exchange platform, Luno, today announced that they have formally registered with Bank Negara as a reporting institution as required by the policy document: Anti- Money Laundering and Counter Financing of Terrorism (AML/CFT) – Digital Currencies (Sector 6) which was issued earlier last February. The policy document sets out the minimum requirements and standards that a reporting institution must observe — to increase the transparency of activities relating to digital currencies and ensure effective and robust AML/CFT control measures are put in place. It is important to note that while Luno is registered as an reporting entity, cryptocurrency exchanges…

Allianz Malaysia Berhad is partnering with PolicyStreet to provide Malaysians with better online access to insurance products. PolicyStreet is an insurance technology company which offers an online curated platform with an aim to provide simple and affordable insurance solutions that cater for all customer needs. Through the new partnership, PolicyStreet is offering four of Allianz digital products. This news comes in on the heels of a of yet another insurtech partnership arrangement between PolicyStreet and AXA Affin announced on the same day signalling an increasingly mature insurtech sector in Malaysia. “In re-engineering the way we do business – being digital-centric…

Malaysia’s fintech scene is becoming increasingly active, it is sometimes difficult to keep track of all the important events, here’s March’s edition of our news roundup featuring the top 5 stories in the Fintech Malaysia scene. If you’re interested to check out February’s news round up you can read more here Grab Announces Grab Financial With Grab’s merger with Uber grabbing all the headlines recently it’s easy to miss their previous announcement on their fintech play. Following Grab’s previous announcement on GrabPay and acquisition of Kudo, Anthony Tan, Co Founder and Group CEO announced the company’s ambitions to further strengthen their play in…

Hong Leong Bank introduces an AI enabled virtual assistant named HALI, which it claims will help it to improve operations efficiency by 60% over the course of the year. HALI, is powered by Hyperlab which specialises in artificial intelligence (A. I.) powered chat, voice and search products. The chatbot developed for HLB is set to assist two main core support functions – Human Resource and Branch Operations. It will take over in answering staff queries on policies and procedures, a function previously undertaken by staff members from the two divisions. By learning and automating the thousands of queries asked every…