Author: Fintech News Malaysia

iPay88 today announces its latest offering known as the ‘Virtual Account’ – a payment solution that is targeted at the country’s ‘underbanked’ communities. Malaysia has a total population of 31.3 million as of 2017, with about 22.6 million being adult population. However according to Bank Negara Malaysia (BNM), 8 per cent of this adult population were still ‘underbanked’ – meaning they do not own a bank account or credit card and need to go outside of the banking system to meet their financial needs. Executive Director of iPay88, Chan Kok Long says that this ‘underbanked’ community makes up the gap…

Malaysians will soon be the first to earn gold by recycling their plastic bottles and aluminum cans. Southeast Asian fintech firm HelloGold and Malaysia’s reverse-vending machine (RVM) company KLEAN are implementing a recycling scheme that offers Malaysians 0.00059 grams of investment-grade gold for each recycled plastic bottle and each aluminum can. Anyone can start earning gold by first downloading the HelloGold app from the Google Play Store or Apple Store and registering for an account. Once registered, users can bring their plastic bottles and aluminum cans to any KLEAN RVM for recycling. After depositing the bottles or cans in the…

The Securities Commission Malaysia (SC) and Bank Negara (BNM) established the Brokerage Industry Digitisation Group (BRIDGe), a joint working group between regulators and industry to accelerate the digitisation of the stockbroking industry. BRIDGe aims to accelerate the digitisation of the brokerage industry to enhances operational efficiencies and service standards. The group will encompass Securities Commission Malaysia, Bank Negara Malaysia and industry participants including brokers and banking institutions. Commenting on the matter Tan Sri Ranjit Singh, Chairman, Securities Commission Malaysia said, “The full objective of what we’re trying to do is to work with the industry to find a much more…

CIMB Bank Berhad, through its branch that is being set up in the Philippines, CIMB Bank Philippines Inc., recently entered into partnership agreements with FINTQ and Bayad Center Inc both affiliates of the Philippine Long Distance Telephone Company (“PLDT”) group of companies. FINTQ is a local leader in providing digital financial solutions and interactions. Among the various aspects, the partnership with FINTQ will allow CIMB to leverage on the subscriber base and customer database of Lendr, one of FINTQ’s proprietary platforms. Lendr is a fully digital end to end loan origination platform  To date Lendr already has established partnership with…

Start-ups that are members of the FinTech Association of Malaysia (FAOM) will be receiving free insurance coverage from Allianz Malaysia. Allianz will be offering a free annual Group Personal Accident (GPA) coverage to current startup members of the FAOM. Any Malaysian start-ups that comprise of less than 30 employees may also register with FAOM in order to be entitled to the sponsorship. “Allianz is passionate about driving innovation. In coming up with this initiative, we want to help start-ups relieve the burden of certain issues that could hinder their growth; financial liabilities arising from employee accidents is a huge…

Vickers Venture Partners, Southeast Asia’s largest VC, announced the opening of its Malaysian headquarters. Vickers Venture Partner Advisors, based in Kuala Lumpur, will be the newest outpost of the Vickers Global Network and will focus on realising Malaysia’s large innovative and disruptive potential. Dr Finian Tan, Chairman and Co-Founder of Vickers Venture Partners, said “Southeast Asia is one of the key pillars to our investment strategy. We view the initiatives of the Malaysian Government, led by the Malaysia Digital Economy Corporation (MDEC), as one of the key attractions of Malaysia. Malaysia also represents an ideal location for Vickers as it…

Valyou, in partnership with Mutual Trust Bank (MTB), has introduced wallet-to-wallet remittance from Malaysia to Bangladesh. This first-of-its-kind integration enables migrant workers in Malaysia to transfer money directly to any bKash account in Bangladesh using Valyou Mobile Wallet app. Valyou CEO, Mr. Khuram Malik said, “Bangladeshis who are largely working in manufacturing and construction represent one of the largest economic migrant segments in Malaysia. We are excited to bring more convenience and peace of mind for them to send their hard-earned money home safely. “Working together with MTB, we are able to offer instant money transfer to bKash from Valyou…

CIMB Bank Berhad has added new features to its mobile application, the CIMB Enhanced Virtual Assistant (EVA), to bring further personalised, convenience and improved experience to its customers. Launched in December 2016, CIMB EVA has delivered in enabling account overviews and transactions through chat or quick keyword access. EVA was recently enhanced to include Spend Analyser and natural language conversational capabilities. These features are made available through collaboration with Singaporean fintech companies like MoneyThor and Active.Ai. With CIMB EVA’s Spend Analyser which was done in collaboration with MoneyThor, customers can manage their accounts better and make smarter financial decisions via…

The nominees for the Malaysia Fintech Awards 2018 has finally been announced, as this is the first event at this scale that is recognising the achievements of the industry we’re really excited to see who the winners will be. The organisers has also confirmed during their press conference that Prime Minister YAB Dato’ Seri Najib will be present during the award night as the guest of honour which will be held on the 6th of March in KLCC. It is indeed encouraging to see the highest level of the government in Malaysia recognising and embracing fintech. Here’s a quick…

PolicyStreet has announced a collaboration with their insurance partner MSIG Insurance (Malaysia) Berhad (MSIG) to distribute online pet insurance in Malaysia. This insurance is an annual premium cover, covers veterinary and surgical bills, prescribed drugs and injections (subject to policy terms and conditions) to help dogs and cats in Malaysia get the best chance at recovery from sickness and accidental injuries. Other notable benefits include owners being reimbursed the purchase price or adoption fee if their pets pass away due to illness or accidental injury, and burial or cremation costs for these pets and the wonderful part is this insurance…

Active support and initiatives by financial regulators such as the Monetary Authority of Singapore, Bank Negara Malaysia and Bank Indonesia has enabled the Asia-Pacific Fintech ecosystem to grow significantly in 2017. New innovations are expected to radically transform the way consumers shop, pay perform banking transactions and purchase insurance. The wave of new Fintech technologies is also changing customer behaviour and interactions today. Frost & Sullivan presented its annual Fintech Outlook at The Swissôtel The Stamford in Singapore on 8 February. The event was attended by over 70 senior management and C-suite executives, marking the start of an exciting year ahead for the…

Funding Societies and MoneyMatch, two local FinTech startups, announced an official strategic partnership to broaden access to alternative financial services for Malaysian small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). Funding Societies, Malaysia’s market leader (P2P) financing platform, will support efforts to build awareness for MoneyMatch, a cross border money transfer platform approved by Bank Negara Malaysia. In turn, Money Match will refer clients in need of business financing to Funding Societies. The arrangement is subject to SME customers’ consent. The Funding Societies and MoneyMatch partnership aims to provide businesses, particularly SMEs, with a wider range of options when searching for quality business…

Earlier in January Malaysian tax officials the Inland Revenue Board froze the bank account of popular cryptocurrency exchange, Luno. The account was frozen pending an investigation relating to tax matters. Luno users were still able to trade cryptocurrencies but were unable to convert their ETHs and BTCs into Ringgit Malaysia. This led to many Luno users cashing out their cryptocurrencies via other exchanges like Remitano despite suffering losses due price differences between the platforms and exchange fees. According to a statement issued by Luno, the Inland Revenue Board has agreed to unfreeze Luno’s bank account while it completes the investigation.…

A lack of fundamental valuation and the due diligence process by potential investors is leading to extreme volatility of the initial coin offering (ICO) market, according to new research published by EY. The research also found that in some cases ICO investors are contributing capital at an average rate of over US$300,000 per second. The EY research, which studied 372 ICOs around the world, also found that the offerings raised US$3.7b in funds, twice the volume of VC investments in blockchain projects. Furthermore, the US is leading the race with the highest volume of ICOs originating from the country (over…

In a joint-statement issued by Bank Negara Malaysia (BNM) and Securities Commission Malaysia (SC) today, the regulators stated that Initial Coin Offering (ICO) schemes may fall under the jurisdiction of the regulators. Both the regulators warned ICO issuers that carrying out regulated activities without prior approval from the authorities is considered an offense. The activities include but is not limited to; fund-raising, fund management, capital market products, deposit taking, foreign exchange administration, remittances and the exchange of digital token for payments. This statement follows Securities Commission Malaysia’s recent move to issue a cease and desist to CopyCashCoin. Bank Negara Malaysia…

As the digital wallet war heats up in Malaysia, a new player, Irispay throws its hat into the ring with their fully cashless concept store in Subang Jaya, seemingly as a push to promote usage for their digital wallet. Irispay claims to be Malaysia’s first fully cashless unmanned convenience store which operates 24 hours with ambitions to launch 250 stores by 2018. Their concept store largely consists of vending machines that sells a variety of products ranging from snacks, beverages and the standard range of items that you’ll find in a regular convenience store, upon selecting the desired item, customers…

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)…

HelloGold, a Malaysian based fintech firm that blends gold trading with blockchain technologies was announced as the winner of the the Critics’ Choice Most Innovative Islamic Retail Product Award. Organised by the UK-based financial intelligence house, Cambridge IF Analytica, the award recognised the platform’s features, which include being the world’s first Shariah-compliant certified online digital gold platform. Robin Lee, CEO, commented, “HelloGold was created to make gold and other sophisticated financial products affordable and available to everyone. We are proud that our achievements are being recognised. But, this is just the beginning – in the last two months, the HelloGold…

A study published by Bank Negara Malaysia in September explores the implications of a Bank Negara Malaysia cryptocurrency or as the report calls it; a central bank backed digital currency. A central bank digital currency (CBDC), if introduced, is unlikely to replace cash transactions any time soon. Instead, it should be a complement to cash and bank deposit. According to the study, the key innovation with CBDC is the ability for individuals and firms to hold direct accounts with the central banks and to transact directly with one another using the digital currency as a legal tender. “This has…

The SuperCharger FinTech Accelerator programme kicked off its 12-week programme today by introducing 10 international start-ups as the finalists for this platform. The programme comes as a partnership between leading financial institutions, Standard Chartered Bank and Allianz Malaysia, as well as strategic partner Malaysia Digital Economy Corporation (MDEC). More than 100 early-stage and late-stage scale-ups from 30 countries submitted applications for the programme. Their diverse businesses covered sub-sectors, such as insurance technology (InsurTech), regulatory technology (RegTech), payments, wealth management, artificial intelligence (AI), and blockchain, all of which represent some of the world’s most cutting-edge solutions. The 10 finalists for SuperCharger…