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Asia/Pac

·Dec. 28, 2016

CreditEase Wealth Management Wins Best Non-Bank Private Wealth Product Award

The Asian Banker has awarded CreditEase Wealth Management with its first Best Non-Bank Private Wealth Product award; the award was part of the Asian Banker's awards program which has been recognizing financial services companies for 16 years; voting was done by an advisory board using detailed criteria to identify the non-bank with the best solutions for meeting the needs of high net worth customers by matching their risk profiles and investment objectives; CreditEase's CEO Ning Tang said its wealth planners focus on cross-border, cross-regional portfolios with multi-asset classes for clients and that its Toumi RA robo advisor service was created to help clients evaluate and minimize risks with a scientific portfolio. Source

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Asia/Pac Fintech News Roundup

·Dec. 28, 2016

Asia Fintech Fund of Funds Launches $1.4bn Fund

Hong Kong-listed Credit China FinTech Holdings led the launch of the fintech fund with 11 other partners that consist of central state-owned enterprises, provincial investment funds, trust and securities firms and private equity firms; financial gain was not the main motivation of the fund as the participants are looking at exposure to the emerging fintech space and possible partnerships in the future; "China's fintech sector was started later than the West's but is expanding at an unparalleled pace compared with the West," Credit China Executive Director Sheng Jia said at the opening ceremony. Source

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Asia/Pac Fintech News Roundup

·Dec. 29, 2016

Throwback Thursday: Ant Financial’s PDF Slide Deck from Its June 2016 Investor Day

Ant Financial Services Group is focused on serving small and micro enterprises as well as consumers. With the vision "to turn trust into wealth," Ant Financial is dedicated to building an open ecosystem of internet thinking and technologies while working with other financial institutions to support the future financial needs of society. Businesses operated by Ant Financial Services Group include: Alipay for payments, Yu'e Bao for money market services, Ant Fortune for wealth management, Ant Check Later and Ant Micro Loans for financing, Zhima Credit (formerly Sesame Credit) for credit reference, Zhao Cai Bao for online lending and MYBank for small business lending. Source

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Asia/Pac Fintech News Roundup

·Dec. 29, 2016

Twitter and India’s ICICI Bank Form Partnership for Improved Customer Experience

ICICI Bank will integrate Twitter's digital customer care support features through the bank's Twitter account; Twitter business support features to be utilized by ICICI Bank include Twitter's support indicator, message button and links for customer conversations; with the new customer support features, ICICI Bank seeks to make banking more rewarding for its customers. Source

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Asia/Pac Fintech News Roundup

·Dec. 30, 2016

Video: Outlook on Asia Fintech in 2017

Bloomberg Intelligence provides insight on Asia's fintech market in 2017; in internet finance Alibaba and Tencent have a strong market position with high barriers to entry set for the growing market; blockchain is expected to remain at the forefront of fintech development with use in online money transfers, electronic payments, banking and internet finance; insurtech will also be important with technology focused on sales distribution, product development and client engagement; data tracking, artificial intelligence and internet of things technology are also expected to be factors for insurtech. Source

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Asia/Pac Fintech News Roundup

·Dec. 30, 2016

Russian Airline Completes Letter of Credit Deal with Bank through Blockchain

PJSC Siberia Airlines has announced the first letter of credit service payment using blockchain; the opening and executing of the letter of credit issued from Alfa-Bank was recorded with smart contracts on a distributed ledger; the subsequent payment for services will also be transacted through blockchain technology; Alfa-Bank provided members of the deal with an electronic Alfa-business online system for deal processing. Source

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Asia/Pac Fintech News Roundup

·Dec. 30, 2016

Sichuan XW Bank Closer to Launching Online Banking Business

Shareholders and regulators have approved Sichuan XW Bank as the new name for one of China's newest online banks; Sichuan XW Bank is supported with capital by Xiaomi, an electronics and home appliances manufacturer; its leading competitors in the online banking market in China will be WeBank and MYBank. Source

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Asia/Pac Fintech News Roundup

·Jan. 3, 2017

Social Cash Helping Increase Use of WeChat

As of September 2016, WeChat had 768 million active users; the service is owned by Tencent; social cash sent to users through customized red packets or red envelopes has been one factor driving increased usage; WeChat has also been helping fuel a cashless society with 300 million users using WeChat Pay; expanding features and red packet promotional efforts have helped the company report an estimated value of $80 billion which is approximately half of Tencent's market cap. Source

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Asia/Pac Fintech News Roundup

·Jan. 3, 2017

Artificial Intelligence System Replacing Workers at Japanese Insurance Company

Japanese insurer Fukoku Mutual Life Insurance Co. has announced plans to replace 30% of its payment assessment department with an artificial intelligence system; the insurance company has partnered with IBM for use of IBM's Watson; the system will analyze and interpret medical documents for insurance payments; the company estimates it will save approximately 140 million yen ($1.19 million) per year by utilizing the new system; other insurance companies also exploring artificial intelligence for similar types of work include Dai-ichi Life Insurance Co., Japan Post Insurance Co. and Nippon Life Insurance Co. Source

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Asia/Pac Fintech News Roundup

·Jan. 3, 2017

China Driving Up Bitcoin’s Value

Bitcoin reported substantial gains in 2016, increasing 120% and 57% in the last three months of the year; on January 1 the cryptocurrency exchange rate versus the dollar increased to over $1,000; equity strategist, Christopher Wood of CLSA notes that trading in China has concurrently been high with trading on the China BTC Bitcoin Exchange increasing from Rmb 1 billion ($140 million) in September to Rmb 27.8 billion ($4 billion) in December; in an article from Asia Times, the source also reported that China accounted for 42% of Bitcoin's trading in the first six months of 2016; one factor significantly affecting the increased trading volume has been the weakening of China's currency causing increased interest in foreign investments. Source

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