Displaying items by tag: banking

Australia has been among the most proactive APAC countries in its approach to open banking, dovetailing with a broader focus on boosting consumer choice and protecting consumers. While not exactly unhappy with incumbents, Australian consumers would like better native digital options. Regulators, meanwhile, want to see improved compliance. The findings of the Financial Services Royal Commission exposed widespread wrongdoing in the Australian banking sector. More recently, several of the country's largest banks were heavily fined for lax anti-money laundering policies. 

Published in Fintech Research

Vietnam is ready to finalize plans for a regulatory sandbox for fintech banking and cashless payments, according to Asia financial magazine The Asset. The Vietnamese government issued Resolution 01 on January 2, which outlined significant tasks and solutions to bolster the country’s socio-economic development in 2020. The sandbox is expected to support the growing sharing economy in Vietnam as well as numerous local startups.

The State Bank of Vietnam (SBV) has been a supporter of the fintech sector since 2017. In addition to establishing a fintech-focused steering committee, the SBV created the initial proposal for a fintech sandbox in Vietnam. Deputy Director of Payments at the SBV, Ngo Van Duc, said that the Vietnamese government needed to develop new regulations and policies to ensure the continued development of the fintech sector in Vietnam and that the creation of a regulatory sandbox for fintech was an urgent need.

Published in Asia Banking Research

The Asia-Pacific region is set to be the primary engine of global economic growth in the 21st century. It is home to two of the world’s three largest economies, the two largest countries by population and more fast-growing emerging markets than any other region globally.

Published in Research Reports

For the first time in over two decades, China’s central bank has taken control of a private bank. Baoshang Bank Co. which was founded in 1998 is headquartered in Baotou. With assets worth about 576 billion yuan ($83 billion) the lender is well established in the Inner-Mongolia region. Tomorrow Group, which holds around 89 percent of Baoshang Bank is claimed to have expropriated a serious amount of capital leading to major credit problems.

Published in Asia Banking Research

Taiwan may be the only market in Asia that can be called overbanked, making it a true regional outlier. In these commentaries, we usually discuss Asia's unbanked or underbanked populations. In Pakistan, for instance, 100 million people - almost half of the population - do not have a bank account. They are unbanked. The country as a whole is underbanked. In Taiwan, however, nearly every adult has several bank accounts. Taiwanese firms often ask workers to open a bank account at the company's preferred bank. Many people open new accounts each time they change jobs.

Published in Asia Banking Research

Ping An is a Chinese holding conglomerate with one of the largest market values in the country. Founded in 1988, it is valued at over $125 billion and is the largest insurer in the world to this date. Ping An is known for its fintech subsidiary, OneConnect which is a cloud-based technology service designed for small to medium-sized financial companies. OneConnect is the largest financial cloud platform across all of China and stretches all the way to Singapore.

Published in Asia Banking Research

An increasing number of fintechs are entering the Australian market, posing a growing challenge to the country's banking incumbents. In April, Judo became the second Australian challenger bank to receive a license this year after Volt Bank in January. Two additional neo-banks, Xinja and 86 400, have applied for their banking licenses and are awaiting the regulator's decision.

With a banking license, Judo can operate without restrictions and is well poised to compete against incumbents. The four heavyweights that dominate the Australian banking market, Commonwealth Bank of Australia, Westpac Banking Corp, Australia and New Zealand Banking Group and National Australia Bank, have come under increasing criticism following a misconduct probe into the nation's finance industry that revealed occurrences of bribery to win mortgage business and fees charged to deceased account holders, among other malfeasance.

Published in Asia Banking Research

Indonesia's super-app Go-Jek has borrowed a page out of both Uber and WeChat's books on its way to hallowed decacorn status - valuation of US$10 billion. Like Uber, Go-Jek began as a humble ride-hailing app. It soon expanded into food delivery, just as Uber did with Uber Eats. Go-Jek then added digital banking services as China's Tencent did with WeChat Pay and WeBank. One of Go-Jek's goals is to gain a strong foothold in internet banking as Tencent has in China. Singapore-based Grab (in the Indonesian market through its stake in Ovo) has a similar plan, and just might be a match for Go-Jek. What about Indonesia's banking incumbents though? They can't just stand by idly while the super apps eat their lunch.

Published in Asia Banking Research

The National Bank of Cambodia will become one of the first banks in the world to integrate blockchain technology into its national payments system in the second half of the year. The Cambodian government aims to use distributed ledger technology to strengthen banking system efficiency and boost financial inclusion in what is still one of Asean's poorest countries.

Published in Blockchain Research

Foreign banks have a negligible presence in China, the world's largest consumer market. Research by KPMG has found that foreign banks hold about 1.3 % of China's domestic banking assets as of late 2017, compared to roughly 2.4% a decade earlier. Brokerages have not fared better. In 2015, UBS Securities and JPMorgan First Capital ranked 95th and 120th, respectively, among China's 125 brokerages by net income, according to the Securities Association of China.

Published in China Banking Research
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