Latest Reports

  • Navigating the Future of Fintech in Asia
    Navigating the Future of Fintech in Asia Although fintech has been a global phenomenon, nowhere has the combination of finance and technology been as impactful as in Asia. This report examines some of the key fintech trends that have been re-shaping Asia’s financial industry thusfar as well as examine the trends that will shape the future.
  • Top 10 Fintech Trends in APAC 2024
    Top 10 Fintech Trends in APAC 2024 From financial inclusion to AI Fintech literacy, this report promises to be a highly valuable resource for staying ahead in the ever-evolving Fintech space, covering trends, issues, and challenges that will define 2024.
  • The Transformation of Retail Payments in Asia
    The Transformation of Retail Payments in Asia From the sprawling street markets of Bangkok to the high-tech shopping districts of Tokyo, the nature of retail payments is changing. Across Asia Pacific, a silent revolution is reshaping how consumers transact.

Events

April 23, 2024 - April 25, 2024
Money 2020 Asia 2024
October 21, 2024 - October 24, 2024
Sibos Beijing
November 06, 2024 - November 08, 2024
Singapore Fintech Festival
Insight - Kapronasia

The US online payment service provider PayPal has big plans for helping merchants and customers worldwide. Earlier this week, it has announced his partnership with the most popular payment card in China UnionPay to provide Chinese cross-border shoppers with an easier way to complete their transactions via UnionPay Online payments. The ability to make purchases using UnionPay cards has been one of the most requested features from Chinese customers.

A whole generation of ordinary Chinese have been neglected in terms of wealth management and banking with high minimum investment thresholds or VIP-only products preventing only a select few from getting access to traditional wealth management products. Alibaba and Tencent have brought innovative internet finance based services such as Tenpay or Alipay to the market and have further opened up wealth management to an entire new segment of the market with 'mass-market' wealth management products. China’s e-commerce powerhouse Alibaba now is after banking industry.

At a recent conference, the Asset Management of China (AMAC) declared that there are 713 hedge funds in Zhejiang province alone – a surprisingly large number, considering some of the statements by international experts as recent as 2014 that there are no more than ten hedge funds in China. Futures trading is also up 30% on the main exchanges in China - a strong correlation. 

With over 270 million active Alipay Wallet users and extensive collaborations with overseas global online merchants, Chinese e-commerce payment powerhouse Alipay now is making its expansion into China’s domestic offline stores and soon to the global market.

Xiaomi teamed up with E Fund Management to offer a new money market fund last week. The fund will be available on the wealth management app installed on the Xiaomi operating system and will be similar to products offered by Alibaba and Tencent in that it offers higher-than traditional bank deposit rates and allows nearly instant liquidity.

A new partnership between CreditEase and Wellington has changed the rules with an incredibly easy way for the increasingly wealthy middle-class to invest abroad. 

Globally there have been few examples, if any, of traditional financial institutions getting full use of customer big data to provide a mass-market asset management product. There are of course specialized hedgefunds and wealth management products that track market sentiment, but few beyond that. In China however, Internet giant Baidu and now, more recently, E-commerce tycoon Alibaba group are both changing the fintech landscape by how they are leveraging big data to bring new products to market. 

According to data from the People's Bank of China, by the end of 2014 China had 614,900 ATMs in operation across the country, up 18.25% from 2013. While certainly a rapid growth, it was actually slower than a year ago when the number of networked ATMs increased by 25.12%, and is significantly lower than its peak growth of 36.18% in 2008.

P2P woes continue in China as illegal fundraising through P2P platforms grew in both 2014 and 2015. When will the government intervene?

Accenture recently released its Accenture North America Consumer Digital Banking Survey for 2015. One of the findings was that banks run the risk of being seen as a 'utility' to their customers. Could the same thing happen in China?

Page 59 of 81