On October 14, HNA Usolv, a cross-border trade solutions provider under the brand of HNA Group, signed a cooperation agreement with CRIF, one of the leading European credit information companies.

Although it was only a week ago, Sibos 2016 already seems like a distant memory with most of the world (with the exception of the Chinese who are still in the midst of the October holiday) back to work. Hosted in Geneva, the conference didn't disappoint. The week was packed with meetings, panels, discussions, and presentations.

Sibos is in full-swing here in Geneva with a record number of delegates and exhibitors on Day One already. Kapronasia is delighted to be part of Sibos 2016 and will be participating in three sessions of the next couple of days. Please join us at one of our sessions to hear our insights on the latest Asia Financial Industry trends and how we can help your business succeed in Asia. 

Here are the highlights:

On Tuesday September 27th at 11am Zennon Kapron will be moderating the Payments Market Infrastructure Roundtable. The session is a closed door event with regulators and central banks across the region to discuss the latest trends and challenges in payment infrastructure in Asia. 

On Thursday the 29th of September from 12:45-13:45 in the Innotribe space, Zennon Kapron will be guest speaking on Fintech Hubs and more specifically the developments around China Fintech. 

Later that same afternoon on Thursday the 29th from 14:00-15:00 in Conference Room 3 (CR3), Zennon will join an expert panel to speak on the topic of Emerging Markets: Mobile money and financial inclusion.

We have already met many of you at the event, but there are three days left, and we have a few open time slots if you are interested in learning more about how Kapronasia's products and services may help you, please reach out: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

On September 4th, Urjit Patel officially became the new central bank chief in India. He succeeded Raghuram Rajan, who was famous for largely stabilising the economy during his three year term. Under Patel's leadership, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) is expected to continue the current policy regime.

China's internet finance, or fintech, sector has had a busy couple of years as the industry has developed to be a critical part of the financial industry as a whole. Yet, the developments have been somewhat imbalanced. While areas like digital payments and asset management grew and matured, others like credit scoring fell behind. On September 9th, China's National Internet Finance Association (NIFA) finally launched their digital Credit Information Sharing platform, which really brings credit scoring into the fintech fold in China. 

In July, China released the second draft of its Cyber Security Law, just a year after the release of the first draft. On one hand, many of the key terms listed will have to be better defined before it is possible to draw definite conclusions about the implications of the Law. On the other, it is already clear that the Law makes it harder for foreign technology companies to conduct business in China, and this will likely be the case for financial institutions too. Specifically, the second draft does that by expanding and blurring the scope of the regulation, giving authorities broader access to information systems and raising data localization requirements.

Over the past few months Alibaba's 'Finance Cloud' has gained significant traction with an estimated 40+ banks subscribing to some, if not all, of the services available on the financial platform. Far from just a cloud platform, Ali Finance Cloud is the closest we have seen to 'Bank in the Cloud.'

Assessing SME (Small and Medium Enterprise) credit has always been a difficult problem for banks and other financial institutions because lack of credit rating and reporting platforms. Last week, Sesame Credit announced the launch of their own credit checking and rating system for SMEs. They named it “Ling’Zhi” - which means “smart sesame” in Chinese. This new system may be the start of solving the SME credit issue and open up new funding channels to SMEs themselves.

Fintech companies in China are raising investor eyebrows this year, with such firms breaking global fund raising records. Even as the amount of venture capital flowing into China has slowed from its peak in 2015, data compiled by KPMG Enterprise and CB Insights show investors are still bullish on the fintech industry.  The money invested into China’s fintech sector reached a record high of $2.4 billion in the first quarter of the year, the consultancy said. This amount was boosted by deals into two of China’s so-called tech unicorns:  Chinese P2P lender Lu.com and JD Finance.

Automated advisory platforms, or Robo-advisors, have shaken up the finance industry in many parts of the U.S. and Europe. China's wealth management industry is now the next in line to receive such a boost.