A brief look back at week 37
Singapore international remittance market growth driven by fintechs
We saw from one report that the Singapore international remittance market is expected to generate transactions valued at over SGD 11,000 million in the outbound remittance space by 2023.
The key drivers are the increased growth of fintech startups and M-Wallet companies. The report said: “Singapore's Corridor with China, Malaysia and India is likely to showcase the highest CAGRs of close to 7% each during 2018-2023 in terms of value of transactions. A rising influx of migrants, working as both white collar and blue collar jobs, is expected from China, India, Malaysia, Indonesia and Pakistan. In the next 5-7 years, the market growth is expected to be fueled by rising migration rates, better government regulations, rise in digitalization rates and increased use of Fintech.
“The market is being reshaped by both traditional and new types of payment service providers. Conspicuous amongst these are new non-bank competitors, the Fintech startups mobile money players, some of whom are already well established.
“The fast take-up of new technology shall enable payment services to be provided at a cheaper cot, yet being efficient and effective. In an industry traditionally served by banks, these new and innovative nonbank payment providers are entering the market and rapidly gaining ground and the share of these non-banking entities is expected to grow in the review period.”
The report is published by Ken Research.
BUX launches new service
The Amsterdam-based fintech BUX launched its fee-free trading app. Called BUX Zero, the idea is to make investing more accessible and it is being rolled out in the Netherlands, then in Germany and Austria.
At the launch, Nick Bortot, BUX founder and CEO, said: “Today, we are proud to invite our Dutch users to be the first to experience BUX Zero. Since 2014, we have made it our mission to make the world of finance a more approachable, accessible place for more than 2 million users across Europe. Our experience in building engaging mobile apps, along with our background in operating across Europe has allowed us to create a better solution for investing for a whole new community of digital natives.”
Mocasa banks the unbanked
In Manila we heard that international fintech platform Mocasa is providing lending and personalised financial services for the underserved in developing regions, enabling them to gain access to the digital economy. Mocassa operates on what is described as the radical notion "bank the unbanked." It pointed out that nearly two billion people worldwide don't have access to formal financial services, which means they don't have savings accounts, insurance or access to a viable credit line. They are financially excluded.
"Mocasa is striving to improve this situation. We believe that every person has the opportunity to access finance to better their lives," said Robin Wong, general manager of Mocasa. "We aim to broaden financial inclusion by offering financial services and products to those who have been left out by the traditional financial system so that they can build a better future for themselves, their families, and their communities."
Corcentric COO on B2B payments
On Tuesday in New York, Corcentric COO Matt Clark addressed the growing return on investment of B2B payments at the PYMNTS Executive Forum. Matt discussed capturing and leveraging the ROI of B2B payment automation to benefit the entire organisation. The backdrop to the forum is that the payables industry presents tremendous opportunity for innovation and revenue generation, but is often hobbled by legacy systems and processes that limit company growth.
Matt said: "P2P automation stands out as an incredible opportunity for the C-level executive to implement transformative strategies," said Matt Clark. "Digital solutions for areas like accounts payable and accounts receivable not only reduce operational costs, speed up response times, and improve the quality of outcomes, but enable organisations to generate growth and innovation across the enterprise."
IceKredit raises money
LA-based IceKredit, a leader in credit risk and credit management, raised $47m in pre-series C funding, surpassing the cumulative amount of funding of $44 million generated from all previous funding rounds. The team is composed of fintech scientists and engineers who come from ZestFinance, Lending Club, JP Morgan, Bank of America, Capital One, Discover, GE Capital, Barclays, Kabbage, Microsoft, Ant Financial, Tencent and Baidu. They engage in deep learning, natural language processing, knowledge graph, voice recognition, computer vision, and other contemporary applications of data science and ML.