May 1, 2023

With the breakneck pace of AI, it looks so easy from the outside, but once you try to understand the depth of fintech, it’s like getting lost in a dark cave. As a challenge, this blog shall find you a way out and remove all your possible doubts. It’s not just the lavishness of technology or the threat of green bubbles rather the more we try to understand, the more are the number of questions arising in our minds! True? This is the right article designed for you after a thorough research of 15 days which includes 50+ data and research materials. This blog shall be focusing on the APAC region fintechs especially targeting top 20 fintech firms in Asia and what challenges do they face and what is the likely to be future of this domain. Summary The Fintech Sun recognizes Asia as the new hotspot. Number of Fintech Patents in Asia and the Pacific Fintech Radar: Top 20 APAC fintechs Challenges and Consequences Introduction The banks all across the world are actively monitoring Asia. In whatever way you look at it, this region of our planet is currently experiencing a Fintech bubble. A record $39.57 billion has been put in Fintech by venture capital firms worldwide in 2018. Asia saw an enormous 38 percent growth over the previous year, closely trailing the United States, which drew the most investment. Asian nations, particularly China, which is home to four of the biggest Fintech unicorns, as well as Japan and Korea, are at the forefront of global Fintech innovation. About three-fourths of the Fintech patents submitted globally last year were from these three countries, plus India and Taiwan. Digital wallets are anticipated to replace cash and credit cards as more and more point of sale (POS) transactions and e-commerce transactions are made online. Peer-to-peer (P2P) lending on marketplaces has become a popular alternative finance option for both consumers and enterprises. Buy Now, Pay Later (BNPL) services are another market category that is expanding its customer base. Australia and New Zealand are among the countries that use BNPL the most, while Singapore is also the location of numerous BNPL businesses. 100 high-growth companies working in industries like finance, biotech, Software-as-a-Service (SaaS), blockchain, healthtech, and artificial intelligence are reported to be active in 12 key regions in the new KPMG APAC study 2022 titled “Emerging Giants in Asia Pacific” (AI). The population, number of mobile subscribers, GDP per capita, and number of internet users are a few vital socioeconomic factors taken into account. Due to a significant rise in the number of middle-class individuals, the presence of young, educated “digital natives,” and backing from the government, Southeast Asia in particular is well-positioned for growth. The Asian Fintech boom is being spurred by a multitude of factors that are acting differently in different markets. The presence of a young, digitally savvy population and unmet demand in unbanked areas are among the most favorable market factors. Fintech has discovered its sweet spot in financially underserved markets with a savvy regarding technology. Consider Indonesia, which is poised to use novel financial products on mobile, with half of the country’s sizable population under 30 and smartphone penetration projected to exceed 50% this year. This phenomenon is already well underway in China and India, where more than half of adults who use the Internet or mobile devices report regularly using Fintech services. Southeast Asia is home to one of the fastest-growing Fintech marketplaces in the world thanks to a sizable unbanked population that is prepared to use these products. Modern FinTech Stacks’ Origins Fintech’s roots can be found in the way people conducted business in the late 19th century, including the advent of digital money and double-entry accounting, although we now associate it with cryptocurrencies and start-up banks. The first electronic fund transfer system was created in 1886 using telegraph and Morse code, the first transatlantic cable, and Fedwire in the United States. Fintech once stood for the use of computer technology to the back offices of banks or trading companies. As a result, as part of the Fintech stack for finance, the first ATM, the first digital stock market (NASDAQ), and SWIFT were created. PayPal was created in the 1990s, foreshadowing the new Fintech payment methods and IT integration that would develop as the world got more and more online. These were the first steps towards digital banking. Smartphones then dominated the market after the development of cloud computing and back office automation, and people started using the internet for mobile banking and other financial services. Subsequently, in 2009, new cryptocurrencies and NFTs based on blockchain technology surfaced, notably Bitcoin. Fintech businesses use cutting-edge technologies like big data, artificial intelligence, blockchain , and cloud computing to make financial services more efficient and available. These businesses include startups, technology companies, and established financial institutions. Yet, financial technology has moved to web 3.0 and the metaverse and has gotten more unpredictable since the Internet and smartphone revolutions. Other financial operations that can be carried out without a person’s help include money transfers, check deposits made using smartphones, credit applications made online, raising funds for a business start-up, and preserving investments. One-third of consumers use two or more fintech services, and their knowledge of the role fintech plays in their daily lives is expanding, according to EY’s 2017 Fintech Adoption Index. What is FinTech in APAC? With major international firms domiciled there, Asia Pacific is home to the largest and fastest expanding FinTech industry in the world. The APAC FinTech market is made up of large mature markets like China and more compact emerging countries like Thailand, Indonesia, and others. The size of the Asia-Pacific region varies depending on the scenario, although it frequently includes nations that border the Pacific Ocean in East Asia, Southeast Asia, and Oceania. Generally speaking, the Asia-Pacific region (also known as the Indo-Pacific) encompasses South Asia, Mongolia, Myanmar, and the Russian Far East. On occasion, the APAC region may also be referred to as the Asia-Pac, AsPac, or APJ/APEJ (for “Asia-Pacific and Japan” or “Asia-Pacific Excluding Japan”) area. The Fintech Sun recognizes Asia as the new hotspot. Fintech investments in the Asia-Pacific area as a whole hit 50.5 billion dollars in 2022. This marked a significant increase from 2020, when the Asia-Pacific region’s fintech industry received investments totaling 15.2 billion US dollars. Asia’s developing economies have had fast growth, but their financial institutions still tend to be less inclusive. The fast adoption of fintech presents an excellent opportunity to lower financial service costs and increase access to capital, profitably boosting financial inclusion and generating significant productivity improvements. The changes have also increased the difficulty for policymakers and regulators to recognize risks and comprehend disruptive forces in financial services and products. Decentralization and disintermediation have emerged with digitization. Decentralized services, such as distributed ledger, are used in the creation of cryptocurrency and smart contracts. Several traditional financial intermediaries have also been replaced by new technology-driven business models including P2P platforms and robo-advisors, offering unique problems for incumbents and regulators. The economies of Asia, particularly China, Japan, and Korea, have emerged as the top innovators in the field of fintech. East Asia eclipsed the rest of the globe as the region with the most fintech patent filings in 2018, with China, India, Japan, Korea, and Taipei, China accounting for a combined 72.6% of all fintech patents worldwide. China tops the list of countries that file patents, and its percentage of total patents climbed from 30% in 2013 to 56.2% in 2018. The most revolutionary sector is the use of mobile Internet access for payment services, however, traditional banking services are also being transformed by big data, distributed computing, and artificial intelligence. The trajectories of fintech innovation between the world and the Asia-Pacific sample are comparable, according to the analytical framework of fintech that the IMF suggested in 2017, which incorporates technological and financial service components. After decades of development, payment technology is still expanding rapidly. Asia has recently received a lot of attention and funding, and this is because mobile payments there have the potential to give many people, particularly those living in rural regions, access to low-cost financial products and services like transactions, payments, savings, credit, and insurance. P2P lending, savings, and investment advice are more recent high-growth fintech categories in addition to mobile payments. Asia accounts for more than half of the global share of financial patents, excluding those relating to encryption technology. Number of Fintech Patents in Asia and the Pacific  Fintech technologies are being created by renowned computer and software firms as well as by manufacturers, major commercial banks, and technological startups. Big tech firms appear well-suited to solidify their positions and put financial startups in competition. Payment service companies can exploit the wealth of consumer data they collect as the most developed subset of fintech services to strengthen their market positions. Companies that already have a significant customer base, like Alibaba and Tencent in China, have a strong motivation to retain them and utilize payment services as a platform to offer more services. Using its Alipay Wallet app, Alipay, a third-party mobile and online payment platform is used on cell phones. Users of the Alipay app can add their own services from various businesses to make the experience more individualized. Smooth shopping is what we’re all about, both online and offline. A Swedish fintech business called Klarna offers online financial services such as direct payments, payments for online stores, and post-purchase payments. Investments for All Customers can purchase and sell U.S.-listed stocks and ETFs at no cost through the stock brokerage Robinhood. Get started without paying commissions. Other crypto exchanges charge up to 4% just to buy and sell crypto. We charge 0%. Get BTC, ETH, LTC, DOGE, and more with as little as $1. Introducing Robinhood Retirement– Get a 1% match, custom recommended portfolios, and no commission fees. Get the right to buy or sell stocks at a specific date for a specific price. No commissions here either. With thousands of stocks to choose from and Fractional Shares, you can put in as little as $1 towards the companies that could potentially add value to you and your future. Crime insurance against theft and cybersecurity breaches. Cold storage for vast majority of our customers’ coins. Cryptocurrency trading is offered through an account with Robinhood Crypto. Robinhood Crypto is not a member of SIPC or FINRA. Cryptocurrencies are not stocks and your cryptocurrency investments are not protected by either FDIC or SIPC. Auxmoney is an internet platform for peer to peer lending. On aux money, institutional and private investors can put money into pre-approved borrowers while earning enticing risk-adjusted returns. Auxmoney increases loan access and provides its consumers with a superior and simple user experience via the use of distinctive risk models and digital procedures. SoFi is a cutting-edge provider of financing and asset management services. With its mobile app and desktop interfaces, SoFi offers a range of financial products, such as refinancing student loans, mortgages, personal loans, credit cards, investing, and banking. Reward points are redeemable for cash, fractional shares of stock, SoFi loan payments, and more. SoFi members get benefits like financial planning and exclusive access to SoFi Stadium. SoFi has made refinancing experience social, interesting, and fun through their community events and member engagement. Facilitate, safeguard, and improve the efficiency of retail borrowing and wealth management. To fulfil the credit demands of small business owners, there are a number of cutting-edge technological solutions that offer consumers credit facilitation services throughout the full online business process. A leading global comprehensive online wealth management platform is Lujiazui International Financial Asset Exchange (Lufax). This platform supports automated portfolio investment tools that create customized investment portfolio options that match investors’ risk appetites. This can increase investment return through diversification and automated investments through the use of deep learning and big data analytics. Take credit cards everywhere. Adyen’s payment platform offers businesses a standardized way to manage payments from all around the world. Accept payments from all channels of commerce. Easily add more payment methods and grow into new markets with local acquiring. Create superior customer experiences using cross-channel insights. Protect your business by detecting and responding to fraud without impacting real transactions. Gain a deeper understanding of your business with all your global payment data in one place. Kabbage, Inc., is an online financial technology company based in Atlanta, Georgia. The new offering is rising out of the ashes of Kabbage, an alternative lending company launched in 2009 that American Express acquired in 2020. The resources you require to expand your business. Kabbage has a particular focus on lending to small companies. The company has ascended to unicorn status after a US$1bn valuation; an achievement that also places Petralia as the 97th most powerful woman in the world. Well, again unlike traditional lenders who rely on long applications, income statements, tax records and collateral, Kabbage creatively use large amounts of online data to make instant credit decisions. Via an automated lending platform, the business directly finances consumers and small enterprises. Infrastructure for online payments. Millions of businesses of all sizes—from startups to large enterprises—use Stripe’s software and APIs to accept payments, send payouts, and manage their businesses online. The software and APIs from Stripe are used by millions of companies of all kinds, from small startups to big corporations, to collect payments, send payouts, and manage their online operations. They bring together everything that’s required to build websites and apps that accept payments and send payouts globally. Stripe’s products power payments for online and in-person retailers, subscriptions businesses, software platforms and marketplaces, and everything in between. They also help companies beat fraud, send invoices, issue virtual and physical cards, reduce friction at checkout, get financing, manage business spend, and much more. Avant’s goal is to make borrowing easier and less expensive. In addition to the usual consumer data gathered, Avant’s technology uses algorithms, machine-learning protocols, and analytical tools to calculate a specific rate, amount, and length at which money can be borrowed. That’s why we offer flexible choices, simple solutions and friendly support to help you keep moving forward, one step at a time. So whether you need a credit card, a loan to help cover the unexpected or a clear answer to a difficult question, Avant is there to help. Borrow $2,000-$35,000 for things like a medical bill, a home project, or an unexpected expense. Get closer to your financial goals with clear and transparent credit limits from $300-$3,000. COMPANY FINANCE In-depth Reporting and Insights Challenges and Consequences The consequences and difficulties associated to financial innovation in the region are as follows, based on these trends and developments in the Asian fintech sector. In Asia, fintech has the ability to enhance and advance more inclusive finance. Meanwhile, it will change the entire financial system, including money, infrastructure, and fundraising, necessitating a rigorous examination of underlying dangers to the stability of the financial system. In a market where a few big businesses dominate, fintech brings industry concentration. To stop the monopolistic tendencies of technology behemoths and misuse of market dominance, competition policies and smarter resource allocation are required. Data are more susceptible to security breaches when big data and artificial intelligence-based machine learning and predictive analytics are used to different financial services. Fintech-related privacy, cybersecurity, know your customer, and consumer protection issues are crucial. Money laundering, terrorist financing, and competition difficulties all necessitate regulatory intervention as the financial sector transitions quickly towards digitization, decentralization, and disintermediation of economic transactions. Critical Policy Problems Three major policy challenges must be addressed by central bankers, regulators, governments, and international financial institutions in the region. To encourage greater financial inclusion, manage technological innovation. In order to better serve underprivileged people and businesses, new technologies have significantly minimized asymmetric information situations and cut transaction costs. Despite major technical improvements, 2 billion people worldwide—half of whom live in Asia—do not have access to financial services. How can it be guaranteed that fintech innovations serve SMEs and people who are now denied access to financial services, enabling them to benefit from the growth advantages of digital technology? How can digital infrastructure be created such that the most isolated communities may use it? Building the ecosystem necessary for the development, adoption, and expansion of technology and innovation. Government interventions are generally justified by the notion that innovation will be undersupplied by private entities. The implication of this argument is that solving the issue entails somehow supporting the private sector. From a Schumpeterian viewpoint, the development of national innovation systems that create the atmosphere required and sufficient to foster strong ties between businesses, public labs, government ministries, financial players, patents, and educational institutions can be the policy solution. What kind of institutional backing, rules for enforcing contracts, competition law, or market structure would promote the development of these connections? Enhancing the role of central banks and financial regulators in risk management and creating the regulatory framework to safeguard consumers and strike a balance between financial stability and innovation. Technology can play a significant role in both the macro-level spread of infectious diseases and the emergence of systemic issues. Poor governance or process control can raise the risk of a direct disruption in the delivery of financial services at the micro level. Operational hazards include dependency on popular online platforms and vulnerability to hackers. What part do central banks and financial regulators have to play in this? And how can governments safeguard citizens from fraud and cybercrimes, stop illicit activities like money laundering and financing for terrorism, improve cybersecurity to thwart cyberattacks, safeguard private information, and strike a balance between innovation and financial stability? Conclusion: What does the future of fintech hold? Although there is still an ongoing financial risk, larger and longer-term trends for the future of fintech are still mostly intact. It seems far more enticing for legacy banks and fintech to combine, cooperate, and continue their relationship. Customers anticipate the expansion and emergence of these start-ups, which include peer-to-peer transactions, cryptocurrencies, blockchain, and artificial intelligence. Innovation is becoming increasingly popular with customers, enterprises, and a wide spectrum of financial services companies. It is vital to comprehend how regional cooperation and international financial institutions can be employed to address problems and vulnerabilities. How all stakeholders work collaboratively moving forward is crucial in order to promote the movement for inclusive finance through the channels made possible by new technology. It is crucial for all parties involved to work together to address the problems these new technologies are posing by developing the necessary soft and hard infrastructure, enhancing data privacy and consumer protection, and identifying fraud and other illegal activities that are becoming more and more global in scope. As the fintech sector expansion in Asia  continues to grow, these issues need to be addressed as swiftly as possible. [To share your insights with us, please write to sghosh@martechseries.com]