Singapore

The success of neobanks has raised challenges amongst the fintech industry. Providing a digital alternative to traditional banking, neobanks are, without a doubt, playing a key role in the evolution of banking.

Improved liquidity due to slow loan growth last year should cushion the effects.

It will utilise the accreditation to promote securities trading to its customers.

GIC injected $88.7m in a latest funding round along with Norwegian private equity firm Norfund.

Kheng Leong Lee was also the former chapter director for Asia for Factors Chain International.

And UBS plans to hire 20 managing directors for its US investment arm.

They will be attracted to the banks’ strong balance sheets and access to USD funding.

The index fund plans to capture $1.01b (US$750m) assets under management within 2020.

It will be driven by a projected NIM recovery and a decline in provision expenses.

Acts on money changing and payment systems have been repealed.

One-third of the new hires will be senior bankers for M&A and capital markets.

The German bank almost doubled its debt hold to $56.8m (INR3b).

New areas for collaboration include currency interchangeability and financial sector development.

Many large institutions and individuals are interested in the benefits that Security Token Offerings (STOs) could bring to Asia. These offerings give investors and companies alike a more formal and regulated framework for blockchain fundraising.

And JPMorgan is the latest bank to expand to Paris after Brexit.

In the past 12 months, we witnessed a range of companies racing to qualify for a spot among Singapore’s first digital banks, mirroring what happened with Hong Kong’s virtual bank licenses the year before. The sense of urgency is understandable - the nature of what it means to be a bank is changing, and this shift is opening a gap in which newer operators can assert themselves. The importance of this is underscored by the fact that the Asia Pacific region has an astonishing share of the world's digitally native population; in markets like India, Vietnam and Thailand, it’s common to become "digitally banked" without having had a credit card – or even a bank account. While Asia Pacific is diverse in its financial systems, there are some unifying factors which are going to change the face of banking across the region.