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Fintech Ant Group Affiliate MYbank Is Planning to Expand Operations in China to Serve More Rural SMEs

China-based MYbank, an online private commercial bank and an affiliate of the Ant Group with a special focus on working with rural areas and SMEs, has revealed that it will be doubling the number of rural counties it serves in the coming years.

MYbank and its business partners plan to provide financial services in 2,000 rural counties in China within the next four years (by 2025). This should coincide with the bank’s 10th year since its launch. The initiative will ensure that rural clients are able to access the same modern financial services that are offered in some of China’s largest cities. The initiative should also help with addressing the last-mile problem in the rural finance sector.

This latest announcement from MYbank has come along with the release of the firm’s 2020 annual report, which reveals that MYbank had been serving 70% more (year-on-year) SMEs in 2020 when compared to 2019. This rise in activity has mainly been driven by MYbank’s expansion into rural areas.

Since launching operations 6 years back, MYbank has managed to serve clients in over 750 different counties across China.

Xiaolong Jin, President of MYbank, stated:

“We have continued to record remarkable growth in customer base for five consecutive years. We expect rural finance to play a significant role in advancing financial inclusion, and will further our efforts to make rural finance more accessible with our financial institution partners.”

MYbank has reportedly kept its non-performing loan ratio at around 1.52%, which is a lot lower than the 2.99% average for Chinese SME loans (as of June of last year).

MYbank had teamed up with the All-China Federation of Industry and Commerce and the China Banking Association (in March 2020) in order to introduce a “Contactless Loans” initiative, in which 118 Chinese banking institutions had come together to provide supportive loans for small and medium-sized businesses as they tried to maintain operations.

The initiatve reportedly offered more than RMB 870 billion worth of loans to many different SMEs in sectors that were negatively impacted by the COVID-19 outbreak (including local dining and retail outlets).

During the 6 months since the campaign began, MYbank and its partner banks have waived RMB 665 million in interest payments for Chinese SMEs.

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Philippines based Digital Bank Tonik Reports $20M+ in Deposits in Less than A Month After Launch, Announces Partnership with PESONet

Earlier this week, Philippines based digital bank Tonik partnered with PESONet in order to support safe and secure digital fund transfers to its account from other banking service providers.

Tonik clients now have the option to send money from a PESONet participating bank directly to their bank accounts.

This new service is currently available through CIMB, PSBank, Landbank, and RCBC. Other PESONet member banks are expected to add the service in the foreseeable future.

As mentioned in the announcement, interbank transfer services through PESONet will be available with more banks within the next few weeks.

The announcement has come shortly after Tonik’s official launch in March 2021. The digital bank revealed that it has managed to secure more than 1 billion pesos ($ 20 million) in retail deposits in less than a month.

Tonik’s management also mentioned that they intend to introduce their loan offers and further expand their payment options during this year.

Greg Krasnov, CEO and Founder at Tonik, remarked:

“The response we got when we introduced the app last month was overwhelmingly positive. It’s a testament to the fact that Filipinos are thirsty for a financial enabler that cuts the red tape, makes banking less complicated, and lets their hard-earned money work better for their future. Allowing easier and bigger interbank transfers to Tonik accounts through PESONet is just one of several features that we are introducing in our app that I’m sure will make our customers love us more.”

Long Pineda, President at Tonik Digital Bank, Inc, stated:

“This is another chapter in our journey of growth and driving financial inclusion in the local banking industry. By making in-demand banking transactions such as interbank transfers safer and more seamless with PESONet, we hope to encourage more Filipinos to manage and maximize their finances with Tonik in the #neonormal.”

As covered, Tonik had started working with several companies in 2020 so it would be ready for a successful launch. After acquiring $6 million in capital in early 2020, Tonik chose Singapore’s online security firm V-Key as its mobile security partner.

As reported in July 2020, Tonik had selected Mastercard as its payments partner.

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Monetary Authority of Singapore Dedicates S$42 Million for Regtech Initiatives

The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) has announced a new grant program targeting Regulatory Technology or Regtech that is said to be an enhancement of the Digital Acceleration Grant (DAG) scheme to accelerate technology adoption.  In a public statement, MAS said it will commit S$42 million for the Regtech grant scheme and enhanced DAG scheme.

Sopnendu Mohanty, Chief Fintech Officer at MAS, stated:

“MAS remains committed to the digital transformation of the Singapore financial sector. We expect the RegTech ecosystem to flourish with widespread use of innovative solutions to aid risk management and compliance. The Digital Acceleration Grant has enabled the smaller FIs and FinTech firms to adapt to the challenges in the past year and we will continue to support these firms as they accelerate their digital transformation journey. We encourage FIs to tap on these grants to embed technology into the firms’ DNA.”

The grant is being made available to Singapore-based financial institutions (FIs) and seeks to promote the adoption and integration of technology solutions in the risk management and compliance functions of financial services firms.

There will be two tracks for the grants including:

  • The pilot track: FIs can seek funding to pilot potential RegTech solutions before embarking on full-scale integration of the product into its operating environment. Funding for this track will be capped at S$75,000.
  • The production level project track: FIs can seek funding to develop larger-scale customised projects that can be fully integrated into the FI’s systems. Funding for such projects will be capped at S$300,000.

MAS states that both tracks can be used to support either in-house development or commercial partnerships with Regtech firms based in Singapore.

The DAG was launched in April 2020 to help smaller FIs and Fintech firms adopt digital solutions to better cope with the impact of COVID-19, and to position themselves for subsequent recovery and growth. As of 31 March 2021, MAS reports that it has received over 1,100 applications from both FIs and Fintech firms.

MAS said it will commit an additional S$30 million to the DAG until 31 December 2021 to encourage the industry to adopt digital solutions that enhance productivity, cybersecurity, and operational efficiency. This brings the total grants available under the DAG scheme to S$65 million.

Ian Lee, Vice President of Business Development at Merkle Science, a Singapore-based blockchain transaction risk monitoring and analytics platform, issued a comment on the new Regtech funding.

“Regtech solutions are having a difficult time gaining market share here in Singapore and abroad. Oftentimes, startups at their initial stages have to give away their solutions at a low cost — or sometimes even for free — in order to gain traction and receive feedback on their product. With startups’ limited resources, it is difficult for these innovative new startups to compete with larger legacy firms. With this new $42 million grant, the MAS is supporting the development of local Regtech startups and encouraging innovation in two ways. Firstly, the grant furthers the existing Digital Acceleration Grant (DAG) scheme, which is available to any startup that services financial institutions. Through the extension of the DAG, financial institutions can also use the grant to subsidize their cost of operation.”

Lee added that an interesting feature of the new Regtech grant is for providers to pilot their solutions and test for efficacy under a paid model.

“While the details on this feature have not been released yet, it sounds like there may be subsidies for established companies to use and test the solution before the startup moves the solution to full-scale production.”

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Thought Machine, a Cloud Native Tech Provider for Banks, Integrates Fintech Wise’s Money Transfer Platform

Thought Machine, a company that builds Cloud-native technology for banks, has reportedly integrated Wise‘s (formerly doing business as TransferWise) global money transfer platform into its core banking engine, Vault.

The integration should allow Thought Machine‘s banking and Fintech clients the option to use Wise’s fast and affordable global transfers service more quickly and in a more efficient manner. The companies have developed an integration layer that, they explained, lowers the developer effort required for financial institutions to link up with Wise’s API (developer effort reduced as much as 60%).

Wise, which recently rebranded from TransferWise (earlier in 2021), began its business operations as a consumer-facing startup providing an alternative to slower, inefficient, and costly currency transmission services offered by incumbents.

While still working with millions of clients directly, Wise is now more focused on teaming up with banks in order to integrate its API within their platforms.

The latest deal sees Wise’s technology being provided to  Thought Machine’s clients, which includes Lloyds Banking Group, Standard Chartered, Atom bank, Monese, Curve, and SEB.

Stuart Gregory, MD, Wise Platform & Wise Business, stated:

“Our integration today makes it quicker and easier for financial institutions and banks to enable faster and cheaper payments for their customers and brings us one step closer to our mission of building money without borders.”

Wise, a top Fintech that may be described as a stealth bank, recently announced that it’s giving away shares in itself. According to the private company, it has gifted 2000 customers a single share of the firm that has emerged as popular global payments and transfer platform.

The UK-based Fintech firm noted that currently there are 2400 employees in 15 offices working at Wise. All of the employees are said to have shares in the company that has indicated in the past it will seek to remain private as long as possible. Of course, if and when, Wise goes public, early shareholders may benefit from their confidence in the company’s mission.

Wise stated:

“We believe our customers should also be shareholders. You have the strongest understanding of the problems we’re trying to solve and our mission, so it’s natural you should have a say in how Wise is built and run. We believe having you represented amongst our shareholders will help us move even faster towards completing our mission. That’s why we’re giving one share in Wise to 2,000 of our active customers. Having a share is a bit like having a slice of the Wise pie — it means you own a bit of Wise. If you’re one of the lucky 2,000, we’ll be in touch with how to claim your share.”

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Your future at stake: Uni of Wyoming allocates $4M to staking three coins

The University of Wyoming is allocating $4 million to running nodes and staking at least three cryptocurrencies.

The news was shared to Twitter on April 28 by Caitlin Long, a Wyoming Blockchain and Fintech Select Committee appointee and founder of Avanti Bank & Trust — a local bank servicing the digital asset sector.

The documentation posted by Long notes the University appropriated $4 million from the state’s strategic investments and projects fund to establish, operate, and maintain “nodes and staking pools for no less than three publicly tradable cryptocurrencies.”

The revenues generated by the University’s staking pools will first be mobilized to cover operational costs, and then to repay the $4 million to the state’s investment fund. Once the investment has been repaid, profits from the University’s staking will be distributed “to support blockchain programs and activities at the university and community colleges throughout the state.”

The expenditure of profits generated through staking is conditional on the University matching every $1 appropriated from the investment fund with at least $2 in either private donations or from the campus’ reserve accounts.

Chris Rothfuss, the senate minority leader of the Wyoming Legislature and Chairman of the state’s Blockchain and Fintech Select Committee, praised the committee’s “herculean effort” in getting the legislation passed.

Many Twitter users have responded to Long’s post with speculation that Cardano (ADA) may be one of the assets the University is intending to stake.

One commenter shared a link to information on a staking pool identified by CardanoStaking.info as being operated by the University of Wyoming’s Advanced Blockchain Lab. As of this writing, the pool has minted less than 10 blocks, and has pledged roughly $60,000 worth of ADA.

In February 2020, IOHK, the company behind Cardano, donated $500,000 worth of ADA to the university’s blockchain lab to advance its research.

Your future at stake: Uni of Wyoming allocates $4M to staking three coins

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