Biz Builder Mike

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Singapore

MC Payment Ltd becomes First Digital Payments Company to be Listed on Singapore Exchange’s (SGX) Catalist

MC Payment Limited has revealed that it’s now listed on the Singapore Exchange’s (SGX) Catalist. The company claims that it’s the first digital payments platform to be listed on Catalist.

With a market cap of around S$139 million (appr. $105.4 million), the listing of MC Payment Limited brings the total number of firms listed on Catalist to 218, with a total market cap of about S$11 billion ($8.34 billion).

Based in Singapore, MC Payment Ltd is a Fintech firm that offers merchant payment services and e-commerce enabling solutions, with a special focus on servicing clients who are merchants in the retail, transportation and food and beverage sectors.

MC Payment Ltd maintains a business presence in several different Southeast Asian countries including Malaysia, Indonesia and Thailand.

Anthony Koh, CEO at MC Payment Limited, stated:

“As the first digital payments company to be listed on SGX, today marks an exciting start to MC Payment’s new growth chapter. Our listing comes at an opportune time, with digital payments in the region surging amidst the rise in online transactions, following safe-distancing measures imposed by the Covid-19 outbreak.”

Mohamed Nasser Ismail, Global Head of Equity Capital Markets, SGX, noted that they are pleased to welcome the listing of MC Payment Limited on SGX Catalist and will be supporting the “growth ambitions” of Singapore’s homegrown tech firm.

Ismail added that as a payment processing platform with properly developed infrastructure and the appropriate licenses across Southeast Asia, MC Payment is “well-positioned to tap on SGX’s fundraising platforms and Singapore’s technology hub status as a launchpad into the region.”

Founded in 2005, MC Payment Pte Ltd is an e-payment solution provider with headquarters in Singapore.

The company mainly works with acquiring banks and solution providers to provide merchants a “secure” and “compliant” processing platform.

MC Payment says it aims to solve all our payment problems. The company processes payments locally and globally with its wide range of payment methods, cross-border processing services and international payment network.

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Bancor Lawsuit Tossed: “New York is not a reasonable and convenient place to conduct this litigation”

A New York judge has tossed a lawsuit filed against Bancor, or BProtocol Foundation, that claimed the sale of unregistered securities, according to an Order Granting Motion to Dismiss received by CI. Judge Alvin Hellerstein dismissed the case and the Plaintiff’s offer to re-plead was denied.

BProtocol Foundation (Bancor) is organized under the law of Switzerland, with offices in Zug, Switzerland, and Tel Aviv, Israel. In 2017, Bancor raised about $153 million in a token offering.

According to company representatives, the ruling is decisive as Judge Hellerstein canceled an oral argument that had been scheduled. The ruling may impact other cases that seek to apply US securities law to digital offerings that sold outside the US.

According to the document, the case was filed on behalf of Timothy C. Holsworth. Holsworth, who replaced the initial plaintiff William Zhang, alleged that he purchased 587 BNT digital coins on September 4, 2019, from Wisconsin, on COSS, a digital exchange in Singapore, for an aggregate cost of $212.50.

The lawsuit alleged that Bancor “made numerous false statements and omissions that led reasonable investors to conclude that the BNT tokens were not securities.” The Plaintiff argued that BNT is a security and thus falls under US securities law.

Filed yesterday, the Order said the Plaintiff has not shown that he was directly contacted by Defendants or that he purchased securities as a result of any active solicitations by Defendants. The Order adds:

“Wherever the current business location of Bancor, New York is not a reasonable and convenient place to conduct this litigation.”

Thus the motion to dismiss was granted in favor of the Defendants.

Bancor was represented by Alex Spiro of Quinn Emanuel, a law firm that specializes in litigation and is active in multiple high-profile crypto and Fintech cases.

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Southeast Asia’s Funding Societies, an Online Capital Formation Platform, Reports S$2 Billion in Business Financing Disbursals

Southeast Asia-based Funding Societies, a digital financing platform, has revealed that it has made S$2 billion (appr. $1.5 billion) in disbursals of business financing to SMEs across the region as the company enters its sixth year of offering loans.

Funding Societies’ management noted that the amount is partly crowdfunded by more than 200,000 retail investors on its platform and has been disbursed through 3.7 million+ different loans.

Funding Societies reported S$ 850 million (appr. $640 million) in disbursals last year, meanwhile, its platform default rate managed to stay below 2% during the COVID-19 pandemic.

In an effort to reduce its portfolio risk during 2020, Funding Societies had tightened up its credit underwriting criteria so that only quality notes would get crowdfunded. The platform also focused on companies that were likely to do well during the pandemic.

These high-performing industries include healthcare, medical supplies, transportation, among several others. Funding Societies reported an 18% growth in platform investors since January 2020.

Big Four auditing firm Ernst & Young’s 2020 ASEAN SME Transformation Survey has revealed that 68% of the surveyed 1,200 SMEs across the six major ASEAN nations (Singapore, Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, the Philippines, and Vietnam) are open to doing business with non-traditional lending platforms.

Non-traditional lenders may be appealing because of their greater speed and convenience. Small and medium-sized enterprises may prefer the faster and more flexible loan approval process and the digital know-your-customer (KYC) processes, which usually don’t require asset security or visiting physical bank locations.

At present, there’s an annual trade financing gap of approximately $150 billion in Asia, according to estimates provided by the Asian Development Bank. Around 60% of firms have had their applications rejected when applying for trade financing, the bank noted, while pointing out that these businesses did not proceed with the trade due to the lack of funding.

Kelvin Teo, Co-founder and Group CEO of Funding Societies, stated:

“We’re thrilled to reach this major milestone before we even realised it. It is a momentous occasion and encouragement for us. There is much more to do, as we continue to serve the needs of SMEs and Investors in the region. We’re grateful to raise Series C funding last year, enabling us to further help SMEs even amidst uncertain times.”

As reported earlier this month, Singapore based Funding Societies had announced the expansion of operations into Thailand. The online capital formation platform will operate under a crowdfunding license authorized by the Thai Securities and Exchange Commission.

According to a note from Funding Societies, the company worked for more than a year with regulators to set up operations in the country.

Funding Societies currently operates in Singapore, Indonesia, and Malaysia. Thailand will be the fourth country where the marketplace will operate in its six years of activity. Funding Societies notes that it is the only SME digital financing platform in Southeast Asia to be licensed in four countries.

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Personal Finance Survey Reveals that 67% of Individuals Trust Robots More than Humans to Manage their Investments

We’ve been trusting robots to manage money more than we “trust” ourselves, according to a recent study from Oracle and personal finance specialist Farnoosh Torabi. The global survey of over 9,000 individuals across 14 different countries revealed that the COVID-19 pandemic has “increased finance-related stress at home and in business, and people around the world are looking to AI for help.”

The Oracle study found that financial anxiety and sadness among individual consumers and business owners or leaders “more than doubled (increased by 103%) in 2020.” Notably, the study revealed that 67% of people “trust robots more than humans to manage finance.”

Around 85% of survey respondents “believe robots will replace finance professionals and 46% believe it will happen in the next five years.” Around 85% of business leaders “want help from robots for finance-related tasks.”

People are also “rethinking the role and focus of corporate finance teams and personal financial advisors,” according to the research.

Other notable results from the survey include:

  • Consumers want personal financial advisors “to provide guidance on major purchasing decisions such as buying a house (45%); buying a car (41%); and planning for retirement (38 percent).”
  • 60% of consumers “say the pandemic has changed the way they buy goods and services.”
  • 72% of consumers “say the events of 2020 have changed how they feel about handling cash, with people feeling anxious (26%); fearful (23%); and dirty (19%). More than a quarter (29%) of consumers now say that cash-only is a deal-breaker for doing business”.
  • Businesses have been “quick to respond as 69% of business leaders have invested in digital payment capabilities and 64% have created new forms of customer engagement or changed their business models in response to COVID-19”.
  • 51% of organizations are “already using AI to manage financial processes, compared with 27% of consumers”.
  • 87% of business leaders “say organizations that don’t rethink financial processes face risks, including falling behind competitors (44%); more stressed workers (36%); inaccurate reporting (36%); and reduced employee productivity (35%)”.

As noted in the update shared with CI, managing finances can be challenging during the best of times, and the financial “uncertainty” due to the COVID-19 pandemic has further exacerbated financial challenges at home and at work, according to Farnoosh Torabi, personal finance expert and host of the So Money podcast.

Torabi added:

“Robots are well-positioned to assist – they are great with numbers and don’t have the same emotional connection with money. This doesn’t mean finance professionals are going away or being replaced entirely, but the research suggests they should focus on developing additional soft skills as their role evolves.”

Research Methodology

Research findings are “based on a survey conducted by Savanta, Inc. between November 10 – December 8, 2020 with 9,001 global respondents from 14 countries (United States, United Kingdom, Germany, Netherlands, France, China, India, Australia, Brazil, Japan, United Arab Emirates, Singapore, Mexico and Saudi Arabia)”. The survey “explored attitudes and behaviors of consumers and business leaders towards money, finances, budgets, and the role and expectations of artificial intelligence (AI) and robots in financial tasks and management.”

Juergen Lindner, SVP, Global Marketing, Oracle, remarked:

“Financial processes in our personal and professional worlds have become increasingly digital for many years and the events of 2020 have accelerated that trend. Digital is the new normal and technologies such as artificial intelligence and chatbots play a vital role in managing finance. Our research indicates that consumers trust these technologies to accelerate their financial well-being over personal financial advisors and business leaders see this trend reshaping the role of corporate finance professionals. Organizations that don’t embrace these changes risk falling behind their peers and competitors; hurting employee productivity, morale and well-being; and struggling to attract the next generation of AI-empowered finance talent.”

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Bitcoin is not a bubble anymore, Amber Group CEO says

A number of entities have called Bitcoin (BTC) a bubble since its inception roughly 12 years ago. Michael Wu, CEO of digital asset financial services outfit Amber Group, thinks otherwise, however. 

“I think it’s always like this when people come into a new paradigm shift,” Wu said in a CNBC interview on Thursday, referring to the concept of Bitcoin as a bubble. “People start with doubts, with skepticism — it’s very natural because they will have to take time to understand what’s new there, is it sustainable,” he said, adding:

“In the early stage, that kind of understanding, that kind of skepticism, always comes with a lot of price volatility. However, I don’t think you can call Bitcoin a bubble anymore, because, like I mentioned earlier, you have all these institutions, all these billionaires, multi multi-billion-dollar listed companies, all these, you know, all these newcomers into crypto. They’re buying Bitcoins, they’re buying crypto and there are only 21 million Bitcoins out there.”

References to large mainstream players buying Bitcoin has become much more common in recent months. Microstrategy allocated more than $1 billion to Bitcoin in 2020. MassMutual put $100 million into BTC sometime thereafter, and Square later came in as welwith $50 million.

Rationale for Bitcoin’s long-term price rise includes its limited supply matched with significant interest in the asset, Wu explained. “There will be price volatility, there will be short-term price corrections,” he added. “Sometimes these price corrections can be violent, but I think we’ve passed the stage of calling Bitcoin a bubble anymore.”

Wu also commented on BTC and its store of value role, similar to gold. Bitcoin has seen its fair share of comparisons against gold over the years. “The worst case scenario of Bitcoin is still a better form of gold,” he said.

On Wednesday, Wu’s company Amber Group announced that Annabelle Huang, one of the firm’s partners, had been given the task of furthering institutional and retail involvement. Amber Group “appointed partner, Annabelle Huang, to lead GlobalX Center, a strategic global expansion team established to grow the company’s institutional and retail product offerings in regions including South Korea, Japan, Hong Kong, Singapore, Taipei, North America and more,” said a statement provided to Cointelegraph.

Bitcoin is not a bubble anymore, Amber Group CEO says

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