Lending

AlixCo P2P Financing Launches Business Financing for Malaysian Womenpreneur

									by Sponsored Post
October 4, 2019
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While women entrepreneurship is on the rise, it is not without its struggles, women-led startups are still not getting funded as much as their male counterparts.
Cognizant of that fact, AlixCo P2P Financing announced the launch of a P2P financing program specifically targetted at helping women entrepreneurs in Malaysia.

“Women entrepreneurs are more cautious and reserved when it comes to spending, investing and running business by nature. Often times, they possessed good borrower’s ethnic like pay on time and some even make advance repayment.” Angelld, COO, AlixCO P2P Financing, added.
Angelld further shared that, so far the default rate for women borrowers is zero.

To date, AlixCo has helped Malaysia entrepreneurs raise a total of RM 30 Million and in that process, they have empowered 50 women entrepreneur to further develop business through their P2P financing platform.
While financing is a core part of growing a business it is not the only piece of the puzzle, which is why AlixCo P2P financing will also be launching the Womenpreneur Movement to further help women entrepreneurs blossom.
The Womenprenuer Movement will provide support in the form of networks, client referrals, and mentorship. The community is supported but numerous successful women entrepreneurs around the world.
To apply for the program, there are some requirements as follows.

Women-run company in any industry
Must be a registered Malaysian company ( sole proprietary, partnership or private limited)
Age above 21
Without negative financial or credit history record like a bankruptcy
In healthy and proper business

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Payments

Stripe Teams up with PayNet and Launches in Malaysia

									by Fintech News Malaysia
October 7, 2019
1 comment

Today, Stripe, a global technology company that builds economic infrastructure for the internet, announced its official launch in Malaysia. It also announced a partnership with Payments Network Malaysia Sdn Bhd (PayNet) to make FPX available to businesses in the country. Valued at US$ 35 Billion, Bloomberg reports that Stripe is the 3rd most valuable company in the United States.
Fintech News Malaysia first reported on the beta testing of Stripe as far back as February 2019.
With this launch in Malaysia, any online company in the country can now gain access to Stripe’s entire product stack, to launch, run and scale their business globally from day one – including Stripe Connect for running multi-sided marketplaces, billing for subscriptions and recurring payments, radar for fraud detection and prevention, Sigma for analytics, and more.

From today, Stripe is also making FPX available in beta, allowing businesses on Stripe to accept payments via online bank transfers, along with major credit cards like Visa and Mastercard.
Commenting during the launch John Collison, Fo-founder and President, Stripe, said
John Collison
“Even today, less than eight percent of commerce is online, largely because moving money on the internet remains complicated, cumbersome and slow,”
“At Stripe, our goal is to remove these barriers and build the kind of infrastructure ambitious businesses need to run at internet speed and scale.”

Piruze Sabuncu
“We are extremely excited by the energy and determination of the Malaysian entrepreneurs we’ve been working with daily. Technology should not be holding them back,”
“Stripe aims to empower more businesses in Malaysia to export their creativity to the rest of the world.”
said Piruze Sabuncu, Head of Southeast Asia and Hong Kong, Stripe.

Stripe has been testing its service earlier this year, and already works with some of the country’s well known companies including: e-commerce solutions platform EasyStore, food delivery service dahmakan, and fashion and retail platform FashionValet.
Malaysia marks yet another step forward in Stripe’s global expansion, following from the company’s launch in Estonia, Greece, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Portugal, Slovakia and Slovenia earlier this year. Globally, Stripe processes hundreds of billions of dollars a year for millions of businesses.

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Banking
Digital Transformation

How Are Malaysia’s 5 Largest Banks Responding to Fintech in 2019

									by Vincent Fong
November 13, 2019
0 comments

Banks are often punching bags when one thinks of industries that are not innovating quick enough. When the term fintech entered our public consciousness many would often say that fintechs will eat the bank’s lunch and some even bold enough to make predictions like banks ceasing to exist in 2025.
But are these fair statements? Are banks complacent or are they actively trying to fend off potential disruptors by stepping up the digital game? Or are banks truly not doing enough especially with virtual banks on the horizon in Malaysia?
In keeping with last year’s tradition we speak to the top 5 banks in Malaysia to get a sense of how they are operating in today’s new reality.

Hong Leong Bank
Domenic Fuda
When speaking to Domenic Fuda, Group MD and CEO of Hong Leong Bank about digital and fintech initiatives that the bank is working on, he is quick to respond that Hong Leong doesn’t look at its digital and fintech initiative as a periodical release; that they in fact look at digital innovation as business-as-usual and this permeates into human resource and talent.
In doing so, he shared that the bank has been organising external and internal hackathons to discover new talents and fintech ideas that can be developed into viable products and offerings for the market.

Screening for talents has also been automated using a their chatbot HALI with much of the screening and pre-interview engagements done via the chatbot.
In a previous interview with Hong Leong’s Head of Human Resources, Fiona Fong shared with us that the chatbot was able to succesfully respond to 20,000 enquiries from employees within the first two weeks of its launch, saving time that would have been otherwise spent by their HR team to respond manully via email.
In his view, the key is to ultimately be able to eliminate current pain points in delivering banking services to individuals and SMEs. Delivery of such products and services he feels are likely to take place much more efficiently without the need for physical interaction.

He further added at the core of it their digital innovation is guided by 4 pillars — Attract – leveraging digital platforms to attract customers, Acquire – create a seamless onboarding journey, Transact – allowing customers to transact anytime, anywhere instantly and digitally, Engage –  Improve customer stickiness and income per customer through contextual offers and analytics.
When we asked him for his thoughts on the upcoming virtual banking license by Bank Negara Malaysia, he sees it as an exciting development to raise the bar on innovation and that these new breed of banks will further accelerate incumbent banks to develop their own digital offering. Domenic feels that since digital innovation has become “business as usual for then” the arrival of virtual banks is more of an opportunity for the bank to improve on the customer journey rather than a threat

Major Initiatives in 2019:

Introduction of e-Token eToken with Biometric Recognition for Businesses
Piloting a Collaboration with WeChat to launch WeEat

RHB

In order to understand RHB’s fintech initiatives, we reached out its Acting Chief Digital Officer, Jambugesvarar Marimuthu.
He is of the opinion that while the financial industry is facing unprecedented disruption with fintech leading the charge, there’s a need for them to be more innovative to have an edge over their competitors.
Jambu said he’s seeing a sizeable number of fintech replicating what has been implemented in other markets or simply offering lower cost for services already provided by banks. He does not think that this provides customers with value-added offerings
Having said that, he shared that RHB has always been open to collaborating with fintech. He further revealed that RHB is currently in discussion with several fintechs for new product offerings and partnerships — he did not disclose further details on the partnership
He did, however, reveal to us that in the coming year RHB will be focused on improving their mobile banking and internet banking channel, introducing features like expense management and goal based savings, helping homeowners and business owners manage their end-to-end journey through their digital offerings.

As far as trends go, Jambu predicts that big data investments will go up, API banking will gain more traction, cloud services will greatly help the industry improve the quality of digital services and DevOps will be one of the key to financial services to expedite roll out of new digital products.

Major Initiatives in 2019

Launched Dynamic Credit Card CVV Code
Launched New Mobile Banking App
Enabled Customers to Purchase Insurance in Under 3 Minutes

Maybank

Michael Foong, Maybank’s Group Chief Strategy Officer and International CEO said that in today’s digitalised environment it is crucial that banks and fintech players continue to find ways to collaborate and champion sustainable growth.
He stressed that the industry must pay particular focus in serving the underbanked community by providing simplicity in banking, accessibility to banking related services and most importantly a trustworthy relationship with the consumers.

In respect to Malaysia’s upcoming virtual banking framework, Michael said that Maybank is open towards that new development. He further added that since they are able to provide the full suite of financial services based on an existing license, it does not make sense for the bank to pursue the licensing as a standalone entity.

However, he shared that Maybank may assess the possibility of securing the license with a partner if it helps them to strengthen their digital banking business. Broadly speaking, he is of the view that dishing out the virtual banking license will be good for the industry although it could potentially pose a challenge to the cost structures and the segments they serve.
Across the causeway, our sister site Fintech News Singapore also reported that Maybank is eyeing one of the five virtual banking licenses issued by the Monetary Authority of Singapore.
Major Initiatives for 2019

The Launch of MAE E-wallet
Launching Tap2Phone with Soft Space

Public Bank

Public Bank’s Deputy CEO Dato’ Chang Kat Kiam expects that digitalisation will be the top agenda for the banking industry. He expects banks to leverage fintech to create greater value for stakeholders.
He cautioned that as the industry moves towards driving technology and innovation, it is important to also be cognisant of the types of risks that come with it.

Though Public Bank has largely been media-shy on the technology front, Dato’ Chang shared that they have been working on quite a number of initiatives in 2019.

He revealed to Fintech News Malaysia that Public Bank will soon be launching their own chatbot named Alice by end of this year, which will be made available on their website and their newly launched mobile banking app. Dato Chang also that they were experimenting with credit reporting agency CTOS test e-KYC solutions.

When asked about the virtual banking license Dato’ Chang responded that as the bank waits for the actual framework to come out, they will continue to monitor market and explore any opportunities that will help grow the bank’s business.
He is of the view that the virtual banks will challenge incumbents to an extent but the impact remains to be seen since banks have been investing heavily in technology and this new virtual bank may have same rules and regulations imposed on them which, he feels, will place all players at a level playing field.
Major Initiatives 2019

First to Adopt DuitNow’s Universal Payments QR
Launched a New Mobile App

CIMB
When we reached out to Effendy Shahul Hamid, CEO, Group Ventures & Partnerships of CIMB group to get comments on fintech and digital initiatives he responded that CIMB initiatives are similar to other banks.
He said they are continuing to innovate from within while putting in place multiple initiatives to digitise their core banking services. He further told Fintech News Malaysia that they have spent a significant amount of resources to grow their payments joint venture between Ant Financial and Touch n Go Digital.
Effendy shared that CIMB thinks the virtual banking framework is interesting and its something that the bank will contemplate. He feels that the introduction of this framework points toward regulatory foresight. He believes that the new virtual banks will need to balance distribution, technology capability and risk management in order to really succeed.

He is also of the view that the ‘shared-economy’ will dictate that financial services companies will need to ‘partner-more’, especially in terms of access to customer pools.
Major Initiatives for 2019

Securing 500,000 customers in Philippines in 6 months with their digital only bank
Teaming up with Axiata to offer financing solutions 70,000 SMEs

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Crowdfunding

Ata Plus Sees First Successful Equity Crowdfunding Exit with Skolafund

									by Fintech News Malaysia
October 9, 2019
2 comments

Skolafund, a crowdfunding platform for students in need announced that it has been completely acquired by one of Asia’s biggest donation crowdfunding platforms.
Skolafund successfully fundraised on the Ata Plus Equity Crowdfunding (ECF) platform in February 2017. The deal reportedly gives investors in the ECF round a return of 10% on their investments.
Fintech News Malaysia reached out to both parties to confirm the acquiring party but both Skolafund and Ata Plus declined to comment citing that the party prefers to remain anonymous.

According to their press release, to-date, Skolafund has crowdsourced scholarships to the tune of RM1.6 million, benefitting  592 students from less-privileged backgrounds. Skolafund has acquired a total of over 29,000 registered donors with 11,119 of them actively contributing in a campaign. In total, they added, 350 campaigns were launched and 189 of them were 100% funded.

It is planned that through this acquisition, Skolafund’s platform will be merged into the acquirer’s regional platform, strengthening the total offering. Tengku Syamil, Skolafund’s CEO and co-founder, sees this step forward through very bullish eyes.
Tengku Syamil

“With this significant development, we are on a sounder footing to continue serving the disadvantaged in our communities, whether through aid on education, or other ways – like medical and humanitarian assistance. This also means we can reach more people and be more accessible across Southeast Asia,”
said Tengku Syamil.

Elain Lockman
said Elain Lockman, Co-founder and Director of Ata Plus.
““We are over the moon with this announcement,”ot only for what it means to Skolafund, but equally to their investors that came in at the ECF round. It is Malaysia’s first exit story in ECF and this augurs well for the future of this asset class and also dispels the myth that investing in Impact Enterprises does not give a financial return,”
Elain added.

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Payments

Touch ‘n Go E-Wallet Powers Cashless Payment Option For MULA’s E-Hailing Services

									by Fintech News Malaysia
October 10, 2019
0 comments

Touch ‘n Go e-wallet announced today that they have enabled customers of e-hailing app MULA to go cashless through their e-wallet.
Ignatius Ong, CEO, TNG Digital Sdn Bhd told Fintech News Malaysia in a media statement that it is vital that they, as a local company, to extend their support to homegrown startups and entrepreneurs.
To kickstart this partnership, Touch ‘n Go eWallet and MULA will be rewarding MULA users who pay using the Touch ‘n Go e-wallet RM4.00 off for two rides with the use of the promo code “TNGEWALLET” and an additional RM4.00 off for first time MULA users.

In addition to that, MULA users will also receive RM3.00 off in vouchers for two rides by default after they have completed with the registration.

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Digital Transformation

A Glance at Malaysia’s Fintech Friendly Budget 2020

									by Vincent Fong
October 14, 2019
2 comments

Malaysia’s Budget 2020 was tabled last Friday, charting the economic direction of the nation. Broadly speaking, there were some hits and misses but many agree that there was there is a bigger focus of building a digital economy.
Surina Shukri, the CEO of MDEC, the lead agency for driving Malaysia’s digital economy noted in a media statement that the Budget 2020 marks an inflection point in the Government’s steering of the Digital Economy.
Of course, no digital economic agenda would be complete if it did not have fintech as its backbone to power its commerce. Which is why it made sense that this year’s budget announcement had more focus on fintech compared to the previous years.

Many in the public sphere gravitated towards the announcement that the Malaysian government is attempting to boost the use of e-wallets by offering a one time RM 30 stimulus to Malaysians above the age of 18 earning less than RM 100,000.

Commenting on the stimulus, Boost’s CEO Khairil Abdullah said,
” The Government’s e-wallet stimulus initiative will also greatly drive the adoption of e-wallets as an exceedingly convenient method of payment for consumers. Importantly, it can also be viewed as a form of endorsement of the technology used which is safe and very secure for financial transactions.”

Besides the e-wallet stimulus, there were of course, other fintech related announcements that got many in the industry excited, chief among them was the timeline announcement for the virtual banking framework. It is a much-anticipated piece of regulation that will pave the way for a new breed of banks in Malaysia.
Finance Minister Lim Guan Eng said that the virtual banking framework will be ready for public consultation by end of this year and applications will be open by the first half of 2020.
The new budget also seems to illustrate that the administration is receptive towards alternative financing like Equity Crowdfunding (ECF) and P2P Financing.
It is confirmed that the government will allocate an additional RM 50 million to the My Co-Investment Fund  (MyCIF) and separate RM 10 Million will be allocated to the same fund specifically for social enterprises fundraising via P2P Financing platforms. Industry players like Angelld Quah who is the CEO AlixCO P2P Financing are in favour of the announcement
 In a statement to Fintech News Malaysia she said,
“It is a great initiative to boost the alternative financing industry and Malaysia as a whole. This is the second time that the government has allocated RM 50 million to co-invest at a 1 to 4 ratio for ECF and P2P Financing Platforms.
This practical support will not only help to fund creditworthy SMEs but also bring awareness to the public about ECF and P2P Financing — a much need platform to help SMEs grow”
The government has also announced that it will be formulating an Islamic Economic Blueprint and that it will be setting up a Special Islamic Finance Committee to position Malaysia as a centre of excellence for Islamic Finance.
While it is not specifically targetted a fintech we anticipate that those who are operating within the Islamic fintech space will also likely benefit from the new policies.
All in all, we are pleased to see the government increasingly recognising the important role that fintech plays in society and we look forward to more fintech friendly policies from the government of the day.
Featured Image Credit: Kementerian Kewangan Malaysia.

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Blockchain/Bitcoin

HSBC Succesfully Pilots Malaysia’s First Letter of Credit Transaction on the Blockchain

									by Fintech News Malaysia
October 14, 2019
5 comments

HSBC announced that it has successfully executed a live blockchain Letter-of-Credit (LC) transaction in Malaysia.
The transaction involved the import of resin by Malaysia’s Simply Packaging Sdn Bhd (Simply Packaging) from a Singaporean company, both active players in the packaging and chemicals industry respectively. HSBC Malaysia was the issuing bank and HSBC Singapore was the advising/nominated bank.
Globally, this is the eleventh blockchain transaction led by HSBC (NYSE: HSBC), and the first pilot blockchain transaction for HSBC Malaysia. Prior to this, a shipment of soybeans was transported from Argentina to Malaysia and the deal was financed using a Letter of Credit, which was completed digitally on R3’s Corda blockchain platform.

This marks a significant step for Malaysian companies in the digitisation of trade. It makes doing business simpler and faster by reducing transaction times and brings in working capital efficiency. The use of trade finance solutions like blockchain also helps to increase the velocity of trade, especially in situations like these where shipping routes are short, like the cross-border trade between Malaysia and Singapore.
Stuart Milne, Chief Executive Officer, HSBC Malaysia said,

“I am very pleased that HSBC has pioneered Malaysia’s first pilot blockchain LC transaction. This showcases our strong commitment and ability to support cross-border trade by Malaysian businesses using cutting-edge technology platforms.”

Cross-border trade between Malaysia and Singapore was worth over US$85 billion in 2018. Whilst the physical transfer of goods between neighbouring countries takes a relatively short time – usually under 48 hours – the administrative paperwork often delays their delivery. The process of exchange and checking of documents typically takes 5-10 days. The Simply Packaging blockchain exchange was completed in 24 hours.
By integrating blockchain technology, the transaction has entirely digitised the administrative process through the e-presentation of key trade documents by enabling:

Integrating Bolero’s electronic bill of lading (eBL) platform to issue and manage an eBL
Transfer of title completion while goods in transit
Paper reconciliation eliminated and updates instantaneous
End-to-end visibility for all parties
Resulting in just-in-time inventory management, removal of demurrage charges and shortened turnaround times

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Crowdfunding

PitchIN’s First ECF Exit with MyCash Online Gives its Investors 44.2% Returns

									by Fintech News Malaysia
October 17, 2019
1 comment

A group of MyCash Online investors have recently accepted a buyout offer for their shares from VC company 500 Startups. The offer, which gave them 44.2% returns over two years since the ECF deal, was made alongside an investment by 500 Startups into MYCash Online.
MyCash Online is a fintech startup that provides an online marketplace for unbanked migrants to purchase products and services online without any bank account or credit card. Through the MyCash Platform, migrant workers can top up their mobile phone, pay utility bills, purchase e-commerce products, bus ticket, air ticket, gift voucher.
Sam Shafie
pitchIN CEO Sam Shafie said,

“pitchIN is very pleased to deliver its first meaningful exit to ECF investors. The nearly 45% returns that exiting ECF investors obtained represents excellent ROI over 2 years. Congratulations too, to MyCash Online on their recent funding and expansion into markets outside Malaysia. It is a mark of confidence for MyCash Online that the majority of ECF investors chose to not take up the offer and remain as shareholders”

Mehedi Hassan
Mehedi Hassan, MyCash Online CEO is pleased that his startup was able to realise gains for ECF investors.
“MyCash Online uses the funding raised during our ECF round in 2017 to expand nationwide and establish footholds in Singapore and Australia. Our solid growth since then has placed us in a position where we are now ready to take on the world, with the funding from 500 Startups. TO the ECF investors who have chosen to exit, I am pleased that we were able to keep our promise to deliver good ROI to investors. I assure the ECF investors who remain that we will work hard to deliver returns for them too in the future.”
pitchIN is an equity crowdfunding operator approved by the Securities Commission Malaysia, in 2018 pitchIN marked itself as the industry leader with 75% market share.
Featured image credit: MyCash Online

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WealthTech

New York Based Wahed Invest Approved to Operate Malaysia’s First Islamic Robo-Advisor

									by Vincent Fong
October 21, 2019
0 comments

American-based Wahed Invest halal robo-advisory platform announced today that they have successfully obtained regulatory approval from the Securities Commission Malaysia to offer digital investment management services in Malaysia.
Wahed Invest is the 3rd to officially enter the Malaysian market after StashAway and MyTheo.
Citing its support for the Malaysian government’s thrust towards the Islamic Digital Economy, the startup said that it is set to launch in Malaysia and that it intends to make Malaysia their Asia Pacific Hub. Its APAC operations is led by Syakir Hashim, who previously co-founded the recently acquired student loan crowdfunding platform Skolafund.

Wahed Invest’s entrance into Malaysia is not surprising given the fact that it is a leader in Islamic finance, recent reports show that Malaysia produces 26% of the world’s Shariah-compliant financial assets, amounting to US$ 528.7 billion.
A quick check into their app shows that the services are yet to be available to Malaysians but Fintech News Malaysia expects that an announcement of their product launch will come in the weeks to follow.
Image Credit: Wahed Invest’s Twitter Account

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Blockchain/Bitcoin

Luno Is The First Cryptocurrency Exchange to Receive Full Approval in Malaysia

									by Vincent Fong
October 22, 2019
5 comments

The Securities Commission of Malaysia has given full approval to Luno’s application to operate as a Recognized Market Operator (Digital Asset Exchange).
Luno is the first cryptocurrency exchange in Malaysia to receive this approval. The regulator has confirmed that Luno has satisfied all the required conditions and can now offer Malaysians the opportunity to buy, sell and store cryptocurrency on its platform.
“We are extremely grateful to the Securities Commission for confirming Luno as a Recognized Market Operator. It has been a long journey for Luno, from our entry into the Malaysian market in 2015 to us becoming the largest digital asset exchange in 2017, and now being regulated by the Securities Commission. We’ve been working closely with regulators and banks from day one and we’re now excited to be able to provide customers the ability to buy, sell and trade crypto on our platform,” said David Low, General Manager of Southeast Asia.

In June 2019, Luno was among the first 3 cryptocurrency exchanges in Malaysia to be granted a conditional approval by the regulator  Tokenize and SINEGY.
All operators are granted 9 months to be fully compliant to all regulatory requirements form the date of the conditional approval. Based on the timeline, announcements from the other two operators should come no later than February 2020.

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Payments

GrabPay Becomes First E-Wallet in Malaysia to Adopt DuitNow QR

									by Vincent Fong
November 1, 2019
3 comments

PayNet and Grab jointly announced today that GrabPay has adopted Malaysia’s national QR payments standard, DuitNow QR; making GrabPay the first e-wallet in Malaysia to do so. This news follows Public Bank’s adoption of DuitNow QR earlier this June.
DuitNow QR is established under Bank Negara Malaysia’s Interoperable Credit Transfer Framework (ICTF). ICTF mandates that PayNet, as the country’s shared payment infrastructure provider, implement an interoperable and common QR standard for Malaysia.
According to their release, four Banks are already offering DuitNow QR in their mobile banking apps, with 25 banks expected to implement DuitNow QR over the next 6 months.

Through DuitNow QR, users can make payments from any participating banks or e-wallets. Merchants would only need to display one QR Code, the DuitNow QR, to accept payments.

Peter Schiesser
“At the moment, e-Wallet providers are incurring substantial acquiring costs for merchants since they are each signing up the same set of merchants for their respective proprietary networks. With DuitNow QR, a merchant needs to sign up with only one Bank or e-Wallet acquirer, and customers of all participating Banks and e-Wallets would be able to make DuitNow QR payments to the merchant using their respective mobile apps,”
said Mr Peter Schiesser, Group Chief Executive Officer, PayNet.

Ooi Huey Tyng
“We are honoured to be the first e-Wallet to adopt DuitNow QR. This partnership will propel GrabPay further to provide a seamless and safe payment method for customers and merchants. DuitNow QR’s interoperability simplifies and provides consumers with a frictionless and rewarding payment method, whilst providing our merchants a safe and cost-effective way to collect payments.
said Ooi Huey Tyng, Managing Director of GrabPay Malaysia, Singapore and the Philippines.

DuitNow QR is an extension of the DuitNow service launched in December 2018, which allows bank customers to transfer money instantly and securely on a 24/7 basis at Banks’ Internet or mobile banking channels. DuitNow fund transfers can be directed using the recipients’ mobile numbers, MyKad or business registration numbers.

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WealthTech

A Beginner’s Guide to Robo Advisors and ETF in Malaysia

									by Vincent Fong
December 3, 2019
0 comments

It’s been two years now since I sat down at Securities Commission Malaysia’s press conference when its then chairman Tan Sri Ranjit Singh revealed to us that the regulator will be issuing the Digital Investment Manager framework to pave the way for robo advisors in Malaysia.
Of all the developments within the Malaysian fintech space, the introduction of robo advisor to Malaysia is among my favourite in recent times.

There’s a good reason for that too, because one of fintech’s main rallying call has always been financial inclusion. If you measure financial inclusion by the number of adults with bank accounts, Malaysia ranks among the highest in South East Asia. However, when you look utilization of financial products, you’ll see a very different picture.
Broadly speaking, Malaysians simply aren’t investing or planning for their retirement enough, as evidenced by the fact that over 41% of Malaysians rely on their EPF savings as the main source of retirement funds. On top of that, EPF statistics also indicate that 68% of Malaysians are not achieving the minimum basic savings of RM 240,000 recommended by EPF.
When you combine those two facts with the reality of Malaysia’s ageing population will double between the period of 2015-2040, you’ll start to see why having financial products that democratises access to wealth services like robo advisors is crucial to Malaysians.
Despite the best efforts from the industry to collectively raise awareness among consumers about this new method of investment in Malaysia, I still often get questions from my non-fintech circle of friends about what a robo advisor is and how they can get started investing with one.
So, I thought it might be worthwhile to breakdown a little bit about robo advisors and to provide a simple guide on how you can get started.
What is a Robo Advisor?
While it’s still relatively new in Malaysia, the term robo advisor has been around for over a decade, roughly around the same time the first iPhone was launched. Many would point towards Betterment as the first company to coin the term robo advisor.
Simply put, robo advisors are wealth management platforms that automate the process of investing money on the user’s behalf, typically with little or no human intervention.
A typical robo advisor will start out by identifying the user’s financial circumstances and risk profile and from there it will help determine what investment portfolio is best suited for the person. Upon determining these factors, the robo advisor will then typically help the user to select the right type of ETFs to invest in based on the user.
What is an ETF?
ETF stands for an Exchange-Traded Fund which in essence is a basket of stocks that you can invest in. An example of a well-known ETF out there in the market is the S&P 500 which consists of the 500 largest public-listed companies in the US. Similarly, in Malaysia we have the FBM-KLCI which consists 30 biggest listed companies that collectively represent the Malaysian stock market.
ETFs have been considered by some as one of the biggest financial inventions of the 20th century, they have low trading and holding costs compared with unit trusts and because they enable diversification across a wide range of asset classes, they are seen as an attractive vehicle for long-term investing. In addition, since they are listed on exchanges, they are highly liquid.
Which Robo Advisors in Malaysia can I invest in?
Currently, there are 3 robo advisors in Malaysia that are licensed by the Securities Commission to provide their services locally, they are namely; MYTHEO, StashAway and Wahed Invest.
For the purposes of this guide, I’m going pick MYTHEO as an example and walk you through their background, how to get started with them, what I like about them and things I feel that could be improved.
Right off the bat, I’ve always been a proponent of supporting local fintech companies, and of all the robo advisors in Malaysia that the regulator green-lit to operate, MYTHEO is the only homegrown one.
I first learned about MYTHEO when I attended their press conference in June earlier this year, the company is formed as a joint-venture between Silverlake Group and a Japanese fintech player, Money Design.

The names of the companies involved immediately caught my attention, those who are familiar with the banking software world will know that Silverlake is a pioneer in this space, providing financial software to roughly 40% of banks in South East Asia and those keeping track of the fintech industry still will also be privy to the fact that Money Design is the first robo advisor authorised to operate in Japan.
Getting Started
You can sign up for their services via desktop or by downloading their app which is available on both Apple AppStore and GooglePlay Store. Once you’re there, you begin by answering 5 simple questions for them to customise your investment portfolio.

Once you’ve answered these questions, MYTHEO will automatically generate a personalised portfolio which places weightage on growth, income and inflation hedge. Using sliders, you can further customise how much weightage you would like to put on each category, depending on your own preference.
Once you’ve deposited your initial sum of money, MYTHEO will then invest your money in more than 25 ETFs selected from MYTHEO’s universe of 59 ETFs based on your portfolio.

When you’ve completed these steps, you’re pretty much all set, you can manually add money into your portfolio or make use of their Regular Savings Plan to automate monthly transfers based on whatever sum that fits your budget.
Also, if you feel like experimenting with different portfolio allocations, risk tolerances and investment period there are options for you set up multiple portfolios.
Its CEO, Ronnie Tan shared with Fintech News Malaysia that between the period of January 2019 to October 2019 they’ve seen the following returns for their 3 portfolios; Growth – 16.82%, Inflation Hedge 17.4% and Income 11.5%
How much do Robo Advisors like MYTHEO charge?
Like many robo advisors globally, MYTHEO focuses on the idea to allow consumers to access wealth services at a low fee, they charge between 0.5% – 1% fee for their service. You can start investing your money from as low as RM 100.
More info on their fee structure can be found here
Verdict on MYTHEO
What I like about MYTHEO?

They have a wide range of ETFs (a universe of 59 ETFs), which allows for further customization. Currently, there are 231 possible variations that can be personalised for the user’s portfolio.
Compared to their competitor, MYTHEO projects your profit based on age instead of year, which can be helpful in contextualising and planning for your retirement.
Easier to view the list of ETFs I invest in versus its competitor which requires me to open a monthly statement.

What I think can be improved about MYTHEO?

There’s no need to introduce me to the service on the login screen if I’m a registered user. It would be more intuitive to just let me log in right away.
This could be a personal preference, but I’m not a big fan of the default colour theme, but fortunately, there is a dark mode.
Broadly speaking, there are some minor tweaks that be done to improve the look and feel of the app.

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Lending

Funding Societies Teams with Carsome to Offer USD $200m Financing to Car Dealers

									by Fintech News Malaysia
November 19, 2019
0 comments

Funding Societies Malaysia, the largest peer-to-peer (P2P) financing platform in the country and Southeast Asia, has announced its partnership with Carsome, one the region’s largest used car trading platform to offer dealer financing, a financing product offered to local car dealers for the purchase of used motor vehicles.
Through this collaboration, 1,600 used car dealers under Carsome could potentially benefit from a total financing amount of USD 200 million.
The partnership is in line with both platforms’ mutual aim to empower Malaysia’s small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) with short-term financing to help expand their businesses, particularly the underserved local used car dealers.

Registered used car dealers on Carsome’s platform are eligible for financing of up to 70 percent of the transaction value of the used cars via a seamless and fast process. One of the main advantages of the dealer financing offered by Funding Societies is that it is open for application to any type of businesses, from sole proprietorships and partnerships to private limited (Sdn Bhd) companies, through Carsome.
Almost half of the one million car units sold in 2018 are used cars, which points to a high demand for the industry. However, used car dealers often face issues when it comes to obtaining capital to expand their businesses as traditional financing avenues do not usually cater to many used car dealers that are sole proprietors. This is where the partnership fills the gap by providing financing opportunity for used car dealers to purchase inventory.
Carsome & Funding Societies MOU Signing [L-R] Carsome CEO & Co-founder, Eric Cheng and Funding Societies Co-founder & CEO, Wong Kah Meng.Wong Kah Meng, Co-founder and Chief Executive Officer of Funding Societies Malaysia, said,
“Our tailor-made dealer financing product addresses the pain points revolving around used car financing traditionally. For instance, the requirement of 100 percent upfront payment by the SME, cumbersome documentation of business operations, among others, hinders these SMEs from expanding their business with limited cash flow. This is where we come in by providing a seamless process and, through automation and technology, speed up and lower the cost to serve the financing needs of these SMEs in a viable manner.”
“We have seen great traction for dealer financing to date, where we have been partnering with several car bidding platforms. Nevertheless, we are very much looking forward to this partnership with Carsome as this will surely help us to reach out further and serve many more SMEs under their platform,”
added Wong.
Eric Cheng, Chief Executive Officer and Co-Founder of Carsome, said,
“We are excited to work with Funding Societies to provide our dealers with a seamless financing product to help to grow and scale their businesses, together with us. As the region’s largest used car trading platform, Carsome has been at the forefront of driving the automotive industry forward, and the partnership with Funding Societies will help our mission to better serve the users of our platform.”
As part of the collaboration, Carsome will inspect the condition and verify the value and identity of the used cars before putting them up for bidding. By onboarding used car dealers with proven track record based on their repayment behaviour, business history and performance with Carsome, Funding Societies aims to better manage the risk to benefit their investors.
Since introducing dealer financing, Funding Societies has disbursed more than RM 30million across more than 1,500 notes as of November 2019. Regionally, it has reached close to RM 3billion in total disbursed working capital to SMEs across Southeast Asia since its establishment.

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Insurtech

Insurtech Startup Fi Life Introduces New 20 Year Level Term Life Insurance Policy

									by Fintech News Malaysia
November 21, 2019
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Fi Life announced today that it has added a new 20-year level term life insurance policy to its current suite of life insurance policies. This level term policy is underwritten by Tokio Marine Life Insurance Malaysia Bhd.
The company said that the level term policy complements Fi Life’s existing yearly renewable term life policy, which has been offered to Malaysians since 2015.
The main difference between a 20-year level term policy and a yearly renewable term policy is that premiums for the level term policy are fixed and guaranteed for the next 20 years. With a yearly renewable policy, premiums increase slightly every year with the policy-holder’s age.

Premiums for level term policies are usually more expensive in the beginning as compared to yearly renewable term policies. However, policy holders do not have to worry about higher premiums as they get older, as the level terms premiums are fixed for the 20-year duration of the policy.
The introduction of this new product allows users to purchase policies based on whether they prefer to pay less at the beginning and renew at a slightly higher rate each year or if they prefer a fixed premium for the next 20 years.

Fi Life’s Product Selection Page
Fi Life and Tokio Marine Life Insurance Malaysia Bhd co-developed the 20-year level term policy when many of Fi Life’s existing and prospective customers expressed a preference for the certainty of fixed insurance premiums over the duration of their life insurance policy.
At Fi Life’s website www.fi.life, after entering some basic details, prospective customers will receive two instantaneous premium quotes side-by-side, one for the level term policy, the other for the yearly renewable term policy.
Interactive Comparison Chart
The prospective customer can then compare and select the policy that suits their preference. Like the yearly renewable term policy, prospective customers can add a critical illness add-on to their level term policy.
To promote Fi Life’s new level term policy, Fi has issued a new rebate code LEVELNOW which will entitle purchasers of Fi Life policies to receive a 20% rebate on the first year’s premium. This rebate code is available immediately and is valid from 21st November to 5th December 2019.

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Payments

TransferWise Launches in Malaysia, Open to Partnership with E-Wallets

									by Vincent Fong
November 21, 2019
2 comments

Following the news of TransferWise securing their remittance license from Bank Negara Malaysia in June 2019, the international remittance company announced that they have officially launched their operations in Malaysia today.
Speaking at the launch Taavet Hinrikus, Co- Founder and Chairman of TransferWise, said

” We are excited to be able to offer in Malaysia today a cheaper, faster and more convenient way to send money internationally.
We’ve received requests from 15,000 people to make Malaysia their next priority  so we worked hard to enable our service as fast as we could.”

TransferWise’s, Asia Pacific Lead, Venkatesh Saha further added that Malaysia is the 2nd ASEAN country that the company has chosen to launch in, which he says should be taken as a testament of how important Malaysia is to TransferWise as a market.
Taavet also shared with Fintech News Malaysia that the company is open towards working with local e-wallet players to enable remittance functions to enable them to leverage on the existing infrastructure that TransferWise has built. This intention to partner local e-wallet players may come at a strategic time as players like BigPay move towards offering remittance services within their e-wallet
The company said that with the launch of this service, Malaysians can now send money to 83 countries, at 4 times cheaper than banks. However, TransferWise will also have to contend local players with similar business models like MoneyMatch and regional players like InstaReM.
We did a quick comparison and found that some players offer more competitive rates compared to TransferWise on certain corridors. When we asked how TransferWise plans to compete with these rates, Taavet shared that TransferWise is focused on building a sustainable business and do not subsidise the rates using investor’s money. He encouraged users to opt for other providers should they find better options.
TransferWise’s service in Malaysia is open to individuals – including all foreigners except those with a Foreign Worker status. For the latter group, due to additional checks required by regulations, the service will begin in 2020, business transfers are also expected to begin by 2020
For now, locals will have an RM 30,000 per day transaction limit and whereas foreign workers will have a transaction limit of RM 5,000 due to regulations set by Bank Negara Malaysia.
Moving forward, Taavet shared that they are currently in talks with the regulator to hopefully launch their multi-currency card in Malaysia. The service is dubbed “Borderless Account” and was launched last month in Singapore. By next year, the company expects to set up a Malaysian office and they targetting to hire 5 staff.
TransferWise is the second major international fintech player entering Malaysia, following Stripe’s launch just last month.

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Payments

Soft Space Lands Partnership in Thailand to Drive Cashless Push

									by Fintech News Malaysia
November 22, 2019
0 comments

Soft Space and its Thai-based partner Digio announced Thursday that they landed a partnership with interbank payment provider, Processing Center Company (PCC), Thailand’s PayNet equivalent.
The solution, dubbed “FLite” will be deployed by one of PCC’s shareholder banks and the parties involved said in a statement that it is aimed at encouraging a more pervasive use of cashless payments in Thailand.
FLite comprises an NFC based EMV Chip reader that pairs with merchants’ smartphones preloaded with the bank’s secure application.

According to them, FLite is a secure, fully-featured and affordable card acceptance channel designed especially for SME merchants and is certified by the Payment Card Industry Security Standards Council (PCI SSC).
FLite’s deployment in the Thai market will allow merchants of all business sizes to accept card payments through its PIN-based authorisation point-of-sale (POS) terminal.
Worawat Paarpon, Managing Director of PCC said,
“PCC’s aim is to provide an affordable solution for the banks to acquire merchants, With Thailand achieving 83% growth for e-payment transactions from 2016 to 2018, we believe FLite, a world’s first, will grow this figure further and go a long way in supporting the government’s aspiration to grow cashless transactions in a secure manner.”
Echoing his thoughts, Soft Space’s CEO Joel Tay and Digio’s Managing Director Nopphorn Danchainam said merchants will benefit as the total cost of FLite’s ownership will be significantly lower, thereby making it more affordable as compared to the existing mPOS solutions in the Thai market.
According to the Bank of Thailand, the country’s volume of e-payment transactions increased by 83% between 2016 and 2018, with the majority of this growth attributed to internet banking and mobile banking. As of 2018, Thais’ e-payment transaction per capita rose from 63 per capita per year in 2017 to 89 per capita per year.

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Payments

Prudential Partners Boost for Digital Payments

									by Fintech News Malaysia
November 25, 2019
0 comments

Prudential announced today a partnership with Boost to enable e-wallet payments for Prudential’s customers. Through this partnership the insurer’s customers can now opt to use Boost as a payment option on Prudential’s website.
This payment option is made available for premium payments of both Prudential’s conventional insurance and takaful products. For now users will still need to manually make the payment every month but Khairil Abdullah, CEO, Boost, revealed to Fintech News Malaysia that they are looking to roll out a recurring payments feature by next month

According to Prudential’s CEO, Gan Leong Hin, shared that 25% to 30% of Prudential’s customer base still pays for their premium using cash and cheques, in providing an additional payment option Gan hopes that it will convert more users to adopt the cashless option.
The parties involved further shared that they are looking to take this partnership beyond just payments. In the coming months, they are looking to enable Prudential’s digital health app Pulse within Boost’s app ecosystem with the goal of educating more consumers to be healthier and exposing them to the importance of being insured.

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E-Wallets
Payments

RHB Facilitates Adoption of Boost e-Wallet at Government Clinics

									by Fintech News Malaysia
November 26, 2019
1 comment

RHB Islamic Bank announced today that they have collaborated with Boost and the Ministry of Health Malaysia to enable e wallet payments within government clinic.
Under this partnership, RHB is the main banker for MOH in managing collection and payment accounts. Today’s collaboration will see the implementation of Boost e-wallet at 4 pilot locations namely, Klinik Kesihatan Cheras, Klinik Kesihatan Kuala Lumpur, Klinik Kesihatan Putrajaya Presint 18 and Klinik Kesihatan Seremban.
Datuk Seri Dr Dzulkefly Ahmad, Minister of Health Malaysia, said this in his speech at the launch today.

“The use of this e-wallet adds value to MOH, counter services at government clinics. MOH hopes that this e-wallet payment facility will enhance the efficiency of service delivery of health clinics as well as provide customer-friendly facilities. My sincere appreciation to Axiata Digital Ecode Sdn Bhd and RHB Islamic Bank Berhad for their cooperation and commitment in the successful implementation of the e-wallet (Boost) at health clinics,”

Datuk Seri Dr Dzulkefly Ahmad, Minister of Health Malaysia, said this in his speech at the launch today.
Dato’ Khairussaleh Ramli
“The e-wallet facility is especially important in empowering consumers as well as government agencies in providing convenient and safe payment facilities. Digitalisation of such services goes beyond simplicity and convenience. It is secure and offers a wide range of incentives that will benefit our customers and members of the public. This partnership also allows RHB to meaningfully contribute towards a wider digitalised banking ecosystem where members of the public can experience the convenience of cashless transactions – literally at their fingertips,”

RHB’s collaboration with MOH started in 2018, when the Bank first facilitated cashless transactions at Government clinics using bank cards at 56 government clinics across Kuala Lumpur and Selangor.

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E-Wallets
Payments

DuitNow QR Gains Traction as Fave Becomes The Latest to Adopt the National Payment QR

									by Vincent Fong
November 28, 2019
0 comments

Paynet and Fave announced today that FaveBiz is the first non-bank merchant acquirer to offer DuitNow QR, Malaysia’s national QR payments standard. This news follows Public Bank and GrabPay who were the first bank and e-wallet respectively to adopt the QR standard.
Starting in early 2020, Fave’s adoption of DuitNow QR will fuel Fave’s target of enabling 100,000 small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) with cashless payments and digital solutions.
As part of the rollout, Fave will assist merchants in Malaysia to adopt DuitNow QR and enable them over time to accept payments from customers of 29 banks as well as major e-wallets. Fave will provide seamless and consolidated reconciliation for merchants on the one-stop FaveBiz platform.

Peter Schiesser
“With DuitNow QR, a merchant will only need to sign up with one Acquirer, and customers of all participating banks and e-wallets would be able to make DuitNow QR payments to merchants using their respective mobile apps. We are excited to welcome Fave and their sizable base of merchants to the DuitNow QR eco-system where 22 million bank customers as well as millions of e-wallet users will soon be able to pay with DuitNow QR at Fave merchants.” said Peter Schiesser, Group Chief Executive Officer, PayNet.

Fave and PayNet also announced a collaboration that which they claim will provide compelling value to customers of participating banks and e-wallets in the DuitNow QR ecosystem, and unlock massive marketing opportunities for Fave merchants. Fave’s founder Joel Neoh shared that the collaboration will enable benefits of shopping with Fave merchants to be extend to bank customers and e-wallet users.
Commenting on the partnership Joel Neoh said,
“The partnership with PayNet comes at a pivotal time as Malaysia embarks on the ‘new economy’ where digitalisation and the usage of e-wallets are facing an upward trajectory. We are thrilled to become the country’s first non-bank merchant Acquirer allowing businesses to adopt DuitNow QR and catalyse higher adoption of digital payments while reducing the operational hurdles of managing multiple QR codes, platforms and reconciliation of various sources of payments.

DuitNow QR is Malaysia’s National QR Code Standard established under Bank Negara Malaysia’s Interoperable Credit Transfer Framework (ICTF).

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Payments

PayNet Teams up With NETS to Enable Cross Border Debit Card Payments, QR Payments is Next

									by Vincent Fong
November 29, 2019
3 comments

PayNet and it’s Singaporean counterpart NETS announced today the launch of a real-time cross-border payments using MyDebit ATM cards in Singapore and vice versa.
Currently, MyDebit cards are accepted through the NETS network of merchants at Bugis Village which is, other locations include selected iStudio, Pandora, SaladStop! and Awfully Chocolate outlets.
Since November 2018, Singapore consumers have been able to use their NETS ATM cards in Johor Bahru, marking the first time that NETS ATM cards can be used outside of Singapore. There are currently over 7,400 PayNet acceptance points for NETS ATM cards in Johor Bahru, Kuala Lumpur, Penang and Malacca.

Similarly, cardholders of MyDebit, Malaysia’s national debit card scheme which allows consumers to make point-of-sale payments using ATM cards, are able to do the same in Singapore.
Building on this collaboration, NETS and PayNet are also working to connect their respective real-time payment infrastructures to enable cross-border instant fund transfers and QR payments between Singapore and Malaysia.
Malaysia and Singapore have both launched their own version of national QR code standard, named DuitNow QR and SGQR respectively. Should the next in this partnership materialise, both Malaysian and Singaporean may soon be able to spend using their e-wallets in each other’s countries using a single QR code.
Jeffrey Goh
“NETS is excited to extend cashless payments to our ATM debit cardholders when they go to malls and tourist spots in Malaysia, as part of our regional plans to make overseas travel safe, seamless and convenient across corridors where Singapore travellers venture. Our partnership with PayNet will benefit not just Singapore shoppers who frequent Malaysia, but also retailers in Malaysia who can look to fuss-free payment collections and possibly higher spend by shoppers given the added convenience,”
said Jeffrey Goh, Group CEO of NETS.
“We are also pleased to collaborate with PayNet to provide these benefits to Malaysian travellers, who can likewise use their MyDebit ATM cards for retail purchases in Singapore,”
Jeffrey added.

Peter Schiesser
“We are delighted that PayNet’s MyDebit ATM cards can now be used in Singapore. Malaysians are among the most frequent visitors to Singapore either for business, work or leisure. To be able to freely use MyDebit ATMs not only provides the convenience to them but also benefits businesses in Singapore which translates into higher cashless cross-border transactions. This creates value to both Malaysians and Singaporeans. Best of all, there is no foreign exchange fees and the exchange rates are competitive,”
said Peter Schiesser, PayNet Group CEO.

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Banking
Digital Transformation

UOB Finlab’s Jom Transform Programme Sees 30% Increase in Productivity for its SME Cohort

									by Fintech News Malaysia
December 5, 2019
1 comment

UOB Malaysia and Finlab announced Wednesday that the SMEs that have completed their Jom Transform Programme are expected to see productivity rise up to 30% through digitalisation
Launched in June 2019, The Jom Transform Programme is a business transformation programme in Malaysia to help local businesses digitalise their operations to drive productivity and revenue growth.
During the three-month programme, the 16 participating SMEs gained digital transformation skills and know-how such as business re-engineering and digital marketing. As part of their skills development, they learnt essential knowledge from experts at a series of workshops and were matched with specially-chosen technology partners to pilot relevant solutions and to assess the effectiveness of these solutions.

Out of the 16 participating SMEs, 12 piloted solutions to enhance their core business processes such as payroll, human resources and accounting. The automation of these processes is expected to help employees reduce the time they spend on manual, administrative processes by as much as 30 per cent.
This will free up their time to do more value-added work and in turn contribute to the company’s overall productivity and efficiency. The SMEs also piloted solutions in digital marketing, lead generation, content creation and e-commerce solutions. These solutions are expected to boost the SMEs’ sales and customer acquisition by up to 10 per cent.
Mr. Wong Kim Choong, Chief Executive Officer, UOB Malaysia, said the Jom Transform Programme affirms the Bank’s commitment to help Malaysian SMEs digitalise their business for continued growth and productivity.
Wong Kim Choong
“The Jom Transform Programme is designed to help Malaysian SMEs digitally transform their operations and we are pleased to announce that it has met this objective. Having completed the three-month programme, our 16 selected SMEs are now able to apply digital solutions to optimise their workflow processes, to improve sales, to increase customer loyalty and to raise brand awareness. To help these businesses grow further, we will support them in their expansion both at home and across the region through UOB’s established regional network.”

Jom Transform is jointly organised by UOB Malaysia and The FinLab, an innovation accelerator under UOB Bank. The Programme is supported by five strategic partners including the Chinese Chamber of Commerce & Industry of Kuala Lumpur and Selangor, the Malaysian Association of Tour and Travel Agents, Maxis, the Malaysia Digital Economy Corporation and SME Corporation Malaysia.
Pauline Sim
Ms Pauline Sim, Co-Head, The FinLab, said,
“The Jom Transform Programme has successfully brought together the technology ecosystem and members of the SME community that are looking to digitalise and to uplift businesses together. We are thankful to all our partners who have supported the programme. As we continue the momentum into 2020, we will collaborate with the business and technology communities and networks we have brought together to support even more businesses who desire to transform.”

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E-Wallets
Payments

Touch ‘n Go eWallet Enables Street Parking Payment in Klang Valley

									by Fintech News Malaysia
December 10, 2019
0 comments

The Touch ‘n Go eWallet announced today that they have enabled street parking payment for areas under the jurisdiction of Kuala Lumpur City Hall (DBKL), Majlis Perbandaran Subang Jaya, Perbadanan Putrajaya, Majlis Daerah Kuala Langat Selangor and Majlis Perbandaran Kota Bharu.
While the street parking feature is currently available at five districts, the Touch ‘n Go eWallet is currently working with different municipalities across Malaysia to enable more street parking payment options for its users in the coming months.
Ignatius Ong
Ignatius Ong, CEO of TNG Digital Sdn Bhd said,

“We’re all about making lives easier and more convenient for all Malaysians. This is why we have expanded our services to include parking. With this new feature, our users can feel at ease, as we reduce cash handling at parking areas and waiting time looking for physical machines to make payment. We will continue to do our part in enabling a cashless society in Malaysia, by addressing the needs of Malaysians.”

To encourage users to use the feature, Touch ‘n Go eWallet will be giving RM 3 cashback when the in-app street parking is utilized.

Featured image credit: screengrab from Touch’n Go Homepage

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E-Wallets
Payments

How I Survived Being Cashless For a Week Using Only GrabPay

									by Vincent Fong
December 18, 2019
0 comments

Ever since Malaysia caught the e-wallet bug, I’ve always been curious about how difficult or easy it would be to go about my daily life using only e-wallets, but as someone who procrastinates quite a fair bit, I’ve been putting off my attempt to do so. It is as though the stars have aligned for me to finally get around to doing it when the GrabPay Malaysia team approached me to do their “GrabPay Cashless Challenge”
As you might have guessed, the challenge is pretty straight forward — going cashless for a week using only GrabPay.
In this challenge, I was given RM 1,000 in GrabPay credits to go about my daily life. While I was grateful for the sum received, it does not in any way affect our editorial for this story.

Feeding Myself
When it comes to meals, going cashless with GrabPay is relatively easy, as a person that mostly work from home I am already ordering a fair amount of food delivery.
With GrabFood expanding their list of F&B partners recently there were plenty of options to choose from before I got bored during the week.
A number of cafes and restaurants that I frequent also accepts GrabPay. To my pleasant surprise, one of my favourite dim sum joint accepts GrabPay as well, so that’s a big plus for me.

It was not all smooth sailing though, most of the kopitiams and mamaks around my area have not started accepting GrabPay as a payment option. In my experience going cashless on GrabPay and trying to find cheap eats could be a bit of challenge depending on where you stay.
A sneaky workaround without technically breaking the cashless rule is to have your friend pay first and then paying him/her back using GrabPay.
From time to time, I fancy myself to be a little chef and when the mood strikes I enjoy cooking up a meal or two, during the week I wanted to shop for groceries but found that the Jaya Grocer nearby home didn’t accept GrabPay.
I had the option of going to Tesco and Giant which GrabPay has recently on-boarded as a merchant, but if I’m being honest I’m not a big fan of the produce that comes out of those two outlets.
So, for the most part, I’ve dined out or ordered in for the week.
Getting Around
Getting around with Grab is obviously not much of an issue given that before it was gunning to be a super-app it was a transport app.
With everyone rushing out their announcements before the end of the year, it was a stereotypically busy week that’s just choke-full of press conferences.
In that week alone I’ve attended press conferences for TransferWise, Prudential, Luno and a few others.

Right off the bat, the biggest challenge with getting around while cashless is that I was unable to pay for parking in all the locations that I was headed to.
The only way I was able to get around was through Grab for the entire week. Though being chauffeured around and taking it easy at the back seat was nice for a change.
Pretending to be a Good Boyfriend
Armed with GrabPay credits, the cashless challenge seems like a pretty good avenue for me to pretend to be a good boyfriend. I searched the web for florists who accept GrabPay and to my surprise, there were more than I anticipated.

When buying stuff online I’m so used to using my card that I never thought to even see if there are e-wallet options available. I bought the flowers from 50Gram and their GrabPay acceptance seems to be powered by iPay88.
The experience of using GrabPay to purchase something online is relatively seamless, once you checked out your cart all you need to do is key in your phone number and a 6-digit pin will be sent to your app, key in that pin and the credit will be deducted from your GrabPay.
Verdict on Going Cashless with GrabPay
I was able to survive the week completely cashless but it wasn’t without very deliberate planning on my part. The ecosystem still needs some work before consumers can go completely cashless for their day to day spending without disruption to their regular routine.
I also spent a little bit more money than I normally would have for the week since I was ordering a lot of GrabFood and I was traveling quite a bit during peak hours using Grab.
But I am optimistic that if this challenge was done next year, it would be a lot less of a “challenge” with GrabPay and other players adopting Malaysia’s national QR standard DuitNow QR and GrabPay’s numberless pre-paid card set to launch in Malaysia by mid-2020, e-wallets will definitely be way more ubiquitous than it is now.

One particular thing that I did like about using GrabPay was how easy it was for me to use my GrabRewards to pay for things, when paying for my meals I am able to choose whether to pay using my credit or my GrabPay Reward just by sliding a bar.
My only wish is that in the next update GrabPay will look at a more intuitive way of summarising my payment history instead of just listing it. As Grab gears towards being an everyday app or even a virtual bank, I think it is particularly important to enable users easily view their spending patterns in a visual way.

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Insurtech

Want to Innovate? Don’t Be Afraid of Being Fired Says AXA Affin Life CEO

									by Vincent Fong
December 11, 2019
0 comments

“If you want to innovate, you must never be afraid of being fired”
Those were the first lines that Rohit Nambiar, CEO of AXA Affin Life said when I asked about the secret sauce behind a relatively small player like AXA Affin Life capturing over 70% of the digital life protection market share.

A bold statement, but with the inertia that exists within insurance is seeing it is perhaps this type of mentality that is required to drive much-needed change within the industry.
The 39 year-old leader believes that the insurance industry a giant that has been sleeping for far too long, he thinks that insurers are so product-centric that the industry has seemingly forgotten that at the core of the insurance business is to offer people protection at their time of need.
Everything must be viewed through the lense of the customers
There’s been no shortage of fancy technologies that have flooded market of late, from AI-powered chatbots to blockchain in insurance, Rohit is a strict believer of that no matter what it is, it must be viewed from the lense of the customer.
“We need to be obsessed with our customers. Investing on understanding our customers, their preferences and reactions to our offers before and after launching a product.” he said.
Citing AXA eMedic, their digital medical insurance as an example, he said that they have focused ensuring the purchase journey will not take more than 10-minutes and the underwriting questions are simple.
While the product was initially targetted at those aged between 16 to 30 years, by listening to their customer’s demand, they have expanded the offering to children as young as 15 days and expatriates working in Malaysia. They’ve recently even expanded the offering to target young families.

If a project takes more than three months we go back to the drawing board
To be agile seems to be core to AXA Affin Life’s mantra, Rohit believes that the “fastest fish will eat the small and big fish alike” which is phrase that he often repeats when addressing his internal staff and also during public speeches.
In speaking to many of the various insurtech and fintech startups that work with AXA Affin Life, they seem to verify the speed in which they were able to strike a deal and go-to-market.
He shared in these past two years there have only been two projects that have taken more than three months.
Rohit believes that the era of long and expensive have passed and that speed of execution is crucial in today’s modern world.

Nearly 300% growth through digital channels
Like most insurers sales through digital channels only account for a small portion of AXA Affin Life’s sales, in their case it accounts for roughly 3%. However, according to Rohit, that’s quickly changing, he shared that they’re seeing almost 300% growth through their digital channels.
By 2023 the insurer targets to have 20% of a sales come through digital channels.
Those who are familiar with the insurance sector will be aware that this transition is often met with resistance from their agencies. Even in China where digitalisation of financial services is ahead of the curve, 90% of insurance premiums still comes from agencies and banassurance.
Insurers like AXA Affin Life walk a fine line in balancing shifting consumer behavior and maintaining the interest of the agencies who still remain their bread and butter.
In this Rohit says he makes it clear to the agencies that digital will complement them and not substitute them, he shared 27% of sales coming from 1-year insurance agents are coming from digital leads provided by them.
Fresh off winning the “Young Leader of the Year Award” by Asia Insurance Review (which he joked 39 is too old to be considered young leader) Rohit seems optimistic about the future of AXA Affin Life and the industry.
Moving forward, he said that their focus would be to drive a seamless, frictionless on-demand healthcare covering the entire spectrum of healthcare, wellness, care management, payments and claims.

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E-Wallets
Payments

ASEAN’s Largest Cashless Store Launched in Kuala Lumpur

									by Vincent Fong
December 12, 2019
1 comment

PUC Berhad and Smuzcity Berhad announced today the launch JDX Presto concept store, which they claim is the largest cashless concept store in ASEAN.
Spanning a total of 50,000 square feet, the cashless store located in Quill City Mall, right in the heart of Kuala Lumpur. The JDX Presto Concept store hosts a wide category of products like electrical appliances, gadgets, health and beauty, home and living, fashion, and F&B products from across various brands.
Shopping in this concept store is a completely cashless experience, to purchase something shoppers only need to scan the QR code of the desired product using the Presto app. Shoppers can then opt for the on-the-spot self-pickup or doorstep delivery, which is supported by JD Logistics, the logistics arm of JD.com one of China’s largest retailer.

The shop is also equipped with their JDX Presto Unmanned Fridges, which enables shoppers to unlock the fridge by scanning the QR code and pick up their desired product. Payment will then be deducted from PrestoPay after the door is closed.

Cheong Chia Chou, Group Managing Director and CEO of PUC Berhad said at the launch ” We proudly launched Presto two years ago and along the way, our teams have worked relentlessly to gradually enrich Presto with various digital offerings. Today truly marks a great milestone on our journey, with the grand opening of our first ever o2o store.”

The Presto app was first launched as an e-wallet, and has since seen a facelift, compared to its initially clunky and cluttered interface, the new app looks a lot cleaner and feels more intuitive to use. The e-commerce store 11street has also since rebranded into PrestoMall and integrated it all within the Presto app.
The group seems to be moving into more of an ecosystem play to remain competitive in the increasingly crowded e-wallet space in Malaysia.

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E-Wallets
Payments

GHL Powers E-Wallet Acceptance with 750 Retailers Across Sunway’s Malls

									by Fintech News Malaysia
December 12, 2019
1 comment

Sunway Malls announced yesterday the adoption of a Unified Payment Terminal which accepts cashless payments from major e-wallets, debit cards, and credit cards.
 Sunway Malls has seen over 750 of its retailers utilise cashless payments, and the current e-wallet partners include Alipay, Boost, Grabpay, GoodKredit, Maybank QRPay, Mcash, Touch ‘n Go eWallet and WeChat Pay with more in the pipeline.
Singaporeans will also be able to use their debit card to make payments thanks to a partnership between NETS and PayNet announced recently this month which enables cross border debit card payments.

In order to encourage shoppers to start utilising this new feature, Sunway Pyramid is offering shoppers the chance to earn 10x Sunway Pals points when they use participating cashless payments namely Boost, GrabPay, Maybank QRPay, and Touch ‘n Go eWallet in Sunway Pyramid until 31 December this year.
 For shoppers that spend RM200 and above using NETS, they will receive RM15 worth of Sunway Pals points until the end of June 2020.
Since October, Sunway Malls has rolled out this initiative in three other malls including Sunway Velocity Mall, Sunway Putra Mall, Sunway Carnival Mall and Sunway Citrine Hub.

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Insurtech

Axiata to Distribute Digital Insurance Through Aspirasi, Boost and Celcom

									by Vincent Fong
December 13, 2019
1 comment

Axiata Digital Capital’s Aspirasi announced Thursday, a partnership with Great Eastern to provide affordable insurance and takaful products for consumers, micro-entrepreneurs and SMEs.
The distribution of the product will be fully digital and will be offered through Aspirasi and its partner platforms which includes Celcom, and the group’s e-wallet brand Boost.
The parties involved said in a media statement by enabling Malaysians access to a wide range of bite-sized policies that start as low as RM 1.50 they hope to bridge the protection gap in Malaysia.

Similarly, both parties have also struck the same arrangement in Indonesia.
The Axiata group is increasingly widening its services within the digital finance space, besides its widely used e-wallet Boost, they have also recently entered into an agreement with CIMB Bank to offer financing solutions to 700,000 SMEs under its Aspirasi platform. To date, they claim to have distributed RM 50 million worth of microloan to 9,000 merchants.
The group’s widening offerings within the digital finance space could point towards their deepened interest towards being a virtual bank, the group previously said that they “definitely expressed interest” towards getting a virtual banking license in a Malaysia.

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eKYC to Be Introduced to Banks Soon

Digital Transformation

eKYC to Be Introduced to Banks Soon

									by Vincent Fong
December 17, 2019
2 comments

Bank Negara Malaysia issued on Monday the much anticipated eKYC exposure draft for financial institutions in Malaysia, this draft when in effect, will be applicable across the industry to include banks, insurers, takaful operators, development financial institutions, and more.
This follows Bank Negara’s previous issuance of eKYC guidelines for both remittance companies and money changers.
Most of the readers of Fintech News Malaysia would likely be familiar with the term eKYC since it’s something we’ve covered and written quite extensively about.

For the benefit of those who may be unfamiliar, eKYC stands for “Electronic Know Your Customer” which is a set of verification that banks are required to carry out on customers for purposes of preventing financial crime that is done digitally.
Simply put, once this policy is in effect, you no longer need to show up at a bank branch to open an account.
The move to eventually introduce eKYC into a bank’s onboarding to process is one that we see would be much welcomed by banks. When in conversations with bankers, you would often hear them say that requiring the customers to show up at the branch for face to face KYC is one of the main stumbling blocks to having a truly digital experience.
The timeline of this exposure draft is not something that is a surprise to most in the industry, Fintech News Malaysia has also previously predicted that a draft for eKYC would be out prior to the virtual banking framework exposure draft which is scheduled to be released by December 2019.
The document indicates that Bank Negara Malaysia recognises the digitalisation of on-boarding processes as an important enabler to increase convenience and reach as well as lower the cost of financial services but was also wary of the fact that if not managed properly it could become a source of risk to a financial institution.
Among others, the document has set out a proposed FAR (False Acceptance Rate ) that does not exceed 5%. FAR refers to the instances of the system incorrectly verifying an individual.
If a financial product’s eKYC exceeds 5% for three consecutive months the entity is required to report to the regulator and subsequently propose additional controls to safeguard the effectiveness of the eKYC solution.
The full exposure draft can be found here, written feedback about the document should be submitted to Bank Negara Malaysia no later than 17 February 2020.

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Lending

Alixco Targets Investors from South East Asia and Europe to Widen its Base

									by Sponsored Post
December 19, 2019
0 comments

Alixco, a P2P financing platform regulated by the Securities Commission of Malaysia announced today that it is opening its platform to overseas investors, mainly aiming at South East Asia and Europe
“We received overwhelming requests to invest in our P2P notes since we established the platform in 2017, mostly from Southeast Asia, the Middle East and Europe.
With our latest upgrade of the platform’s technology and system, we can now offer investments into P2P notes to investors globally through  alixco.com conveniently. “

Says Andre Betker, Co-founder and Chief Investment Officer of Alixco P2P.

Its expansion to South East Asia and Europe is supported by its joint venture partner, FundedByMe Sweden, commenting on the expansion plans Daniel Daboczy, CEO of FundedByMe Sweden said
 “We at FundedByMe Sweden have since 2011 tried to help entrepreneurs achieve funding through our global portal and network. Mostly through equity crowdfunding but in 2014 and 2015 also with peer-to-business financing. Since FundedByMe Malaysia received the prestigious P2P license, we’ve been very excited to see international investors diversify their portfolio while looking at the potential substantial Asian market.”
FundedByMe currently has branch offices in 7 countries worldwide, including Malaysia, the company has since raised over 64 Million € for hundreds of enterprises from its 250,000 global networks and investors.

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Blockchain/Bitcoin

LuxTag’s Equity Crowdfunding Campaign on pitchIN to Accept Bitcoin and XEM

									by Vincent Fong
December 18, 2019
0 comments

Blockchain startup LuxTag announced that investors will be able to using their Bitcoin and XEM tokens to invest into their equity crowdfunding campaign which is now live on pitchIN.
According to their media statement, pitchIN has obtained approval from Securities Commission Malaysia to enable investments into LuxTag using Bitcoin and XEM.
The tokens will count as non-monetary consideration in-kind and investors will receive LuxTag share equivalent to the value of the crypto tokens in Malaysian Ringgit.

Luxtag is a local blockchain-powered business solution provider in the field of track & trace, authenticity, and business insights.
LuxTag is raising RM800,000 in its equity crowdfunding campaign and will accept subscriptions up to RM2 million. As of December 18, the campaign has raised RM716,200 through combinations of money and crypto token investments. The campaign will run until 31 January 2020.

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Payments

Tranglo Enters Global Cross-Border Remittance Partnership with Alipay

									by Fintech News Malaysia
January 8, 2020
2 comments

Tranglo through its Singaporean entity has entered into a partnership with Alipay to provide cross border remittance services
The company said the deal marked a significant milestone in the company’s history, as it enters a collaboration for the first time with Alipay, which is operated by Ant Financial, the payments affiliate of Alibaba Group. Alipay currently serves more than 1.2 billion users around the world together with its local e-wallet partners.
Licensed and regulated by the Monetary Authority of Singapore to perform remittance business, Tranglo maintains far-reaching remittance corridors with partners from the UK to Australia.

As part of the partnership, Tranglo will facilitate seamless cross-border remittances to users of Alipay, who will be able to receive quick and secure money transfers within the app.
“We look forward to working closely with Tranglo for global remittances, as we continue to explore new ways to apply our technology in order to benefit more people globally,”
said Clara Shi, Alipay’s head of the global remittances business.
“We are committed to working with partners such as Tranglo, using innovative technologies to help global consumers gain access to inclusive financial services, creating greater value for society and bringing equal opportunities to the world.”
Tranglo expects the collaboration to especially benefit migrant workers around the world, particularly in Asia, where the cross-border payment hub has a foothold in the remittance market through local partners.

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Lending

Funding Societies Optimistic that P2P Financing will Reach RM 1 Billion This Year

									by Fintech News Malaysia
January 6, 2020
0 comments

2019 was a strong year for Malaysia’s peer-to-peer (P2P) financing industry as total financing increased to RM521 million cumulatively and is expected to continue to thrive in 2020 with RM 1 billion in total financing, according to Funding Societies Malaysia.
It further stated that in 2019, Funding Societies has disbursed RM 400 million in financing to SME, an almost 250% increase from the year prior. The company claims to have now captured over 60% of market share in the P2P financing industry, they also shared that in South East Asia, they have disbursed more than RM 3 Billion in financing.
Wong Kah Meng, Co-founder and Chief Executive Officer of Funding Societies Malaysia, said,

Wong Kah Meng
“2019 was a strong year for us as we grew steadily and safely to support SMEs and investors. We also successfully launched a number of notable partnerships with Lazada, Fave, MyTukar, MUV, CarList, Carsome and Slurp. These collaborations have enabled us to reach out to more creditworthy but unbankable MSMEs, by leveraging on our partners’ MSME network and alternative data, with consent, and offering them tailored financing solutions. As one of the key pillars of the fintech industry, P2P financing is a key ingredient for enabling inclusive growth for digitally-inclined MSMEs.”
On the investor front, Funding Societies Malaysia has onboarded more than 40,000 investors to-date. Whilst 2019 has seen an increase in the number of defaults, Funding Societies has maintained a 2% default rate.
“Whilst the risk of default is natural for all businesses, we have successfully maintained a 2% default rate through our robust risk management, due diligence and collections processes. We have also been proactively and regularly updating our investors to ensure them a peace of mind whilst investing. To that end, we have successfully recovered or restructured more than RM10 million, benefitting investors, after thorough negotiations and disciplined follow-ups with SMEs,”
Kah Meng commented further.
Securities Commission recently standardized the default rate definition for P2P financing to ensure better consistency and transparency across platforms to enable investors to make better-informed decisions.
Outlook for 2020
As the Malaysian government seeks to boost MSMEs’ GDP contribution from 38% to 50% by 2030, MSMEs are being supported through various incentives announced during Budget 2020, with more than RM1 billion in budget allocation to drive SME growth and activities.
“In addition to the RM 100 million in government financing through the My Co-Investment Fund (MyCIF) Scheme to support start-ups and SMEs, we expect greater interest in P2P financing in 2020 from institutional investors as the awareness and maturity of the P2P financing industry grows,”
remarked Kah Meng.
“Based on our recent growth and outlook for 2020, we expect to disburse RM 500 million in financing this year, supported by robust demand from MSMEs and investors. With greater awareness and on-going education and engagement efforts, we anticipate P2P financing to play a more proactive role in helping to address the SME financing gap in Malaysia,”
he concluded.

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Insurtech

KATSANA’s DriveMark Moves Towards Introducing Usage Based Insurance

									by Fintech News Malaysia
January 15, 2020
2 comments

DriveMark®, a subsidiary under KATSANA announced the pilot launch of  “Safe Driving Rebate Program” with the support of Etiqa Insurance and Takaful Ikhlas General Berhad.
Intended as a precursor to a full-fledged usage based insurance, the pilot is expected to run for 6 months and will reward safe drivers with up 30% motor insurance rebate on top of existing No Claim Discounts at the end of the motor insurance policy period.
The program is part of an on-going collaboration with Etiqa Insurance Berhad and Etiqa Takaful Berhad. Since then DriveMark claims to have logged over 32 million trips in Malaysia and South East Asia.

Syed Ahmad Fuqaha bin Sd. Agil, Group Chief Executive Officer (GCEO) of KATSANA said,

“We are extremely pleased to receive support from Etiqa Takaful Berhad, Etiqa Insurance Berhad and Takaful Ikhlas Berhad to reward proven safe drivers with significant motor insurance rebate. This pilot program can only be realised through continuous collaboration with the insurance partners and the
wealth of driving behaviour data that has been collected in the past 3 years.”

He added, “This collaboration between established insurers and DriveMark is a pivotal moment for all parties involved as it helps pave way towards promoting a progressive and transparent Usage-Based Insurance (UBI) approach.”

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Payments

Tranglo to Power WeChat Pay’s Remittance in Hong Kong

									by Fintech News Malaysia
January 15, 2020
2 comments

Fresh off securing a global cross-border remittance partnership with AliPay, cross border payment specialist Tranglo announced today the support for WeChat Pay Hong Kong’s users to send money to Indonesia and the Philippines.
Mobile and electronic payment services in Hong Kong have surged in popularity in recent years. According to a 2018 Hong Kong survey, WeChat Pay HK topped the satisfaction charts for mobile wallets in the city.
Through the partnership, WeChat Pay HK’s users can perform transactions through the We Remit function on the mobile payment platform

This collaboration will expand WeChat Pay HK’s footprint and offer its users more seamless, secure and easy ways to make cross-border transactions.
Tranglo chief executive officer Jacky Lee said,

“The collaboration with WeChat Pay HK is a nod to its success in the city and globally. With more people adopting its  mobile payment system, our experience and expertise in this part of the region will allow the mobile wallet to penetrate more countries

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Blockchain/Bitcoin

Malaysia’s New Regulation Permits Digital Token Offering Through IEOs

									by Vincent Fong
January 15, 2020
8 comments

Securities Commission Malaysia (SC) today published a regulatory guideline on digital assets that outlines the framework for digital token offerings in Malaysia or more commonly known as ICOs to some.
The guideline incorporated feedback received by the regulator following the issuance of the consultation paper. According to their media statement, the industry was overwhelmingly in support of leveraging platform operators to review applications for issuance of digital tokens for fundraising.
In essence, digital token offerings will be done via Initial Exchange Offering (IEO). IEOs are basically the same as ICOs except that it is done through crypto exchange instead of the token issuer themselves.

Under Malaysia’s new guideline, it is illegal for issuers to offer any digital tokens before the IEO’s approval has been obtained, Securities Commission also stressed in their media statement that until the coming into force of the Guidelines, no person is permitted to offer or issue any digital tokens in Malaysia.
The Guidelines will be brought into force in the second half of 2020 to allow potential issuers, platform operators and investors to familiarise themselves with the requirements in the Guidelines.
IEO Platform Operator Requirements at Glance
IEO platforms will be required to carry out the necessary assessment and due diligence on the issuers as well as the features of the digital tokens. During the first phase of the implementation SC will work with platform operators in assessing eligible issuers.
The guideline also states that IEO operators must have a minimum paid-up capital of RM 5 million and must be locally incorporated unless specified otherwise by the regulator. The operators will also be required to maintain a trust account for monies received from investors with a license Malaysian financial institution.
Should the operator be also looking at trading these digital assets they will be required to separately be registered as Digital Asset Exchange (DAX) platform operator.
Digital Token Issuer Requirement at a Glance
Much like the IEO operators, SC requires for issuers to be locally incorporated and have its main business carried out locally, it further specifies that the issuers must have at all times, at least two directors whose principal or only place of residence is in Malaysia.
As for minimum paid-up capital, issuers are required to have a minimum of RM 500,000.
In order to be approved as an issuer, the guideline also specifies that the underlying project and business most provide an innovative solution or a meaningful digital value proposition for Malaysia. It further described “innovative” as projects that “provide a solution or addresses an existing market need or problem” or “improves the efficiency of an existing process or service undertaken by the issuer or the industry’
Fundraising for issuers is subjected to a limit of 20 times of shareholders’ funds and a ceiling of RM 100 Million and issuers are not allowed to raise funds one an IEO platform and Equity Crowdfunding platform concurrently.
The guideline also specifies that digital tokens that are intended as payment instruments. only be used in exchange for the issuer’s goods and services.
Interestingly the guideline requires for all issuers  include the following disclaimer :
“Investors are reminded that Bank Negara Malaysia (the Bank) does not recognise digital tokens as a legal tender nor as a form of payment instrument that is regulated by the Bank and that the Bank will not provide any avenues of redress for aggrieved token holders”.
Investment Limits
Much like equity crowdfunding and peer-to-peer financing, there is a limit imposed for both retail investors and angel investors. Retail investors are limited to RM 2,000 per issuer with a total investment limit not exceeding RM 20,000 within a 12 months period.
Angel investors are subjected to a maximum of RM500,000 within a 12-month period whereas sophisticated investors have no restriction on investment amount.
Initial Impression Malaysia’s New Digital Asset Guidelines Guidelines
It encouraging to see Securities Commission Malaysia tackling these new innovations in finance head-on. In recent years we’ve seen the regulator issuing guidelines and providing clarity in with equity crowdfunding, P2P financing, cryptocurrency exchanges and most recently digital token offerings.
We are of the view that the approach of using IEOs to conduct assessments and due diligence is a good step in minimising questionable projects and safeguarding consumers.
However, we do hope that down the line the limit of RM 2,000 per issuer to be raised to a more meaningful amount for comparison sake retail investors are allowed to invest up to RM 5,000 per issuer for equity crowdfunding.
Full details on the guideline can be found here.

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