Lending

Funding Societies and MoneyMatch Teams Up to Tackle the SME Market

									by Fintech News Malaysia
February 6, 2018
1 comment

Funding Societies and MoneyMatch, two local FinTech startups, announced an official strategic partnership to broaden access to alternative financial services for Malaysian small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). Funding Societies, Malaysia’s market leader (P2P) financing platform, will support efforts to build awareness for MoneyMatch, a cross border money transfer platform approved by Bank Negara Malaysia. In turn, Money Match will refer clients in need of business financing to Funding Societies. The arrangement is subject to SME customers’ consent.
The Funding Societies and MoneyMatch partnership aims to provide businesses, particularly SMEs, with a wider range of options when searching for quality business financing and when performing cross border transactions. For example, an SME making a purchase of raw materials or inventory from overseas can utilize joint FinTech solutions from both startups. The SME can obtain working capital financing with no collateral requirements from Funding Societies to fund the purchase, while also executing remittance payments with lower fees and better exchange rates through MoneyMatch. The partnership also supports initiatives from government bodies, such as Securities Commission (SC) and Bank Negara Malaysia, to digitize financial solutions.
Funding Societies connects SMEs with investors through an online marketplace, thereby increasing access to financing for the SME sector. By investing into SMEs, investors could earn returns up to 14% per year, higher than fixed deposits, bonds, and other traditional instruments. Meanwhile, SMEs could obtain up to RM500,000 in working capital financing to expand their business through a fast and simple online-based process. SMEs do not need to provide collateral as part of the financing requirements, while interest costs are minimized due to short financing tenors.

According to estimates cited by the Securities Commission (SC), the Malaysian SME sector has a financing gap of more than RM 80 billion. Market-based financing options like Funding Societies can provide alternative solutions to address the needs of Malaysian SMEs.
Mr. Wong Kah Meng, CEO of Funding Societies Malaysia, stated: “This is a very exciting partnership as it is a first between platforms regulated by Bank Negara Malaysia and Securities Commission Malaysia. Through the collaboration, we aim to drive greater adoption of value-added FinTech services to more Malaysian businesses, particularly for smaller enterprises which are underserved.”

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Blockchain/Bitcoin

The Tale of Sushi and Cryptocurrency: Are ICOs Getting Out of Hand?

									by Vincent Fong
February 9, 2018
0 comments

Sakae Holdings Ltd announced in Singapore yesterday that they will be partnering with MC Payment to jointly develop and launch an ICO for their own cryptocurrency known as Bitecoin. Sakae Holdings is known in Malaysia for their restaurant chain Sakae Sushi.

Sakae Holdings is among many of the traditional players that have jumped into the blockchain bandwagon. According to the press release sent to us, Sakae Holdings claims the objective of Bitecoin is to empower the industry to achieve greater efficiency for both consumers and merchants while at the same time optimising food retail systems and maximizing marketing impact for the latter. The digital token, Bitecoin, aims to provide reliable and secure peer-to-peer transactions between consumers and merchants through an automated process.

Douglas Foo, Chairman of Sakae Holdings said, “The F&B industry involves a complex value chain across suppliers, logistic providers and retail outlets. Due to the number of parties involved, information loss is a relevant issue to many merchants today. In addition, many merchants are using multiple digital-service systems that require separate equipment to cater to the various payment methods as well as their own membership or stored value cards.”
The key objective according to the parties involved is to have a transparent and secure system of records visible to all involved in the entire supply chain and to create a unified system to collect, sort and manage payment along with collecting data on user behaviours to fine tune their marketing game plan to personalise promotions to their consumer base.
The project will be jointly managed by Sakae Holdings’ newly established subsidiary Sakae Fintech and MC Payments’ Ffastpay. From what we’ve gathered the benefits described by both parties are the generic benefits of adopting blockchain technology, it remains unclear to us as to whether blockchain is necessarily the best fit for this problem statement or whether the end goal is here is to create marketing buzz. The Fintech News team maintains a healthy level of skepticism until more information on the project is made available.

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Insurtech

Malaysian Insurtech Firm Partners with MSIG to Protect Our Furry Friends

									by Fintech News Malaysia
February 14, 2018
0 comments

PolicyStreet has announced a collaboration with their insurance partner MSIG Insurance (Malaysia) Berhad (MSIG) to distribute online pet insurance in Malaysia. This insurance is an annual premium cover, covers veterinary and surgical bills, prescribed drugs and injections (subject to policy terms and conditions) to help dogs and cats in Malaysia get the best chance at recovery from sickness and accidental injuries.
Other notable benefits include owners being reimbursed the purchase price or adoption fee if their pets pass away due to illness or accidental injury, and burial or cremation costs for these pets and the wonderful part is this insurance can be purchased instantly online with no hassle.

In Western countries like Sweden and UK, Pet Insurance is common and readily available; in fact, 80% of pets in Sweden have some form of veterinary care Insurance in 2017, according to the Sweden National Veterinary Institute. According to the press release sent to Fintech News Malaysia there are 3 Pet Insurance providers in Singapore but none in Malaysia prior to the launch of MSIG’s Pet Insurance.
Lee Yen Ming, CEO of PolicyStreet said: “We are excited that MSIG has launched the product Malaysian pet owners have been waiting for and it is timely, especially in this auspicious festive season where Malaysians will be celebrating the Year of the Dog for Chinese New Year. We hope to encourage more Malaysian pet owners to get their beloved furry companions protected.”
PolicyStreet too has secured partners to help promote awareness and educate Malaysian pet owners on the need of insuring their pets. Among them are Ministre’ of Pets, a veterinarian and pet service provider, Cocomomo, an urban pets hotel, and Petsodia and Jompaw, both of which are online pet service providers.
This product is only available for microchipped cats and dogs between the age of 12 weeks to 9 years. Each microchip stores a unique 15-digit number (like a NRIC number) that is detected and read by a microchip scanner. The procedure of implanting microchip takes seconds, and it is inexpensive, safe, and essentially painless. It is extremely useful in reuniting lost pets with their rightful owners as the owners can be contacted via the information from the microchip registry.

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Banking
Digital Transformation

What Are Malaysia’s Top 5 Banks Doing About Fintech?

									by Vincent Fong
February 19, 2018
3 comments

With the wave of new fintech companies entering Malaysia, a question that often pops up in conversation is whether the banks are asleep on the wheels or are they actively beefing up their tech portfolio in response. The Fintech News Malaysia reached out to executives within the top 5 banks in Malaysia to understand their views on fintech and what they’re doing in response.
Hong Leong Bank

Thoughts on Fintech Malaysia
Domenic Fuda, CEO and Group Managing Director, Hong Leong Bank feels that the fintech landscape has really been flourishing this past 3 years with both homegrown and regional players entering the market. He believes that the fintech ecosystem has much room to grow in Malaysia especially in areas like lending and KYC, while payments are wallet he opines are more crowded than others.

Domenic Fuda, CEO & Group MD Hong Leong Bank

He commented that, “The growth in FinTech has been impactful at innovating and disrupting financial services – it opens up not only the eyes of the consumers, but also awakens incumbents to the possibility that there may be new avenues of delivery and fulfilment. However, only a select few of these FinTechs will win in the long run.”

Response to Fintech
Domenic believes that fintech companies need to work together with incumbents, such as banks, in order to be successful. A collaborative approach as opposed to a disruptive one would be well suited for a highly regulated sector like finance.
He adds, “Partnering with FinTechs offer opportunities for the incumbent in many areas – from delivering cost reduction opportunities, differentiated offerings, and customer retention, to prospects for additional revenues.”

Domenic says that Hong Leong Bank as a whole has embraced the fact that collaboration is the way to go, towards that notion they have previously launched the HLB Launchpad, a three month mentorship programme. The programme is the first  public-private partnership between HLB, Cradle and Malaysian Business Angel Network (MBAN).
Other than that partnership, in recent years Hong Leong Bank has also embarked on investing in deep technology like Artificial Intelligence, in 2016 the banking group deployed cognitive banking technology with IBM Watson.
Moving forward, Domenic said that they are currently exploring and piloting technologies like Augmented and Virtual Reality, Robotics, Blockchain and Application Program Interfaces while at the same time digitising their front, middle and back office.
On the Future of Fintech in Malaysia
In the near to medium term Domenic feels that the verticals that would be most disrupted in the Malaysian Fintech landscape will be Payments & Digital Wallets, Lending and KYC.
Commenting on the payments landscape he feels that the introduction of chinese players like AliPay and Wechat will be a game changer but however he questions if Malaysia will follow the same evolution in consumer behaviour as the Chinese market did.

As for the lending market Domenic has observed many new approaches in loan underwriting for both secured and unsecured loan using alternative data from telcos, utilities, and social media platforms, he expects to see more players entering the market using alternative data to offer better customer experience through faster loan turnaround times and disbursement compared to traditional banks.
KYC on the other hand, Domenic believes is key to banks being truly digital. It remains a tedious tasks for consumers as they have to be physically present to meet face to face with bank representatives for many types of banking products. Bank Negara Malaysia has recently published the e-KYC guidelines for remittance companies and is currently mooting an industry wide adoption. Domenic is of the opinion that should e-KYC be approved a wave of change would be seen on how customers apply and sign up for products digitally in the future.
RHB Bank

Thoughts on Fintech Malaysia
In seeking RHB’s thoughts on fintech in Malaysia we spoke to Jambugesvarar Marimuthu, Head of Digital Strategy and Innovation for the bank or more fondly known as Jambu by his colleagues in the sector. He feels that Fintech in Malaysia has gone past its infancy and is approaching the point of maturity with the private and government sector becoming increasingly welcoming towards Fintech.
He was cautious to not be overly positive as he feels that we have yet to achieve the status of a fintech hub. Jambu believes that the sector would require more regulatory change, consumer education and most importantly strongre collaboration between banks and fintech companies to allow more innovation to happen in the sector
Jambugesvarar Marimuthu, Head of Digital Strategy and Innovation, RHB Bank
“We also have a long way to go, apart from few real mature players, there aren’t much Fintech innovation happening locally and it appears that many are trying similar things (aggregator, wallet etc).  We need to increase innovation aspect of it to be diverse and also cover business model innovations and more.  It is only when we have more and more innovative mature Fintech can we see stronger collaborations between banks and Fintech,” said Jambu

Response to Fintech
Acknowledging the need for a symbiotic relationship between banks and fintech companies Jambu said that RHB has embarked on several initiatives. In 2015 was when RHB really started their journey, where their main focus was primarily to understand the needs of fintech and identify possible synergies to work together. Following that, RHB has since ran two hackathons with Startupbootcamp to source for innovative solutions.
Jambu added that RHB is already working with 2 of the leading fintech companies in Malaysia namely MoneyMatch and Funding Societies. He said on top of that RHB will also continously work closely with the Fintech community to discover more opportunities to collaborate while also contributing to growth of Fintech in the market alongside with regulators like Bank Negara Malaysia and Securities Commission Malaysia.
Jambu says that RHB will continue to actively work closely with the Fintech community to discover more opportunities to collaborate while also contributing to growth of Fintech in the market.

On their own technology portfolio front, RHB has also launched such as RHBMyHome mortgage app which enables users to apply for mortgage loans, submit their documents and check the status online. Alongside with hat RHB has also launched the RHB Rider Service is an account activation service that allows RHB customers who have opened an online account, to request for a Bank’s staff to visit their office or home for KYC and account activation.
Jambu also hinted major transformations to their key channels of customer engagement, which he says will be their biggest initiative this year set to be launched in the 3rd quarter of 2018.
On the Future of Fintech in Malaysia
Jambu believes that in the future Artificial intelligence powered conversations will be the main touch point for customer interactions. He also predicts that blockchain will continue to become more and more significant in the world with financial industry services leveraging on it for secure movement of transactions and assets. This will greatly reduce cost of operations for the banks and improve turnaround time in money transfers and potentially in the areas of securing asset ownership such as securities asset or house etc.
He shares similar opinion as Domenic that mobile wallets especially from established players such as Ali Pay, Wechat Pay, Apple Pay and others will continue to disrupt payment market and impact bank’s revenue but at the same time we also believe that while there are many wallet players emerging it will eventually transition into only a select few key players remaining.  But this will definitely impact customer experience and behaviour greatly.
Public Bank

Image Credit: WikiMedia Commons
Thoughts on Fintech Malaysia
Fintech News Malaysia reached out to Seow Loo Vic the Head of Fintech and Digital Innovation to get a gauge on Public Bank’s fintech playbook.  He feels that while there is significantly less media coverage on fintech than Singapore, Malaysia is home to many real innovation being developed by local talents.
Seow Loo Vic the Head of Fintech and Digital Innovation, Public Bank
Overall Vic is positive on the outlook of fintech in Malaysia, he feels that the mobile processing power improvements, liberalisation of the regulatory guideline by Bank Negara will do wonders for the sector. At the same time he also feels that the introduction of Chinese players like Alipay and Tencent’s WeChat Pay will shake up the local market with incumbents investing to maintain their foothold against the Chinese giants.
“Mobile payment is the buzz now and will go main stream from 2018 onwards” said Vic

Response to Fintech
In keeping with Public Bank’s pragmatic nature, when Vic commented on the bank’s response he emphasised that Public Bank has and always will be prioritising shareholder’s value, adding that while they embrace technological changes they will remain prudent at all times and only prioritise initiatives that have a clear economic value.

He also pointed at out that Public Bank will be working on several initiatives this year which includes their own mobile wallet and also collaboration with local wallet players to create a web of payment services for bigger audience. Public Bank was also previously reported to be working with Alipay to offer mobile wallet services
On top of that he also mentioned that Public Bank is working with several fintech companies on Big Data and Artificial Intelligence initiatives. The names of the company was not disclosed.
On the Future of Fintech Malaysia
Vic feels that there are a few technologies that will revolutionize the banking sector by improving efficiency, coverage and profitability namely eKYC, Open API, Artificial Intelligence and blockchain. He shared that these technology does not disrupt the financial industry existing processes but rather complement the traditional processes or existing services and as customers demand for more sophisticated services and transparency for better management of their finances, banks will turn to technologies that cater for existing services without the need to reengineer established processes radically.
CIMB Bank

Image Credit: Wikimedia Commons
Thoughts on Fintech Malaysia
In early 2017 Olivier Crespin was headhunted from DBS where he was the Group Head of Digital Banking to lead CIMB’s dedicated fintech unit as its Chief Fintech Officer. Since his appointment at CIMB Olivier has made limited statements to the media, we had the rare opportunity to speak to Olivier to get a sense on CIMB’s views on fintech.
Olivier Crespin Chief Fintech Officer, CIMB Bank
“The Malaysian fintech scene has progressed favourably in recent years from the introduction of new solutions in the market (such as e-wallets, online payment systems), alternative funding models (i.e. crowdfunding, peer-to-peer financing), and increasing technology adoption involving customer acquisitions and onboarding.” said Olivier

He is of the view that the facilitative environment enabled by the Malaysian regulators coupled with Malaysia being a conduit to the rest of ASEAN will attract fintech innovators to the country, creating stronger talent growth, catalyzing innovation, and driving adoption.
Response to Fintech
Olivier said that CIMB has always been fast moving and quick to respond to the evolving landscape,he cited initiatives like CIMB EVA, Rekening Ponsel and Beat Banking as an example. CIMB Eva is an Artificial Intelligence enable virtual assistant that helps CIMB customers with their banking needs. Rekening Ponsel is a branchless banking concept in Indonesia. Whereas Beat Banking is a partnership between CIMB Thai and mobile operator Advanced Info Service, to enable CIMB customers to perform banking transactions at Advance Info Service branches.

Olivier also pointed out that CIMB is also actively working with a number of fintech companies from regional players like MoneyThor and Active AI to large giants like Alipay. Olivier added that they have also set up an Innovation lab within CIMB Fintech to develop proof of concepts and run pilots in collaboration with other FinTech partners
“We also look to form smart partnerships and integrate strategic verticals to provide a seamless experience to our customers. The customer is at the centre of everything we do. We look to stay connected and engaged with our customers while providing them with a holistic personalized solution” said Olivier commenting on the matter.
Personally what’s most interesting to us is that CIMB is working on a mobile centric digital only bank in the new markets that CIMB is in namely, Vietnam and Philippines and we’re secretly hoping that this would also be adopted in Malaysia in the near future.
On the Future of Fintech Malaysia
Olivier came up with a convenient acronym to outline the future of fintech, he says the future is in ABCD – Artificial Intelligence, Big Data, Codes (QR) and Data. He believes these technologies will disintermediate, create greater transparency as well as provide new use cases and better insights.
Maybank

Thoughts on Fintech Malaysia
As Malaysia’s largest bank we’d be remiss if we did not reach out to Michael Foong its Group Chief Strategy Officer to find out more on what Maybank is doing about Fintech in Malaysia.
Michael Foong Group Chief Strategy Officer, Maybank
“With the advent of the recent technological boom, some of the most game-changing technological innovations have become embedded into our societies. The smartphone, Uber, Facebook, Instagram, Whatsapp, and many more. These technologies have fundamentally changed the way we live and have become part of our everyday lives. This has also had the added effect of raising our expectations from a user experience and convenience perspective.” said Michael Foong, Group Chief Strategy Officer, Maybank

He further commented that a gap was created, between what customer expectations and what banks were able to provide due to this, his observation is that many fintech companies are popping up in Malaysia specifically to attempt to tackle this space. He thinks that Malaysia in particular has huge potential in the FinTech space. According to Michael, this is due to 2 main reasons: The open mindedness of regulators towards innovation and technology, and the rapid rate of change in the Malaysian digital landscape.
Response to Fintech
Maybank views fintech as an opportunity rather than a threat, Michael feels that the emergence of technology in the financial sector has opened up new opportunities that allow banks like Maybank to reach a bigger market; offer an enhanced customer experience; and improve the efficiency of systems and operations.
In recent times Maybank has been seen organising their annual Maybank Fintech programme with the key criteria of “Go-to-market” partnership where both parties can leverage on each other to tap into an opportunity,

Alongside that Maybank has also launched their Maybank Fintech Sandbox last year, the platform aims  provide opportunities for start-ups and innovators to develop and test new ideas by leveraging on the banking group’s internal digital and technology expertise. The sandbox will also provide fintech companies with  the environment, tools, simulated data, APIs to experiment around.
On their payments capability front, Maybank was of course recently known for being the first bank to launch a digital wallet called MaybankPay and their recent soft launch for Maybank QRPay. Maybank has also been reported to partner with the likes of Alipay and Wechat Pay.
Despite the excitement of the fintech development within Malaysia, Michael was quick to reveal his more pragmatic side and said, “However, it is important to see through the hype and exercise disciplined restraint to ensure that the resources expended bring meaningful benefits”.
On the Future of Fintech Malaysia
Michael pointed out one specific area of interest that will have a great impact is in the payments sector. He expects that competition from digital entrants and strategic partnerships will intensify in the realm of digital payments and lending.
He added that technology is changing how, where and when payments are made and who the facilitating parties are, from fintech startups to non-payments industry operators such as Facebook and Apple, these companies have transformed and revamped the way we think of payment and the transferring of value.

Many of the bankers in this article mentioned about Alipay and WeChat Pay, interested to find out more? Read our take on how these Chinese giants will fare in Malaysia here

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Banking
Digital Transformation
WealthTech

CIMB Bank Works with 2 Singaporean Fintech Firms To Enhance Their AI App

									by Fintech News Malaysia
February 20, 2018
6 comments

CIMB Bank Berhad has added new features to its mobile application, the CIMB Enhanced Virtual Assistant (EVA), to bring further personalised, convenience and improved experience to its customers. Launched in December 2016, CIMB EVA has delivered in enabling account overviews and transactions through chat or quick keyword access.
EVA was recently enhanced to include Spend Analyser and natural language conversational capabilities. These features are made available through collaboration with Singaporean fintech companies like MoneyThor and Active.Ai.

With CIMB EVA’s Spend Analyser which was done in collaboration with MoneyThor, customers can manage their accounts better and make smarter financial decisions via single-tap spending insights for, among others, utilities, petrol, entertainment, dining and travel made on their CIMB debit, credit and prepaid cards.

CIMB EVA’s chat capabilities have also been enhanced – its natural language processing’s ability is now able to handle a wider range of chat-based transactions, enabling customers to chat with EVA based on words in a natural conversation. This instinctive natural language messaging is EVA’s key differentiator and represents the future of customers’ banking interactions this was made possible by their collaboration with Active.Ai
Samir Gupta, CEO, Consumer Banking CIMB Bank
Samir Gupta, CEO, Group Consumer Banking, CIMB Group said, “Customer convenience is our top priority and the success of our award-winning CIMB EVA is a testament to CIMB’s commitment to improve customer experience via various banking platforms, including mobile. These latest improvements to EVA are part of CIMB’s digital strategy to combine advanced FinTech solutions with our strong in-house data analytics capabilities and customer base to deliver the best banking experience to our customers.”

These collaborations will introduce more enhancements in the future, including real-time data insights to enable highly-relevant, on-site smart promotions to be offered to customers, as well as personalised and customised financial advice based on their banking portfolio and spending patterns.

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E-Wallets
Payments

Telenor’s Valyou Launches Wallet-To-Wallet Remittance From Malaysia To Bangladesh

									by Fintech News Malaysia
February 26, 2018
3 comments

Valyou, in partnership with Mutual Trust Bank (MTB), has introduced wallet-to-wallet remittance from Malaysia to Bangladesh. This first-of-its-kind integration enables migrant workers in Malaysia to transfer money directly to any bKash account in Bangladesh using Valyou Mobile Wallet app.
Valyou CEO, Mr. Khuram Malik said,

Khuram Malik
“Bangladeshis who are largely working in manufacturing and construction represent one of the largest economic migrant segments in Malaysia. We are excited to bring more convenience and peace of mind for them to send their hard-earned money home safely.
“Working together with MTB, we are able to offer instant money transfer to bKash from Valyou Mobile Wallet app. As a result, it will cost our Bangladeshi customers less time, money and effort to send money to their families back home.
“With more than 30 million registered users and over 176,000 agents across Bangladesh, we are excited to welcome bKash as inward remittance channel alongside our existing bank partners,”
said Malik.

bKash is Valyou’s second wallet-to-wallet international remittance product integration. In 2017, Valyou pioneered wallet-to-wallet transfer from Malaysia to Pakistan in collaboration with Easypaisa, a service by Telenor Microfinance Bank, with the support from the United Nations’ International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD).
Apart from international remittance, Valyou Mobile Wallet app also includes prepaid top-up for Malaysian and international mobile operators. The app also enables its users to make retail and bill payments as well as peer-to-peer transfers to other Valyou e-wallet users.

To use Valyou e-wallet, users have to register with their mobile phone number and complete a simple identity verification process. They can cash in their e-wallet at over 2,000 Valyou merchants or use automated teller machines (ATMs), internet banking and mobile banking via JomPAY.
Malik added,
“At Valyou, we share Bank Negara Malaysia’s financial inclusion vision to make banking more accessible to all migrant communities in Malaysia. The wide availability of JomPAY on ATMs and internet banking has enabled our customers to perform self-service financial transactions.
“We are constantly innovating our product to better serve the underbanked communities in Malaysia. Through technology, we can make financial services more accessible to the migrant workers, reduce the cost of international remittance and also mitigate the risks of money transfer through informal channels.
Valyou is licensed and regulated as a money services business (MSB) and authorised to issue e-money by Bank Negara Malaysia. Headquartered in Kuala Lumpur, the financial technology company is a subsidiary of Telenor Group.
DiGi, Malaysia third largest mobile operator is also part of the Telenor Group,has also launched a digital wallet app called vcash in partnership with Valyou.

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Regtech/Regulation

Bank Negara Malaysia Issues Cryptocurrency Regulation

									by Vincent Fong
February 27, 2018
4 comments

Following the public consultation issued by Bank Negara Malaysia in December, the central bank has announced the official cryptocurrency regulation in Malaysia under the policy paper “Anti-Money Laundering and Counter Financing of Terrorism Policy for Digital Currencies (Sector 6)”.
The regulator emphasises once again that cryptocurrencies are not a legal tender in Malaysia and reminds the general public that they should still conduct their own due diligence when dealing with cryptocurrencies since there are no established avenues for redress for losses and damages incurred by parties dealing in cryptocurrencies.
It is important to note that according to this policy paper geared towards cryptocurrencies being uses a currency and not geared towards regulating ICOs which will likely fall under Securities Commission Malaysia.

Bank Negara Malaysia emphasises in this policy paper that reporting organisations i.e exchanges are not allowed to portray itself as a licensed entity under the central bank though they have reporting obligations to the regulator. Under Malaysia’s cryptocurrency regulation, exchanges are required to conduct adequate risk assessments on their customers in relation to the prevention of money laundering and financing of terrorism.
The exchanges are also subject to conduct Customer Due Diligence or better know as Know-Your-Customer (KYC) that are not entirely different from what licensed entities regulated by Bank Negara Malaysia are subject to.
In addition to that, should an exchange be making a new cryptocurrency available for trading they are required to submit their risk assessment in relation to money laundering and terrorism financing in writing to Bank Negara Malaysia.
The cryptocurrency regulation in Malaysia also states that as long as the activities are carried out in Malaysia, even exchanges without physical presence are subject to the regulation. It also requires the exchange to have a compliance officer based in Malaysia. This policy paper will come effect immediately.
The full policy paper can be found here

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Regtech/Regulation

SC and BNM To Joins Forces to Accelerate Digitisation of Stockbroking through BRIDGe

									by Fintech News Malaysia
March 15, 2018
0 comments

The Securities Commission Malaysia (SC) and Bank Negara (BNM) established the Brokerage Industry Digitisation Group (BRIDGe), a joint working group between regulators and industry to accelerate the digitisation of the stockbroking industry.
BRIDGe aims to accelerate the digitisation of the brokerage industry to enhances operational efficiencies and service standards. The group will encompass Securities Commission Malaysia, Bank Negara Malaysia and industry participants including brokers and banking institutions.

Commenting on the matter Tan Sri Ranjit Singh, Chairman, Securities Commission Malaysia said, “The full objective of what we’re trying to do is to work with the industry to find a much more digitised and seamless end-to-end process within this segment of the industry”
He then added “We believe that working together with the banking industry will be very useful, we also believe that working with Bank Negara will help accelerate development”

The regulators share a common aim to drive the digitisation within the Malaysian financial industry. There are opportunities to innovate across the intermediation value chain and reduce cost in both brokerage and banking sectors.
The announcement was made today at the launch of the SC Annual Report 2017.

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Crowdfunding
Lending

SC Opens Up Application For New P2P Lending and ECF Players

									by Vincent Fong
March 15, 2018
1 comment

Tan Sri Ranjit Singh announced that the Securities Commission Malaysia will be widening access to alternative based investing avenues like Peer-to-peer (P2P) lending and Equity Crowdfunding as a part of their continued effort to democratise access to investment and fostering market inclusiveness
Commenting on the opening up the license to players, Tan Sri Ranjit Singh said that much like any other segments regulated by the Securities Commission there are no limits on the number of players, he emphasized that the key is that new applicants must be able to meet the requirements set out by the regulator and that the players must be able put forth a value proposition that is deemed appropriate.
The P2P lending and Equity Crowdfunding market has seen relative success in recent times, in combination the alternative market based financing avenues has raised up to RM 70 Million for SMEs and 651 deals.

We believe that the increase of the number of players could potentially speed the awareness of such alternative investments/fund raising methods for consumers and SMEs alike.
We’ve also previously done an industry report on both ECF and P2P Lending, which you can check out by clicking the respective links

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E-Wallets
Payments
Regtech/Regulation

What Is BNM’s ICTF and What Does It Mean For a Cashless Malaysia

									by Vincent Fong
March 23, 2018
17 comments

Bank Negara Malaysia has issued the Interoperable Credit Transfer Framework (ICTF) on 20th March 2018, which has taken into account feedback received during the public consultation period on the Exposure Draft released on 7 December 2017.
This new policy document has far and wide implication to Malaysia’s payments landscape beyond just QR codes and to understand what the implications are for a cashless Malaysia, the Fintech News team decided to take a dive into what BNM’s ICTF entails.
What Is The Purpose of The ICTF?
Bank Negara Malaysia’s ICTF seeks to foster an efficient, competitive and innovative payment landscape in Malaysia by enabling the interoperability of credit transfer services. The policy also aims at promoting collaborative competition between banks and non-bank electronic money (e-money) issuers which includes the likes of TNG Digital, Grabpay, Boost, vcash and many more. This is to be done through fair and open access to shared payment infrastructure.

Which is a fancy way of saying that regardless of whether you’d like to transfer money from one digital wallet to another, from one bank to another digital wallet or vice versa in can be done so once this policy comes into effect on the 1st of  July 2018.

Commenting on the importance of the ICTF framework during the Malaysian Fintech Expo, Tan Nyat Chuan, Director of Payment Systems Policy, Bank Negara Malaysia, said that the products offered by Malaysian banks currently only meets the needs of one of the bubbles illustrated in Figure 1 whereas the digital wallet players products are likely to be more well suited for the other two bubbles of adults without online banking account or banking accounts in general alluding to how an interoperable framework will help serve the populace across the three bubbles. He emphasised that the central bank needs a new set of disruptors to serve the market that is not adequately addressed by the banks.
Figure 1
What is the ICTF?
Describing the framework, Tan said, “It’s a very unique framework.. we don’t have frameworks that we can cut and paste for our local situation given our circumstances, we will be probably the first in this part of the world to open to open up our clearing access to used to be bank centric to non-banks”
Real Time Payments Platform
The policy paper outlines a national Real-Time Retail Payment Platform which consists of the National Addressing Database which is repository that links an account to unique identifiers like a mobile number or an NRIC number to facilitate payments to specific recipient and a an interoperable QR scheme and a common QR code that facilitates to facilitate the transactions as illustrated in Figure 2.
According to a previous announcement by ACI, the Real-Time Retail payment platform is built by ACI, operated by Paynet  that is the result of the merger between Malaysian Electronic Clearing Corporation (MyClear), with Malaysian Electronic Payment System (MEPS), in August 2017.
Figure 2
Innovation Sandbox and Open APIs
The framework also promotes innovation  through the establishment of an innovation sandbox and a requirement for the shared payment infrastructure operator and participants to publish and permit any third party to use the published APIs which are subject to the relevant laws, policies and guidelines on dealing with data privacy and security
What will the ICTF Mean for a Cashless Malaysia?
Having the ability to transfer money irrespective of the provider will do a great deal in adding functionally especially for peer-to-peer payments, in addition to that having a interoperable common QR code will likely make payment acceptance. A combination of these two will likely accelerate the Malaysia’s ambitions of becoming a cashless society.
Another aspect that stood out for us that we feel will help drive cashless adoption is the fact that fees for transactions less RM 5,000 will be waived, which means for the most part consumers will not be charged for a majority of their money transfer and payment needs.
To get a sense of what the industry feels about the new framework, we’ve reach out to payments industry veteran Danny Leong who’s currently serving as the Group CEO of one of the leading payments companies in Malaysia, GHL.
Danny Leong,  Group CEO, GHL
Commenting on the matter he said “With the traditional move from cash to credit card and debit card payments, we believe that the new wave of cashless migration will be driven by QR Codes and Mobile Payments. With ICTF, we believe it will further encourage adoption as all payment instrument issuers can then allow their customers to complete payment transactions outside their proprietary payment eco-system. This will definitely proliferate electronic payments.”

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Blockchain/Bitcoin

Malaysia’s ICOs Moves Beyond Fintech as Marketplace Player ServisHero Eyes ICO

									by Vincent Fong
March 28, 2018
0 comments

Malaysia’s ICO scene seems to be maturing following a successful ICOs by the likes of HelloGold, and large players like Air Asia mulling their own ICO. The latest to join the game is Malaysia’s very own digital marketplace for the gig economy, ServisHero, which boasts over 200,000 users, 4,000 service providers and over 12,000 monthly jobs. The company currently operates in Malaysia, Thailand and Singapore.
What really caught our attention in this ICO is the board of advisors, which featured Dr. Karl Ng, Director of Digital Economy, MDEC, which, to our knowledge we’ve not observed the agency to be part of any other advisory board of other ICOs.
In an interview with Digital News Asia its CEO Karl Loo said that the exercise is less about fundraising than it is embracing the blockchain technology. The ServisHero Coin from what we gather has 4 main goals; reducing transaction fees, increasing trust in the ecosystem, data protection and scalability for global expansion.

According to their  VP of Engineering Services, Josh Teng, they will be adopting a trustless payments using smart escrow, which effectively eliminates the costs of having 3rd party gateways and gives ServisHero a better flexibility in managing their overheads and the amount they charge. As the company scales and the transaction volume grows, the savings will likely be exponential
Moving forward, trade on ServisHero will be powered by ServisHero Coin. Though full information is yet to be available since the whitepaper will only be published in the coming weeks, it seems unlikely for ServisHero to immediately phase traditional payments systems in favour of ServisHero Coin without giving time for the users to adjust to the new system. The ServisHero Coin will also adopt a decentralised dispute resolution and reputation scores on the blockchain in their efforts to increase trust in the ecosystem.
It is unclear at the moment whether this ICO will trigger a response from the regulators given that the whitepaper is only to be made available in the coming weeks and the fact that is seems to be structured more as a utility token rather than a securities token based on current information available.
It is encouraging to see ICOs in Malaysia moving beyond fintech companies and beyond blind fundraising and it is certainly interesting to see reputable companies like ServisHero jumping into the bandwagon. Over the next few months, based on what I gathered from conversations in the industry we’ll definitely see a few interesting non-fintech players going doing this route.
Featured Image via: ServisHero Coin

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Payments

iPay88 Attempts at Banking the Underbanked with Virtual Accounts

									by Fintech News Malaysia
April 2, 2018
0 comments

iPay88 today announces its latest offering known as the ‘Virtual Account’ – a payment solution that is targeted at the country’s ‘underbanked’ communities.
Malaysia has a total population of 31.3 million as of 2017, with about 22.6 million being adult population. However according to Bank Negara Malaysia (BNM), 8 per cent of this adult population were still ‘underbanked’ – meaning they do not own a bank account or credit card and need to go outside of the banking system to meet their financial needs.
Executive Director of iPay88, Chan Kok Long says that this ‘underbanked’ community makes up the gap in the nation’s aspirations towards a ‘Cashless Society’.

He says, “We cannot talk about achieving a ‘Cashless Society’ when there are still pockets of people who do not even have banking accounts, what more online banking or credit cards to enable online purchases.
How Virtual Account Works
Virtual Account is a simplified online payment application that enables people who do not possess any bank saving account, online banking access or credit card, to still buy online. The minimum that is required, is just an internet connection to place their orders online – at any eCommerce website, merchant or marketplace that they wish to purchase the product or service.
To make the online payment, the customer just needs to select the Virtual Account option at the payment page and receive a 14-digit virtual bank account number. All the customer needs to do is to use the 14-digit virtual bank account number to deposit the cash payment at any bank branch, or at any of the estimated 4,340 ATMs (of any bank) nationwide, to complete the online purchase.
When the online purchase is complete, they just need to wait for the delivery of the items that they just purchased online. iPay88’s Virtual Account solution takes care of everything else – from the backend banking-payment transaction validation, confirmation of the merchant’s bank and ATM receiving the cash deposit from the customer.
Chan further explains that, “Virtual Account Solution is equipped with proven fraud prevention system and monitoring that safeguard all transactions. Shoppers can use it without fear of fraud.”

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Digital Transformation
Insurtech

AXA Affin Insurtech Play: Digital Insurance & Partnerships

									by Vincent Fong
April 5, 2018
4 comments

AXA Affin announced their insurtech play AXA eMedic, which focuses on offering low barrier to entry e-medical cards targeted at young professionals and families. According to its CEO, Rohit Nambiar, much of the insurance sector currently focuses on roughly 6 million overpenetrated market, while there’s a segment the size of 10 million young professionals and families that are currently being underserved.
In launching this new product, AXA Affin has partnered with various companies ranging from insurtech startups, telcos and digital health companies namely; PolicyStreet, Digi, BookDoc, and Naluri. AXA Affin claims that the entire process of signing up for the product takes less than 5 minutes and requires no medical check up.
In designing the process with digital-first mindset, the process only requires users to answer 3 questions before receiving a quote which are your date of birth, gender and whether or not you operate heavy machineries in your occuptation

Rohit Nambiar, CEO AXA Affin Life

“When we started the journey there was 28 questions that underwriters asked to put in the platform, We asked for a meeting everyday, and each day we try to reduce it by one” said Rohit.
He added that when his team finally came back to him with 7 questions, he insisted that there should only be 3, in the spirit of simplification.
There are 3 key portions to their insurtech partnerships which are; digital distribution, proactive health management and claims/after sale service.

AXA Affin Partnerships
Digital Distribution

The digital distribution will be done through partners like Digi and PolicyStreet, a Digi spokesperson who was present during the event emphasised on the strong synergy between AXA Affin and Digi mainly due to Digi’s strong base of 12 million customers and 4 million of which are active in their MyDigi App platform where the AXA eMedic product will be made available, he also further elaborated the app enjoys 14 million screen views on a monthly basis.

PolicyStreet on the other hand is well known as a insurtech startup that focuses on aggregating micro insurance product. Their team has recently made international headlines by appearing on the Forbes 30 under 30 list. Rohit said that PolicyStreet’s strength in marketing to a younger generation makes them a really suitable partner.
Proactive Health Management

Beyond a pure digital distribution play, they’ve also partnered up with the likes BookDoc and Naluri. BookDoc is a popular app in Malaysia for on demand medical professionals service. Through BookDoc, AXA eMedic will use their rewards and gamification to encourage their policy holders to live active lifestyles.

Whereas Naluri is a professional health and life coaching service provided via an app. The company is founded by renowned Malaysian entrepreneur, Azran Osman Rani who was known for is work with iflix, the Malaysian counterpart of Netflix and also investing in fintech companies like MoneyMatch.
“2 out of 3 Malaysian are struggling from lifestyle diseases, 3 out of 4 struggle to make these changes. What science has shown, if you make these changes with a coach you are 3 times more likely to make that change,” said Azran to drive home the point of approaching proactive health management holistically.
Claims Management & After Sales Service
The claims management will be managed through their app, in which policy holders will be able to present the medical card and check their policy documents via their mobile app. Rohit also revealed during the press conference that while customer support via their whatsapp channel AskMichelle is available, it is currently manually operated by the AXA team and they will be looking at rolling out a chatbot in the next 4-5 weeks.
Creating an Agile Organisation
In creating this insurtech product, the AXA team took three and a half months to complete the entire digital end to end development and partnership agreements. Rohit says that this is a testament towards the speed and agility in which they operate. He hinted at their openness towards partnering with other companies for AXA Affin’s future insurtech initiatives.

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Insurtech

Allianz Malaysia Partners With PolicyStreet For Digital Distribution

									by Fintech News Malaysia
April 5, 2018
2 comments

Allianz Malaysia Berhad is partnering with PolicyStreet to provide Malaysians with better online access to insurance
products. PolicyStreet is an insurance technology company which offers an online curated platform with an aim to provide simple and affordable insurance solutions that cater for all customer needs. Through the new partnership, PolicyStreet is offering four of Allianz digital products.
This news comes in on the heels of a of yet another insurtech partnership arrangement between PolicyStreet and AXA Affin announced on the same day signalling an increasingly mature insurtech sector in Malaysia.

Zakri Khir, Chief Executive Officer, Allianz Malaysia Berhad.
“In re-engineering the way we do business – being digital-centric and service oriented – Allianz is investing in digital strategies and deploying solutions that respond to industry challenges and take advantage of opportunities to reshape and improve the insurance business. This includes providing enterprising distribution channels where customers have continuous access to our products. This is where PolicyStreet complements the puzzle, presenting yet another platform in which, Allianz will be able to further expand our reach in the digital space apart from our own platform Allianz Online,” said Zakri Khir, Chief

Lee Yen Ming, Chief Executive Officer, PolicyStreet

Lee Yen Ming, Chief Executive Officer of PolicyStreet said, “We are excited and honoured to partner with the leading insurer in Malaysia. By integrating with Allianz, we are now able to offer convenience and flexibility to our customers to obtain Allianz’s products online.

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Blockchain/Bitcoin

Luno Registers as Reporting Institution with Bank Negara Malaysia

									by Fintech News Malaysia
April 10, 2018
2 comments

Popular cryptocurrency exchange platform, Luno, today announced that they have formally registered with Bank Negara as a reporting institution as required by the policy document: Anti- Money Laundering and Counter Financing of Terrorism (AML/CFT) – Digital Currencies (Sector 6) which was issued earlier last February.
The policy document sets out the minimum requirements and standards that a reporting institution must observe — to increase the transparency of activities relating to digital currencies and ensure effective and robust AML/CFT control measures are put in place.
It is important to note that while Luno is registered as an reporting entity, cryptocurrency exchanges are neither licensed nor authorised by the central bank, which means should there be any disputes or losses incurred there will be no established avenue for redress. Being a reporting entity  just means that Luno has reporting obligations in respect to preventing money laundering and terrorism financing.  Bank Negara has previously also warned consumers to conduct their own due dilligence when dealing with cryptocurrencies

Vijay Ayyar, Head of Countries, Luno

“We view any steps toward regulation of digital currencies as a very positive sign,” said Vijay Ayyar, Head of Countries for Luno. “We will continue engaging with various government agencies to ensure that the industry is well understood and that risks are mitigated. We have been working closely with BNM over the past year and similarly with many other regulators globally”.

Meanwhile, Luno has also begun processing pending withdrawals in Malaysia since 29th March 2018. They had previously been unable to process withdrawals and deposits due to a temporary freeze on their Maybank bank account. Currently, pending withdrawals are being processed in batches, while Luno continues to work on a long-term solution to process both Ringgit withdrawals
and deposits in Malaysia.
“Enabling Malaysian customers to have access to their funds is our main priority,” said David Low, Country Manager for Luno Malaysia.
“We are also testing other solutions for processing both deposits and withdrawals, which will allow us to resume full services in Malaysia. Malaysia, and more broadly Southeast Asia, is critical to our mission to bring digital currencies to everyone, everywhere.”

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Blockchain/Bitcoin

Meet the 56 Cryptocurrency Exchanges in Malaysia Registered with BNM

									by Vincent Fong
February 28, 2019
14 comments

Update: As of March 2019, all cryptocurrency exchanges operating in Malaysia needs to be regulated by Securities Commission Malaysia. All the companies listed below with the exception of the 3 approved by Securities Commission Malaysia has been ordered to cease operations.
3 Crypto Exchanges Granted Conditional Approval from Securities Commission Malaysia

Bank Negara Malaysia has published the list of cryptocurrency exchanges in Malaysia that has registered itselves as a reporting entity with the regulator. This follows our report issuance of the policy paper titled “Anti-Money Laundering and Counter Financing of Terrorism Policy for Digital Currencies (Sector 6)”.
Registered Entity is Not The Same As Regulated
While these entities are registered with the central bank we would like to reiterate as we did in our previous articles that, Bank Negara Malaysia emphasises in this policy paper that reporting organisations i.e exchanges are not allowed to portray itself as a licensed entity under the central bank though they have reporting obligations to the regulator.
Only Meant to Counter Money Laundering and Terrorism Financing
Investors in cryptocurrencies should also be mindful that since these exchanges are only reporting entities and not regulated entities, there will be no elements of consumer protection the will be no formal channels in which investors can seek redress should there be any losses incurred when dealing with cryptocurrencies.
The regulation also does not address cyber-security aspects, which means if any losses were to be incurred due to hacks, it is likely that Bank Negara won’t be able to intervene and protect the consumers. The policy paper and having exchanges report to Bank Negara Malaysia is only primarily geared at preventing money laundering and terrorism financing.
Licenses to Operate a Cryptocurrency Exchange will be issued by Securities Commission Malaysia
Following the gazette and the amended Guidelines on Regconised Markets issued early 2019, cryptocurrency exchanges are to be regulated by Securities Commission Malaysia. which is the same that is used to regulate Equity Crowdfunding and P2P lending players. Under the same guideline, the regulator has amended a section to introduce new requirements for crypto exhanges.
With the issuance of this new guideline, we’ve already observed some instances of several exchanges exiting the market.
Potential Links with Companies on BNM’s Watch List
It’s also worth mentioning that some of these reporting institution may have some links to companies that are listed in Bank Negara Malaysia Watchlist.
Take BCMY for example, the president’s Linkedin profile seems to indicate that he is also the co-founder of Dinar Dirham.
BNM’s Watchlist include Dinar Dirham’s name and website link, and within the website it shows that the holding company is Gold Prime Technology Limited, a name which is also mentioned in the same Linkedin Profile.

Many in the community have also raised concerns about Everus’ legitimacy, though we are unable to conclusively prove their legitimacy one way or the other.
Having said that, it is prudent for us to once again reiterate that, this list from Bank Negara Malaysia should not be viewed as an endorsement from the regulator nor from us.
With that out of the way, let us have a look at some of the cryptocurrency exchanges in Malaysia registered with Bank Negara Malaysia:
Cryptocurrency Exchanges Registered with Bank Negara Malaysia

Registered Name: ADD Blockchain
Website: http://www.addwill.co/
Traded Cryptocurrency Listed on BNM: Bitcoin, Ethereum, Ripple, DASH, zCash, Bitcoin Cash

Registered Name: BCMY Pte. Ltd.
Website: http://bcmy.io/
Traded Cryptocurrency Listed on BNM: Bitcoin, Ethereum, Ripple, DASH, zCash, Bitcoin Cash

Registered Name: BitMalay Sdn Bhd
Website: N/A
Traded Cryptocurrency Listed on BNM: Bitcoin, Ether, Ripple, Bitcoin Cash,
Stellar, Cardano, Tron, Litecoin, Ethereum

Registered Name: Bitazza Sdn. Bhd.
Website: http://www.bitazza.com/
Traded Cryptocurrency Listed on BNM: Bitcoin, Ether, Ripple, DASH, Zcash,
Bitcoin Cash

Registered Name: Big X Blockchain (M) Sdn. Bhd.
Website: N/A
Traded Cryptocurrency Listed on BNM:Bitcoin, Ether, Ripple, DASH, Zcash,
Bitcoin Cash

Registered Name: Bitpoint Malaysia Sdn Bhd
Website: https://www.bitpoint.com.my/
Traded Cryptocurrency Listed on BNM: Bitcoin, Ether, Ripple, Bitcoin Cash,
Litecoin

Registered Name: BLOKMY Sdn. Bhd
Website: https://blokmy.com/
Traded Cryptocurrency Listed on BNM: Bitcoin, Ether, Ripple, Bitcoin Cash,
Litecoin

Registered Name: BXM Sdn Bhd
Website: https://www.exchangemalaysia.io/
Traded Cryptocurrency Listed on BNM: Bitcoin, Ethereum

Registered Name: B4U EXC (M) Sdn. Bhd.
Website: http://www.b4uwallet.com/
Traded Cryptocurrency Listed on BNM: Bitcoin, Ether, Ripple, Bitcoin Cash

Registered Name: Belfrics Malaysia Sdn. Bhd.
Website: https://malaysia.belfrics.com/
Traded Cryptocurrency Listed on BNM:  Bitcoin, Ether, Ripple, Bitcoin Cash,
Litecoin, Berlium tokens (BET)

Registered Name: Bong Technology Sdn. Bhd
Website: https://bitnicx.com/
Traded Cryptocurrency Listed on BNM:  Bitcoin, Ether, Ripple, Bitcoin Cash,
Litecoin, Berlium tokens (BET)

Registered Name: PayX Capital (M) Sdn Bhd
Website: https://my.bqex.pro/
Traded Cryptocurrency Listed on BNM:  Bitcoin, Ether, Tether, KKG, FCC, SEXC,
DAC, TL, PBS, SOP, Rhino, MQ, CWV,
PFU, AAA, TEC, AGB, MT, MIMT, KOLT,
CC, WAR, HKDT, FTI, OSD, ZUSD, FED,
TTC, MCS, JAC

Registered Name: Cayame Sdn Bhd
Website: N/A
Traded Cryptocurrency Listed on BNM: Bitcoin, Ether, Ripple, DASH, Zcash,
Bitcoin Cash

Registered Name: Coinut Sdn. Bhd.
Website: https://coinut.com/
Traded Cryptocurrency Listed on BNM: Bitcoin, Ether, Zcash, Litecoin, USDT,
Ether Classic, Monero

Registered Name: Arbor Digital Sdn. Bhd.
Website: https://coins.my/
Traded Cryptocurrency Listed on BNM: Bitcoin, Ethereum

Registered Name: Coinceo Sdn. Bhd. (Ceased Operation)
Website: https://www.coinceo.com/
Traded Cryptocurrency Listed on BNM: Bitcoin, Ether, Litecoin, Bitcoin Cash

Registered Name: CSL Block Chain Technology Sdn. Bhd.
Website: http://www.cslblockchain.com/
Traded Cryptocurrency Listed on BNM: Bitcoin, Ether, Ripple, DASH, Zcash,
Bitcoin Cash, LiteCoin, EOS, CARDANO

Registered Name: Chako Global Sdn Bhd
Website: https://www.coinhako.com/
Traded Cryptocurrency Listed on BNM: Bitcoin, Ethereum

Registered Name: Blockchain Specialist Sdn. Bhd.
Website: https://coinexy.com/
Traded Cryptocurrency Listed on BNM: Bitcoin, Ether, Litecoin, Dogecoin

Registered Name: Dacxi Consulting Sdn. Bhd
Website: N/A
Traded Cryptocurrency Listed on BNM: Bitcoin, Ether, Bitcoin Cash

Registered Name: Digital Fintech Sdn. Bhd.
Website: http://www.df.com/
Traded Cryptocurrency Listed on BNM: Bitcoin, Ether, Ripple, DASH, Zcash,
Bitcoin Cash

Registered Name:Quest Mining Technologies Sdn. Bhd.
Website: https://www.exqube.com/
Traded Cryptocurrency Listed on BNM: ETH

Registered Name: Fintech Capital Sdn. Bhd.
Website: https://www.fintechcapital.co/
Traded Cryptocurrency Listed on BNM: Bitcoin, Ether, DASH, Bitcoin Cash

Registered Name: FINX Blockchain Sdn. Bhd.
Website: https://www.fintechcapital.co/
Traded Cryptocurrency Listed on BNM: Bitcoin, Ether, Ripple

Registered Name: Everus Technologies Sdn. Bhd.
Website: www.everus.org
Traded Cryptocurrency Listed on BNM: Bitcoin, Ethereum, Litecoin, EVR

Registered Name: Hartatek Resources Sdn. Bhd
Website:https://www.ezyx.biz/
Traded Cryptocurrency Listed on BNM: Bitcoin, Ether, DDkoin

Registered Name: Futurevest Sdn Bhd
Website: Website Unvailable
Traded Cryptocurrency Listed on BNM: Bitcoin, Ether, QTUM, BUC

Registered Name: Globa Capital Berhad
Website:http://www.globahome.com//
Traded Cryptocurrency Listed on: Ethereum

Registered Name:Blockchain Street Sdn. Bhd.
Website: https://getcoinapp.com/
Traded Cryptocurrency Listed on BNM: BTC

Registered Name:Bit Trade Enterprise Sdn. Bhd. (Ceased Operation)
Website: https://gomex.io/
Traded Cryptocurrency Listed on BNM: BTC

Registered Name:Red Puffer SDN. BHD.
Website: http://www.ibrfintech.com/
Traded Cryptocurrency Listed on BNM: Bitcoin, Ethereum

Registered Name:Jonvi Marketing Sdn. Bhd.
Website: http://www.jonvi.com/
Traded Cryptocurrency Listed on BNM: BTC, JE Token

Registered Name: BitX Malaysia Sdn. Bhd.
Website: https://www.luno.com/en/
Traded Cryptocurrency Listed on BNM: Bitcoin, Ether, Bitcoin Cash

Registered Name: Shaneja Capital Sdn. Bhd.
Website: https://mumain.io/
Traded Cryptocurrency Listed on BNM: Bitcoin, Ethereum

Registered Name: MBW Capital Sdn. Bhd.
Website: https://www.mbwex.io/Client/
Traded Cryptocurrency Listed on BNM: Bitcoin, Ether, Ripple, Bitcoin Cash,
Apollo, Pandora, Litecoin, Classic, EOS,
Cardano, Neo, Monero, Qwark

Registered Name: Blockchain Developer Sdn. Bhd.
Website: https://mypw.io/
Traded Cryptocurrency Listed on BNM: Bitcoin, Ether, Ripple, Pitis, Ether Classic

Registered Name:Arxchange Sdn. Bhd, Mx Global Sdn Bhd
Website: https://mx.exchange
Traded Cryptocurrency Listed on BNM: Bitcoin, Ethereum

Registered Name:Sky 88 Marketing (Sole Proprietor)
Website: https://novadex.io/
Traded Cryptocurrency Listed on BNM: Bitcoin, Ether

Registered Name: Numex Sdn. Bhd.
Website: https://www.numoney.my/my
Traded Cryptocurrency Listed on BNM: Ethereum

Registered Name: OpenBit Sdn. Bhd
Website: http://www.openbit.com.my/
Traded Cryptocurrency Listed on BNM: Bitcoin, Ether, Bitcoin Cash

Registered Name: OurCoin BlockChain Technology Sdn. Bhd
Website: http://www.openbit.com.my/
Traded Cryptocurrency Listed on BNM: Bitcoin

Registered Name: Peer Direct Sdn Bhd
Website: http://www.overswitch.io/
Traded Cryptocurrency Listed on BNM: Bitcoin, Ether, Bitcoin Cash, Nitro

Registered Name: PinkEXC (M) Sdn Bhd
Website https://www.pinkexc.com/
Traded Cryptocurrency Listed on BNM: Bitcoin, Ether, Litecoin, Dashcoin, Dogecoin

Registered Name: Rocket Integration Technology Sdn. Bhd.
Website https://slithex.com/
Traded Cryptocurrency Listed on BNM: Bitcoin, Ether, Ripple, DASH, Zcash,
Bitcoin Cash, Ethereum, Litecoin,
Ethereum Classic, Monero, USD Tether,
EOS, IOTA, NEO, OmiseGo, AltCoin

Registered Name: Sinegy Technologies (M) Sdn. Bhd.
Website https://sinegy.com/
Traded Cryptocurrency Listed on BNM: Bitcoin, Ether, Tether, Ripple, Bitcoin
Cash

Registered Name: Stella Technology Sdn. Bhd.
Website: https://stellatech.io/
Traded Cryptocurrency Listed on BNM: Bitcoin, Ether, Litecoin

Registered Name: Tide Digital Sdn. Bhd
Website: https://www.tidebit.com/
Traded Cryptocurrency Listed on BNM: Bitcoin, Ether, Bitcoin Cash, XPA, CBT,
EOS

Registered Name: Tokenize Technology (M) Sdn. Bhd
Website https://tokenize.exchange/#/
Traded Cryptocurrency Listed on BNM: Bitcoin, Ether, Bitcoin Cash, Litecoin

Registered Name: UDAX International Sdn. Bhd.
Website: http://www.udax.my/
Traded Cryptocurrency Listed on BNM: Bitcoin, Ether, UDT

Registered Name: UPbit
Website: http://my.upbit.com/
Traded Cryptocurrency Listed on BNM: Bitcoin, Ether, Ripple, DASH, Zcash,
Bitcoin Cash

Registered Name: Unicoin DCX Sdn. Bhd
Website: https://www.unicoindcx.com/
Traded Cryptocurrency Listed on BNM: Bitcoin, Ether, Bitcoin Cash

Registered Name: UNQEX Sdn Bhd
Website: https://www.unqex.com/
Traded Cryptocurrency Listed on BNM: Bitcoin, Ether, Ripple, Litecoin, BitcoinGold, Bitcoin Cash, Augur, Omisego,TenX, Golem, Basic Attention Token,Kiber Network, Ox, Funfair, Civic, EOS, Uniq, TetherUS, UNQ

Registered Name: Vardiz Commerce Sdn. Bhd
Website: http://www.vardiz.com/
Traded Cryptocurrency Listed on BNM: Bitcoin

Registered Name: Metro Hexagon Sdn. Bhd.
Website: https://vhcex.com/
Traded Cryptocurrency Listed on BNM: Bitcoin, Ether

Registered Name: Xbit Asia Sdn. Bhd.
Website: http://www.xbitasia.com/
Traded Cryptocurrency Listed on BNM: Bitcoin

Registered Name: NIEXX Sdn Bhd.
Website: http://www.yoxex.com/
Traded Cryptocurrency Listed on BNM: Bitcoin, Ether, Ripple, DASH, Zcash,
Bitcoin Cash

We’re certain as time progresses more companies will be registered in Bank Negara list of reporting entities and we’ll keep our readers posted when there are more developments, if you’re interested to read Luno’s official press statement on being a reporting entity you can also check it out here.
Editor’s Note: This is an updated from an article written in April 2018. It was last updated on 28 February  2019

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Lending

Funding Societies Raises RM 100 Million, the Largest P2P Lending Funding in SEA

									by Fintech News Malaysia
April 18, 2018
1 comment

Funding Societies, the largest peer-to-peer (P2P) financing platform in Malaysia, has raised RM100 million in Series B funding. Led by Softbank Ventures Korea, the funding round also includes existing investors Sequoia India, Alpha JWC Ventures (Indonesia) and Golden Gate Ventures. Qualgro and LINE Ventures also participated in this over-subscribed round. Additionally, the platform has raised credit lines from banks and financial institutions to further support SMEs. This fundraise, largest by a P2P lending platform in Southeast Asia, will help realize Funding Societies’ vision of financial inclusion for Southeast Asia.
Softbank Ventures Korea, an early stage venture capital arm of Softbank Group famous for its US$ 100B Vision Fund, invested the lion share in this fundraise. Softbank Group has also funded large alternative lenders like SoFi and Kabbage in US, as well as tech giants like Grab in Southeast Asia.
Sean Lee, Partner, Managing Director Softbank Venture Korea

“SoftBank Ventures Korea has been actively investing across Southeast Asia. SME digital lending across Southeast Asia is where we saw a huge growth potential. Among many players, we were most impressed with Funding Societies with what it has achieved in the short period of time and its potential to continue to become no 1 player,” said Sean Lee, Partner and Managing Director, Softbank Ventures Korea.

This marks the largest funding round raised by a P2P financing platform in Southeast Asia. Funding Societies, which was founded by Kelvin Teo and Reynold Wijaya, is a P2P lending platform that connects small and medium-sized enterprises (“SMEs”) in Malaysia, Singapore, and Indonesia with retail and institutional investors. The platform has disbursed more than RM400 million in financing to SMEs across Southeast Asia whilst maintaining one of the lowest default rates of less than 1.5%. The platform has an investor base of more than 60,000 investors across the region.
An estimate cited by the Securities Commission (SC) reveals a significant RM80 billion gap in SME financing in Malaysia. Hence, alternative financing platforms such as Funding Societies play a key role in supporting the financing needs of both unserved and underserved SMEs by connecting them with individuals and institutional investors both locally and globally.
Wong Kah Meng, CEO of Funding Societies Malaysia
“We are extremely humbled for the trust and support we have received from all our investors, SMEs, regulators, partners and renowned shareholders. This funding round will help advance our mission to improve the livelihoods of SMEs and individuals through greater access to financing and investments here at home in Malaysia and across Southeast Asia. Through our local experience, we recognize that there are significant and practical challenges in serving SMEs and individuals, leaving them side-lined by traditional institutions. The proceeds from this fundraising round will therefore enable us to further enhance our regional capabilities to more effectively serve SMEs and investors.” said Wong Kah Meng, CEO of Funding Societies Malaysia.
Sequoia India, which led the Series A, remains steadfast in Funding Societies.
Pieter Kemps, Principal, Sequoia Capital (India) Singapore

“Sequoia India often invests very early – but not often in founders that are still in business school and yet, Kelvin and Rey received a term sheet the month they graduated from Harvard. In those early days, we suggested they focus on the fundamentals: technology, product, risk management, and maintaining a high-quality loan book. They executed in all these areas with integrity and vision, and we believe these character traits will help them build Funding Societies into a large, enduring company,” said Pieter Kemps, Principal, Sequoia Capital (India) Singapore

Other investors with complementary capabilities also participated. Vinnie Lauria Managing Partner of Golden Gate Ventures, most notable for their early investment in Carousell, commented, “We invest in disruptive technologies. Funding Societies uses machine learning on a large number of data points to identify opportunities that traditional banks would overlook. This leads to smarter financing decisions and higher-quality SMEs on their platform. Their loans are crowd-funded within minutes.”

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Blockchain/Bitcoin
WealthTech

HelloGold Secures Series A from 500 Startups

									by Vincent Fong
April 18, 2018
1 comment

Southeast Asian fintech firm HelloGold has secured Series A funding from Silicon Valley venture capital firm 500 Startups. The funding will be used for the integration and testing of blockchain elements on the HelloGold mobile app. Providing a Shariah-compliant platform to buy, store and sell physical investment-grade gold for as little as a fraction of a dollar, HelloGold is migrating its platform to Ethereum smart contracts in the second half of 2018 to enable greater transparency and security of gold transactions. The funding amount was not disclosed.
Robin Lee CEO, HelloGold

Robin Lee, CEO and Co-founder of HelloGold, said, “We’re honoured to have 500 Startups support HelloGold as we use blockchain to reduce barriers and accelerate access to more affordable financial products in Asia. By integrating blockchain into the HelloGold platform, customers will benefit from greater transparency, better security, and greater flexibility.”

Earlier this year HelloGold launched GOLDX—a fully operational, Shariah-compliant Ethereum ERC20 cryptocurrency backed by 99.99% investment-grade gold—using smart contracts to digitise gold and make gold exchangeable outside the HelloGold platform. Together with the HelloGold platform, GOLDX expands access to gold via any crypto exchange that accepts the token, while providing crypto investors with the ability to switch to a physical gold account via the HelloGold platform. Users can then redeem physical gold or withdraw fiat currency from HelloGold.
Khailee Ng, Managing Partner 500 Startups

Khailee Ng, Managing Partner of 500 Startups, said, “As the most active investor in Southeast Asia, 500 Startups is always on the lookout for talented entrepreneurs. We recognised HelloGold’s potential early on and nominated them to the TenxClub, an initiative by the Malaysian Ministry of Finance to support Malaysian startups with demonstrated ability to grow quickly and scale internationally. Our investment in HelloGold aligns well with our global initiatives such as the new Blockchain Track launched in San Francisco in March.”

Robin added, “In addition to providing customers with more options and freedom beyond cash, blockchain will enable HelloGold to scale faster and have a lower cost base, allowing us to reach a wider demographic of underserved and unbanked markets. With Asia making up 71 per cent of the gold market in 2016, gold is a powerful means of wealth preservation and financial inclusion.”
HelloGold estimates that in ASEAN and China alone, consuming middle class and emerging middle class markets saved approximately US$500 billion in 2016—of which US$212 billion was in cash deposits.
Excluding ICOs, worldwide venture investment in blockchain and blockchain adjacent startups reached a record level of US$900 million in 2017. As of February, Crunchbase estimates that venture dollar volume is on pace to surpass 2018 levels.

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State of Open Banking in ASEAN

Banking
Digital Transformation

State of Open Banking in ASEAN

									by Ismail Chaib
April 23, 2018
1 comment

Behind the futuristic glass walls of the Marina Sand Bay convention center, Money2020 celebrated its first Asian edition in Singapore. The acclaimed fintech conference series welcomed over 4000 participants who gathered to hear news about the latest fintech innovation in the region, to connect with like minded peers and to look into the future of the industry.
I was excited about joining this crowd: I was hoping to learn more about Open Banking in South-Asia and I was keen to introduce the gospel of the Open Bank Project to the region and indeed Money2020 was a blast. Meeting so many of the movers and shakers of open banking in the region was a unique springboard for my subsequent six-week ASEAN Open Banking peregrination, which took me from Singapore to Indonesia via Malaysia, Thailand and Cambodia.
Singapore: Leading the pack in Southeast Asia

Singapore is clearly the driving force of open banking in the region. The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) is pushing for a lightweight regulatory framework regime, favoring a market-driven approach – a similar approach is currently taking shape in New Zealand.
‘Lightweight’ doesn’t mean doing nothing. MAS has published an API Playbook with guidelines for banks, has held multiple events and is currently exploring an ASEAN-wide industry sandbox with the help of the World Bank and IFC.
This approach seems to have born fruit – of all the industry representatives I met during the trip, banks in Singapore are the most mature in terms of their open banking journey. Citi and DBS have fairly large API programs with some partners already in production, and other banks are now preparing to follow suit. Potentially, we have here a nice virtuous circle in the making.
Malaysia Ready for Disruption

In Malaysia, Malaysia Digital Economy Corporation (MDEC), a government agency, is tasked with scaling the local fintech ecosystem. Maybank, one of the largest banks in the country, has already released a sandbox environment and has organised hackathons to connect with fintechs. There is willingness from other banks to deploy APIs.
Our first Open Bank Project client is in fact in the region is from Malaysia. There’s also a healthy fintech community which would ensure that Open Banking provisions would be fintech-friendly. All these efforts have been done in the absence of real regulatory mandates.
However, Malaysia’s central bank views an Open Banking strategy as a key lever to increase efficiency, broaden access, foster innovation and encourage competition in the sector. An implementation group will shortly be put in place, the outcome of this implementation group will determine the regulatory framework in Malaysia.
Thailand, Prime for Open Banking

The situation in Thailand is similar, in that no regulatory framework yet exists. However, banks are ready to work with fintechs. Kasikorn Bank, one of the largest local banks, has launched a +30M venture fund for startups and Bangkok Bank, another large bank, is running a twelve week fintech startup acceleration program since last year.
APIs will help scale these efforts further. Thailand is currently preparing a Personal Data Protection Act (along the lines of the EU’s GDPR); it’s not specific to banks but will have ramifications for the industry and will make the task of introducing Open Banking regulation easier.
Furthermore, the Bank of Thailand has recently encouraged the industry to standardise around a QR code payment scheme, a similar approach – starting in a regulatory sandbox- might be adopted for Open Banking if the scheme proves successful.
Elsewhere in the region, things will take a little more time but there is excitement from banks and fintechs alike. In Cambodia, PPC Bank (a subsidiary of JBFG, a client of Open Bank Project), has released an open API quite recently. In Indonesia, BCA has a sandbox environment up and running and, as aforementioned, IFC and the World Bank are working on an ASEAN-wide industry sandbox for tier 3-4 banks.
What To Do Next
it is fantastic to see the overall dynamism in Asia and appetite for Open Banking. Singapore is leading the way, potentially proving to be a model for smart Open Banking regulation. Countries like Malaysia and Thailand have everything required to make a vibrant Open Banking ecosystem work successfully.
There are certainly differences with Europe. ASEAN countries seems to favor a market-driven approach (vs Europe’s Payments Services Directive 2), the absence of a single harmonized payments zone means any approach needs to be at least initially country-based and the maturity of the local fintech ecosystems also means that some countries will need Open Banking earlier than others.
For end customers to get the most out of Open Banking, I believe every party should be involved and work in concert:
Banks
Banks should start experimenting in the open and not wait for the regulatory fine print, using sandbox environments to build relationship with 3rd parties and gather feedback
Fintech
FinTechs should be vocal about their needs, detailing use cases and specifying their API requirements. They should move away from anti-bank rhetoric, embracing the sandbox and production APIs provided by banks
Regulators
Regulators should convene fintechs, banks and consumer-interest groups and hold safe spaces for discussion and experimentation; one of the best ways of doing this that we’ve seen working in Europe and abroad is with an Industry Sandbox, where banks contribute data and fintech contribute use cases. A hackathon can also be a good way to engage with the different stakeholders.
Consumer Groups
Consumer groups have a pivotal role in evangelising the benefits of Open Banking, it is critical for them to be engaged early in the process to discuss risks and benefits, security implications and to get out of our fintech filter bubble.
What is happening in Asia is definitely exciting. It is what we saw in Europe and the UK some years earlier but on a much bigger scale. I’m looking forward to spending more time in the region, working with our local clients to develop a vision for the future which brings banks and fintech closer together for the benefits of the end customers. It will probably take a bit more time to see concrete initiatives emerging but, as I’ve learned while motorbiking through the region, when there’s a will, there’s a way and it’s probably faster than the European route!
This is a guest post by Ismail Chaib, if you’d like to submit a guest post feel free to reach out to us here

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Payments

Soft Space Secures Series B Funding from Sumitomo Mitsui, Eyes International Expansion

									by Fintech News Malaysia
April 24, 2018
2 comments

Soft Space announced the closing of a Series B investment with Sumitomo Mitsui Card Company (SMCC)  a wholly-owned subsidiary of Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group (SMFG), which is one of the largest financial groups in Japan.
Founded in 2012 Soft Space is one of the leading fintech players in Malaysia currently serving over 20 major financial institution across 11 countries. We’ve also previously selected Soft Space as one of the 12 Fintech companies that should be on your watchlist.
Eyeing Expansion in Japan and Beyond
The investment follows the signed Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) and Business Alliance Agreement that happened in early 2017, which will enable Soft Space to gain privileged access to the massive Japanese market. SMCC’s investment in Soft Space will create business growth opportunities within Japan and the ASEAN region.

This alliance allows Soft Space to, among other things, deliver customizable payment system applications; provide cost-effective EMV Smart Card Readers for SMFG and its affiliates; and collaborate with SMCC to explore the  possibilities of using Soft Space’s white label solutions. Soft Space also aims to use the Series B funding round as momentum for future funding opportunities to diversify and boost its global reach into new markets.
Strategic Values Beyond Just Funding
SMCC is one of Japan’s leading credit card companies and is the one of the major issuers of VISA cards in the country, with over 25 million cardholders and US$ 110 billion in transaction volume in 2016. By tapping into this vast database of SMCC customers, Soft Space will be able to tailor-make financial solutions that will meet Japan’s consumer needs thereby bolstering Soft Space’s expansion of its business into the lucrative Japanese market.

“SMCC has been around for over 50 years and with this partnership in place, we will work together to build a more sustainable SMCC business model for the next 5 decades. Moving forward, we will collaborate with Soft Space and create market-driven solutions that will boost both our businesses to new heights.”said Ken Kubo, President of Sumitomo Mitsui Card Company.

In Japanese business culture, trust and relationships are of great importance as these values are paramount in building and upholding long-term business relationships. Conventionally, it is very difficult to penetrate the Japanese market due to its traditional nature. Japan is one of the most advanced industrial countries in the world with very little foreign acquisition.
“Soft Space is one of Malaysia’s leading FinTech companies and a strong partner of the Malaysia Digital Economy Corporation’s (MDEC) initiatives. We foresee many potential growth opportunities stemming from their innovative solution and business model.” said Dato’ Ng Wan Peng, COO of MDEC.
She also noted that funding from SMCC is expected to boost Soft Space’s competitive edge and support their expansion into new markets. Japan is also seen as a traditionally cash-centric society with 62% of consumer payments being made by cash in 2016 (Euromonitor International, 2016)1. But with the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games coming up, which is expected to attract some 40 million foreign tourists all around the world, the Japanese government has been making continuous efforts to empower businesses to expand digital payment services within its shores.
With SMCC’s assistance, Soft Space will look to provide a comprehensive financial platform for businesses, and accelerate the shift in mindset of the Japanese population towards the adoption of digital payment solutions instead of cash. “By aligning our synergistic strengths with SMCC and its affiliates, we will work together to expand our business growth opportunities and to provide innovative e-payment solutions that can transform their cash-centric payment lifestyle.” said Tay.

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Blockchain/Bitcoin
Payments

MoneyMatch Embraces Ripple’s Blockchain Solution to Power Payments

									by Fintech News Malaysia
April 27, 2018
9 comments

Ripple, the enterprise blockchain solution for global payments, is announcing that five new customers across Europe and Asia will use xVia to power frictionless payments over RippleNet, among the companies announced is Malaysia’s very own fintech company MoneyMatch.
xVia is an API solution that just requires one standard integration to enable payment originators to reap the benefits of Ripplenet, which includes faster entry into new markets, lower operational costs, increased speed and end-to-end visibility over payments journey.
Though there are contentions in the community about Ripple with it being highly centralised, the community generally agrees that it uses a consensus protocol that allows for much faster transactions than the likes Bitcoin and Ethereum. The value proposition it offers, fits precisely in the space which MoneyMatch is attempting to disrupt; cheaper and faster remittances.

Asheesh Birla, Senior Vice President of Products, Ripple
“By tapping our global network with xVia, our customers now access new markets quicker and cost efficiently,” said Asheesh Birla, Senior Vice President of Product at Ripple. He added, “All of these customers run into the same problem: building bespoke connections to banks and networks all over the world. It’s expensive and time consuming. xVia enables them to grow their overall market share by reaching new customers in new markets, easier than ever before.”

Payment originators can now maintain one standard connection through xVia and power payments over RippleNet, reducing the high failure rates commonly associated with traditional wire transfers, and lowering manual reconciliation costs.
The other European companies that also joined the fray along with Malaysia’s MoneyMatch include FairFX, RationalFX, Exchange4Free and UniPay.

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Banking
Digital Transformation

Behind The Scenes: How Hong Leong Bank is Digitising Their Workforce

									by Vincent Fong
May 4, 2018
1 comment

Digital transformation is something that should be happening across the organisation, not just the consumer facing fronts. However, when scanning the news, one might be tempted to think that much of the industry’s digitisation focus is limited to the latter.
In recent news, Hong Leong Bank introduced HALI, an artificial intelligence (A.I.) powered chatbot that is geared towards serving the internal employees. We figured it’d be a good idea to reach out to the Hong Leong team and get a sense of how a bank like Hong Leong would go about digitising their workforce.
Removing Redundant Workload
I’ll be the first to admit that the news cycle is often bombarded with news of companies and brands launching chatbots and it is difficult to not be sceptical and wonder if this is an effort purely targeted at appearing relevant rather than adding actual real value.

However, when we move past the headlines we can see some areas where chatbot can really add value to an organisation. One example is in Hong Leong Bank, its Human Resource Helpdesk team on an average month actually respond to a total of 1,950 emails on Human Resource policies and procedures related matters. These email enquiries alone represent 90% of the total enquiries that come in and mostly are repeated type of enquiries.
A use case like this is where chatbot can really shine. In just two weeks after Hong Leong Bank launched its virtual assistant named HALI, it has already assisted its human counterparts in responding to a staggering of 23,000 enquiries from its users within the Bank.
Infographic 1: HALI, the virtual assistant chatbot designed and developed for Hong Leong Bank.
The launch of HALI, a chatbot developed specifically for Hong Leong Bank is the first for Malaysia and is set to improve operations efficiency by 60% over the course of the year. Even though HALI is still in its infancy stage of maturity, the chatbot is already in an effective programme mode in assisting the HR Helpdesk team in the daily enquiries mundane tasks.
HALI is available 24/7 and the employees can easily access to HALI directly for enquiries on medical benefits, staff loans, leave policy, payroll, and scholarship to name a few.
The shift of the tasks to HALI further enables the bank to upskill their employees and place them in roles that can add more value to the organisation and provide better job satisfaction to the employees.
Fiona Fong, Head of Human Resource of Hong Leong Bank

According to Fiona Fong, Head of Human Resource of Hong Leong Bank, “The introduction of HALI is in-line with the Bank’s strategic direction of being digital at the core. Since the launch, we have been able to help our employees in upskilling their job competencies for better productivity. For instance, one of the team member has been moved up from her help desk functions to join the talent acquisition team.”

Receptive Reaction from Employees
Further to that, we managed to chat with few of the users on their experience with HALI:
Andrew Jong Ann Kee (HLB), Head of Mortgage & Strategy Planning
“Having rejoined the Bank a few months back, naturally I had a lot of HR queries. It is certainly a welcome change to have ever ready help with my HR onboarding queries.
With loads of information to digest for the new role, HALI has been uniquely invaluable in answering my ad-hoc questions without needing to navigate through the traditional information library. HALI on mobile makes it quick, easy and very convenient for me, and I move on to my next tasks seamlessly and efficiently.
I like how HALI is non-intrusive especially on repetitive queries that otherwise would have been funnelled to a HR colleague. For sure it has greatly extended HR’s reach and support level to fellow colleagues meaningfully, and I very much look forward to HALI v2.0 soon that builds on an even more superior staff engagement experience!”
Tan Eng Eng, Regional Operations Head for Negeri Sembilan and Malacca
“An innovative adorable AI, comes in handy in allowing quick access guide just by using simple key words. Fast & reliable in responding to query asked.”
Currently, HALI in its Phase 1 is able to answer 10,000 of enquiries with up to 90% accuracy. As more data and questions are being fed into HALI’s “Log”, the bank is already looking into its Phase 2 enhancement plan where the chatbot will be trained to answer a wider range of questions with even more accuracy in the future.
Upskilling and Digitising Learning through Bite-Sizes
While we’re on the note of upskilling employees, we have to acknowledge that the increasing ubiquity of mobile devices and time constraints has fundamentally shifted how learning is designed and consumed. Many of us no longer have the luxury (nor the patience) to sit down in the classroom for 1 or 2 days just to brush our knowledge up on one area.
This is especially true in the banking industry where there are constant regulatory changes, compliance policies to adhere to, and complex new financial products to familiarise oneself with. In recognising these issues, that is precisely the reason why Hong Leong introduced their mobile learning app, SmartUp – another industry first in Malaysia.
Infographics 2: SmartUp, the bite-sized e-learning app developed for Hong Leong Bank.
While this bite-size learning is not something that’s not completely new in the market, the key is whether it is correctly deployed to ensure its effectiveness in delivering learning to the employees 24/7. The SmartUp app offers their employees the bite-size learning materials that enables them the flexibility of picking up the knowledge while ‘on-the-go’. The modules made available through SmartUp is also categories by specific divisions to offer content that more relevant to the respective job function of their employees.
The app also enables training to be rolled out to their employees currently based at branches across the nation in a speedy manner. With an approximate 285 branches across the nation, one can only imagine the logistical challenges that may arise and how a traditional method of learning may delay the much needed information for employees based at branches, especially those in remote locations.

Future Plans for Hong Leong
Under the leadership of Mr. Domenic Fuda, Group Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of Hong Leong Bank, the Bank continues to chart significant milestones in the digital landscape.

Being digital at the core, he emphasised that the Bank will constantly look at ways to leverage technology to increase efficiency and productivity towards improving the overall customer experience, as well as to upskill its employees’ competencies in the ever changing financial industry landscape.

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Blockchain/Bitcoin

Can Blockchain Eradicate Corruption in Malaysia?

									by Vincent Fong
May 8, 2018
0 comments

As Malaysians go to the polls tomorrow to decide the fate of the country, the election fever runs high. So much so that the election fever has seeped into the subject of blockchain. Earlier this week, a candidate of the political party Malaysia Chinese Association (MCA) Ryan Ho, claimed that if he is elected as a member of Parliament he would push for blockchain to be deployed for the purposes of eradicating corruption from the government.
He said in a statement to the local media that, blockchain technology, like Ethereum, had been proven to eradicate corruption in government departments.
We will avoid diving into the political aspects of this story, we’ll leave that part to our media peers who are more experienced in covering stories of this nature. What we wanted to explore in this article is the validity his statement.

In Theory Yes, Blockchain Can Eradicate Corruption in Malaysia
In theory, blockchain’s very nature of being immutable and transparent makes it a prime candidate to tackle an issue like corruption. Deploying blockchain into the public sector as an accountability tool, will make corruption more difficult since it leaves and audit trail of how public funds are being spent.
If deployed, every transaction between the government, GLC entities and the private sectors can be scrutinised for elements of corruption.  The use of a distributed ledger also mean that when it comes time for investigation or prosecution the accused party, will not be able to conveniently wipe their servers to cover their tracks nor will they be able to mislead the public on where the sources of certain transactions may have originated from.
Around the globe we’ve seen instances of governments aggressively pursuing blockchain, one such instance is Dubai whose ambition is to become the world first blockchain powered government, while recently corruption embattled Brazil has also looked into various use cases for blockchain.
In Reality, Maybe?
The efficacy of the blockchain in eradicating corruption largely depends on how it is deployed, the authorities who deploy it may opt for a highly centralised blockchain in which only allows for known participants to join in the network, which means in theory, those in power can appoint those who are not impartial to audit the transactions.
Much of corruption can also happen outside of the audit trail, a public servant with ill-intents can for example, award a contract to a private vendor who offered him or her a bribe. While the transaction of the contract is recorded on the blockchain the bribe may not, which creates the illusion of being corruption free.
The last point to note is that transparency may not necessarily lead to the eradication of corruption, Malaysians by now are familiar with the annual reports by the Auditor General. While there are egregious numbers that raises red flags, it can sometimes be difficult to conclusively prove in the court of law that corruption has indeed occurred.
Even if blockchain can enable citizen audit, the challenge is whether there will be enough participation for the general public outside of NGO bodies. Many citizens decry the results of the Auditor General report with much passion when it is release but it fizzles out several months later.
Harpreet Singh, CEO & Co-Founder Blocklime
We reached out to Harpreet who is the CEO & Co-Founder of Blocklime, a blockchain development and consultancy company to get his thoughts on this subject.
He commented, “Unless the entire monetary system is on the blockchain, I don’t see a way of totally eradicating corruption through the blockchain. Even so, the technology must be implemented with the right intent, otherwise it defeats the purpose”

In Conclusion
While there is no denying that blockchain as a technology is great, we must be careful not to treat it as a silver bullet for all our problems and this is not an issue that is exclusive to blockchain, even with big data and artificial intelligence conversations about how it will solve our problems have sometimes become inflated.
Blockchain can certainly be a wonderful tool to add in to the arsenal of anti-corruption, but the importance of good governance and having the right leaders in place cannot be downplayed. In closing, I wish all my Malaysian friends the best in deciding the fate of the country tomorrow and no matter the outcome let it not divide us as fellow citizens.

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