DigFin VOX

Benedicte Nolens is head of the Hong Kong Innovation Hub at the Bank of International Settlements. Her team has just released technical details for the workings of retail and wholesale central-bank digital currencies: digital cash. The project is called “Aurum”, Latin for gold. Nolens, a former Goldman Sachs compliance head and fintech regulator at the Securities and Futures Commission, is at the...

How quickly will robo-advisory take off in Asia? \Kelvin Lei is co-founder of Magnum Research, the Hong Kong company behind Aqumon, a robo-advisor business that caters both to wealth managers and has a direct consumer platform. Aqumon is also notable for working for banks both in mainland China and externally. Lei discusses with Jame DiBiasio why robo and wealthtech is growing fast in Hong Kong, t...

Jesse Chenard is founder of MonetaGo, a Singapore-based fintech specializing in digitizing trade and detecting fraud. Chenard discusses his career with Jame DiBiasio, beginning with his entrepreneurial history in video advertizing and his eventual move into fintech. He talks about the startup’s various pivots, including starting as a blockchain solution but evolving more to a cloud-based software...

Ned Phillips, co-founder and CEO of Singapore-based Bambu, discusses the state of robo-advisory business in Asia. Based in Singapore, Bambu is one of several leading B2B wealthtechs, designing A.I.-led investment solutions for financial institutions to serve to their consumers. Phillips speaks with  DigFin ‘s Jame DiBiasio about growth in the business, its impact on banks’ traditional role as dist...

Coenraad Jonker is CEO of Tyme Bank, a neo-bank that originated in South Africa and is now serving customers in the Philippines. Coen speaks with Jame DiBiasio about how challenger banks can be profitable while pursuing goals around financial inclusion, as well as the business, data and tech models required to succeed. Tyme has a hybrid model involving in-store kiosks that gives it a twist in the...

Custody for digital assets remains a hurdle for licensed financial institutions. Swen Werner and Irfan Ahmad of State Street Digital speak with Jame DiBiasio about the challenges of a traditional custodian building a new way of doing business in the world of digital assets. The premise of peer-to-peer crypto is for users to "be your own bank". But institutions have compliance, risk, and li...

How close are financial institutions to operating on blockchain rails – and why do they want to be there? Nicole Olson and Patrick Campos speak with Jame DiBiasio about foundational changes. Nicole is with State Street Digital, the new division at the global custodian bank, working on product design and innovation. She discusses how State Street is approaching blockchain to serve asset managers an...

Alex Manson is a leader at SC Ventures, the fintech venture arm of Standard Chartered Bank. He speaks with Jame DiBiasio about SCV's structure, which is partly corporate venture, partly venture capital fund, and partly an incubator of the bank's own "intrapreneurs". SCV now has about 30 portfolio companies, from trade finance to digital assets. Alex discusses how SCV defines succes...

Scott Treloar is founder of Noviscient, a fintech that is creating digital solutions for asset managers. Treloar, who has a background in asset management, discusses why it's been difficult for the industry to go digital, and what Novsicient is bringing to the space. He describes how technology makes it easier to allow emerging managers – often the ones with the best performance compared to la...

Miles Wen is CEO of Hong Kong startup Fano Labs, a developer of deep networks and other AI tools to understand voices - to translate what people say, as well as add insights around the context of those conversations. It's a service that financial institutions are using today for monitoring wealth managers, among other things. Wen speaks with Jame DiBiasio about the state of AI today, how banks...

Stacey Lacy is managing director at Citi where she leads its technology and operations for Asia, including consumer and corporate banking, capital markets, and wealth management. A 25-year veteran at the bank, she is helping the bank digitize across all of its products, so as to better serve its clients and improve time to market. Lacy spoke with DigFIn's Jame DiBiasio about migrating operatio...

Today in many countries we can send a payment locally with just a phone number or email address – so why can't companies do the same internationally? Navin Gupta, MD of Ripple for South Asia and MENA, speaks with DigFin's Jame DiBiasio about the technological and business race to solve this massive problem. He talks about the challenges, the benefits of a blockchain-based solution, the imp...

Jennifer O'Rourke is head of digital design and strategy at Depository Trust and Clearing Corp. She discusses DTCC's latest blockchain experiment, Project Lithium, to support the post-trade processing of a "digital dollar", should the Congress and Federal Reserve promote a US central-bank digital currency.  Timecodes: 0:00 - Jennifer O'Rourke, DTCC 1:10 - Impact of innovation...

Adrian Chng is an investor in fintech companies whose group, Fintonia, is now focused on crypto – in particular, trying to bridge the traditional world of finance with Bitcoin. He spoke with Jame DiBiasio about Fintonia's ambitions and what the crypto industry looks like in the wake of recent turmoil, such as the collapse of a leading stablecoin.  Timecodes: 0:00 - Adrian Chng, Fintonia 1:31...

Rama Sridhar is responsible for all of Mastercard's new payments, emerging tech, and digital solutions in Asia Pacific. She speaks with DigFin's Jame DiBiasio about how technology is changing the way Mastercard makes decisions, exciting changes afoot in payments, and the massive opportunities as millions of people diversify from relying solely on cash.  Timecodes: 0:00 - Rama Sridhar, Mas...

Jason Tu is founder of MioTech, one of Asia's pioneers in bringing data analytics to environmental, social and governance risk for investors and corporations. Jason speaks with DigFin's Jame DiBiasio about ESG trends, Asia's role, and how fintech and data are making new business models possible.  Timecodes: 0:00 - Jason Tu, MioTech 1:10 - MioTech and ESG data 2:22 - China/Asia ESG req...

Amber Group is a crypto business that moved to Singapore and is now backed by Temasek, among other investors, with a soaring valuation. Annabelle Huang, managing partner, discusses the firm's valuation and potential IPO plans, managing the changing regulatory landscape, and the extension of a prop-trading start to a new embrace of retail business.  Timecodes: 0:00 - Annabelle Huang, Amber Gro...

Ben Quinlan of Quinlan & Associates breaks down the big problem for buy-now pay-later fintechs: they don't make money, and never will, without substantive changes to the business model. Ben tells Jame DiBiasio what went wrong and how BNPL firms can find a path to long-term success.  Timecodes: 0:00 - Ben Quinlan, Quinlan & Associates 1:34 - The threat to buy-now pay-later (BNPL) 2:40...

Jack Momose, founder of Tokyo-based gaming company Degica, talks about payments and fintech in Japan, creating payments platform Komoju, and the challenges of going global.  Timecodes: 0:00 - Jack Momose, Degica 1:13 - Japan's payments biz in the spotlight 2:06 - Outdated tech stacks in Japan 5:30 - The innovation scene in Japan 8:00 - Entrepreneurs and startups in Japan 10:11 - Degica's...

Blue is a purely digital life insurance company. CEO Charles Hung tells Jame DiBiasio how the business is evolving, the use of data in marketing, competing versus incumbents, and his path to profitability.

Johnson Chen is founder and CEO of Singapore fintech CapBridge Financial and its blockchain-infrastructure subsidiary 1X. CapBridge is enabling corporate bonds, unicorn-company equities, real estate and private-equity funds to be accessed and traded by family offices. Johnson speaks with Jame DiBiasio about building CapBridge's investor base and improving markets through next-gen technology. ...

Brad Jones is CEO of Wave Money, a digital payments fintech in Myanmar. In the past year the business has had to weather a military coup, telco outages, deadly Covid, and shareholder changes. Brad speaks with Jame DiBiasio about managing multiple crises and returning to a path of growth. Timecodes: 0:00 - Brad Jones, Wave Money 1:29 - Multiple shocks to the business 2:50 - Crisis decision making 6...

Val Yap is founder and CEO of Singapore-based insurtech PolicyPal, a unit of AMTD Group. She tells Jame DiBiasio about her company's recent acquisition, growth plans, the state of insurtech today, and feedback from writing her memoir. Timecodes: 0:00 - Val Yap, PolicyPal 1:28 - PolicyPal's mission and evolution 3:46 - Acquiring Value Champion 5:08 - Entering new verticals 5:24 - Creating n...

Gaming, crypto, NFTs, the metaverse...what's it all about, and should this matter to the finance industry? Gil Bashan, chief product officer at U.S. tech company StrongNode, discusses the nexus between gaming and fintech with DigFin's Jame DiBiasio.

Regtech – regulation technology – is now critical for financial institutions, but needs vary by market. Ashish Rai of FIS discusses the big-picture challenges in capital markets.  Timecodes: 0:00 - Ashish Rai, FIS 1:13 - Trends in capital-markets regulation 2:56 - Differences between Hong Kong and Singapore 5:37 - Are back offices ready for compliance tech needs? 7:10 - Regtech's strengths in...