DigFin VOX

WeLab operates a virtual bank in Hong Kong as well as banking, payments, and tech businesses in mainland China and Indonesia – with an IPO on the cards. Founder Simon Loong speaks with Jame DiBiasio about metrics for a virtual bank, doing business in the Greater Bay Area, and what's next.  Timecodes: 0:00 - Simon Loong, WeLab 1:36 - Metrics for virtual banks 2:57 - Comparing with incumbent ba...

Technology now makes it possible for banks to track and manage cash on an intra-day basis. Nadeem Shamim of SmartStream Technologies explains the benefits this brings to transaction bankers and their corporate clients – as well as the challenges of making this become an industry norm. Timecodes: 0:00 - Nadeem Shamim, SmartStream Technologies 1:16 - Liquidity lessons from COVID-19 3:08 - Understand...

OneDegree has spun a niche business doing digital pet insurance in Hong Kong into a multi-pronged insurtech business that aims to be active in five continents within five years. Co-founder and CEO Alvin Kwock discusses the changing trends in insurance and insurtech, and his ambitions to transform OneDegree into a leading insurance player.  Timecodes: 0:00 - Alvin Kwock, OneDegree 1:28 - The visio...

Banks are now expected to provide instant payments and other services on demand. Roland Brandli explains this is creating pressures on legacy core systems that must now be changed. He is head of digital payment controls at SmartStream Technologies, helping banks around the world from his base in Dubai.  Timecodes: 0:00 - Roland Brandli, SmartStream 1:03 - Unexpected impact of banks handling insta...

Kelvin Teo is co-founder of Funding Societies, an SME-dedicated SaaS and platform lender, with operations in Singapore, Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand. He speaks with Jame DiBiasio about plans to securitize loans, obtain a banking license, and issue credit cards – and a path to IPO. Timecodes: 0:00 - Kelvin Teo, Funding Societies 1:30 - P2P versus lending 3:55 - How it works in different markets...

Richard Turrin is a Shanghai-based consultant and author. He speaks with Jame DiBiasio about his latest book, "Cashless: China's Digital Currency Revolution", why digital currencies matter, and the relevance of China's fintech experience for the rest of the world.  TImecodes: 0:00 - Richard Turrin, "Cashless" 01:08 - What makes central-bank digital currencies (CBDCs) usefu...

Ian Gillard is senior executive vice president at Bangkok Bank as well as a member of the board at blockchain vendor R3. He speaks with Jame DiBiasio about Bangkok Bank's digitization strategy as Thailand goes cashless. Timecodes: 0:00 - Ian Gillard, Bangkok Bank 1:10 - About Bangkok Bank 2:39 - Bangkok Bank's first digital products 3:09 - The bank goes mobile 3:18 - Corporate versus consu...

Nicki Ramsay, founder of Singapore payments fintech CardUp, talks about making the leap into lending, drivers behind credit-card fintech, and challenges to the business.

Regulator MAS is driving the financial-services industry to embrace sustainability – and that means a huge need for data, policy, and digital transformation, says Sopnendu Mohanty, MAS's chief fintech officer.

Sandy Peng, partner at Fission Capital, speaks with Jame about her investment strategy for blockchain tokens and companies.

Can Crypto.com go from 10m users to 100m users? That's the goal of CEO Kris Marszalek. He speaks with Jame at DigFinVOX about what it takes. Hint: regulation!

Payments fintech Wise must navigate a complicated network of regulators, competitors, and partners to grow cross-border payments in Asia Pacific, says Venkatesh Saha.

Charles D'Haussy discusses his new book, "Block Kong", profiling 21 of Hong Kong's leading blockchain entrepreneurs.

Why do banks still find digital transformation so hard – and can the process be improved? Navin Suri, co-founder of Percipient, a Singapore-based AI fintech, discusses transformation post-COVID, the new problems banks are facing with data, and what can help the process of bank/fintech collaboration.

Michael Shaulov is founder of New York-based Fireblocks, a startup building infrastructure for crypto. Michael brings two decades of cyber-security and fintech experience to the world of digital assets. He talks about how security is evolving in crypto, his work on the Diem stablecoin, how to make digital assets greener, and how he will use the proceeds from Fireblocks's latest $133m Series C...

Andreas Burner is chief innovation officer at SmartStream Technologies, where he leads development of artificial intelligence and other next-gen tech for financial institutions. Andreas discusses where AI and machine learning is at; how it is being used by banks, asset managers and insurers; challenges such as "explainability"; and how AI is combining with blockchain.

Varun Mittal discusses his book, "Singapore: The Fintech Nation"; his views on how fintech companies can scale in Southeast Asia; where capital is flowing; what would make for the ideal fintech startup in 2021. Varun is partner at EY and has worked at Ant, Samsung and Singtel.

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