Banking
Fintech hold massive potential for Asian businesses
Not only does fintech hold massive potential for Asian businesses – those who do not get on board soon will be left behind, warns Lawrence Yeo.
Fintech is a new financial industry that applies technology to improve financial activities, with key areas being the automation of insurance, trading and risk management.
Between 2005 and 2015, global investment in fintech increased by more than 2200%, from $930m to some $22bn.
Fintech’s potential remains big. From the demand side across much of south-east Asia, the unmet need for basic banking services is significant. KPMG reports that only 27% of the region’s 600 million inhabitants had a bank account in 2016.
From the supply side, a new wave of start-ups is increasingly ‘disaggregating’ global banks. Milken Institute’s Centre for Financial Markets reports that much of the venture capital in Asia has flowed into China, particularly among a handful of large tech companies. Yet other countries also are seeking to position themselves as fintech hubs.
The Straits Times reported that multimillion-dollar investments were reported in 2017 in Hong Kong (in digital wallet operator TNG FinTech Group), in India (in online lending platform Capital Float) and in South Korea’s second largest cryptocurrency exchange, Korbit.
Banking
Can the Subscription Economy Save Financial Services?
Going back to the pre-Covid “normal” is not an option for financial services. Fortunately, the rise of the subscription economy points towards frontiers of untapped growth for the sector.
As the world waits for mass vaccination to revive economic activity, general malaise has overtaken the financial services industry (FSI). And things will probably worsen before they get better: US banks are expected to suffer US$318 billion in net loan losses by the end of 2022, according to Deloitte.
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APAC commercial property prices were down around 3% on average in 2020, after a 1% rise in 2019. But the coronavirus-induced decline has been modest compared to past downturns, suggesting that the impact on banks’ commercial real estate loans will generally be much smaller this time.
(more…)Banking
Thai banks net profit stood at 146.2 billion baht in 2020
The Thai banking system remained resilient with high levels of capital fund, loan loss provision and liquidity to support economic recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic. according to latest Bot assessment.
Ms. Suwannee Jatsadasak, Senior Director, Bank of Thailand, reported on the Thai banking system’s performance in 2020 that the Thai banking system remained resilient with high levels of capital fund, loan loss provision and liquidity to support economic recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic.
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