APAC

Buy Now Pay Later (BNPL) has seen remarkable growth in recent years and is on track to achieve a global market value of US$700b by 2023. This 90% compound annual growth rate (CAGR) reflects the growing penetration of this simple transactional instrument—consumers purchasing a product now with the agreement to pay for it later.

Mobile wallet adoption in Thailand, Vietnam far exceed those in the US, the UK.

Despite the pandemic, Southeast Asia’s commercial and retail banking vertical has been flourishing, with investors ready to fund more digital banking initiatives in the region.

For smaller players, this may be their best bet to protect their assets.

The new COVID surge that began in April may hinder GDP recovery.

Banking leaders admit that they are at risk of ceasing to exist in 5-10 years.

FIs role as the middleman is under threat as tech firms mull offering financial services.

It’s a mixed bag for most SEA markets, but regulator support illuminates the future of open banking.

Lenders will have to reduce cross-border fees once CBDCs become more mainstream.

Canada remains the king of cashless countries.

A couple of former JP Morgan bankers are joining the global bank’s ECM crew in Asia.

There is a revolution going on today in the banking industry. Those bastions of privacy and money management are doing the unthinkable - with consent, they are sharing their customer data with approved third parties. In the past, banks jealously safeguarded their clients’ information. That is what clients expected of them, as well as it being a regulatory obligation. Today, they are making this information available to other players in the financial services arena, creating an unprecedented financial ecosystem built around making their Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) available to approved third parties.  

The merger was approved by the Bank of Mongolia last July.

More than one in three APAC SMEs consider switching to fintech.

The region’s large unbanked population underpins its market potential.

Dominique Jooris was CEO of Bank Pictet & Sie in Singapore prior to his new role.