At the end of last month, two major technology events took place in Asia. The first was Seamless Asia, which focused on the future of finance and commerce. The second, MWC Shanghai, centred around ‘Intelligent Connectivity’ – bringing together topics from 5G to AI. The events may have had different focuses but the key trends in fintech echoed across them. So, what can we take away from two of the biggest technology events in Asia?

Mobile payments – the sky’s the limit

A surge of innovation means over two thirds (68%) of UK insurance firms active today were incorporated in the 21^st  century, outnumbering older incumbents by more than two to one according to new analysis by Policy Expert, the digital home insurer.

Its study of Companies House data shows two in five (40%) insurance businesses in the life and non-life insurance sectors have emerged in less than a decade since 2010. An additional 28% were founded between 2000 and 2009.

Xceptor, a global data ingestion and transformation software provider, has announced the appointment of Tom Edwards as Chief Operating Officer to further support the company’s growth strategy. Most recently Tom was head of delivery at wealth management and capital markets technology provider GBST.

Businesses can’t secure their IT estates without help. They need to create trustworthy relationships with cyber security providers that have the solutions and expertise needed to predict, prevent, detect, and respond to security incidents. And cyber security company F-Secure is launching a new program to help its business-to-business (B2B) IT reseller partners bring the benefits of a holistic cyber security approach to their customers.

From this report, it is clear that the FCA is taking real action across the board when it comes to tackling money laundering.

It is important to note the focus on Capital Markets. Given the reputation of London as a major financial centre, this is increasingly relevant and positive to see.

What is obvious is that the lack of transparency in regards to UBOs continues to be a major issue. The FCA mentions this as an area of concern and it is one where the services that Encompass offers can be particularly crucial.

The past decade has welcomed an era of rapidly evolving and innovative technology, launching the race for automation and use of Artificial Intelligence across verticals in order to streamline processes and ease tasks for its employees and customers. As society increasingly favours cashless transactions, financial institutions, in particular, are under pressure to digitise customer interactions. Nearly half of the British public used mobile banking in 2018, with customers valuing the speed and convenience when checking their bank balance and transferring money on the go.

Finantix, a leading supplier of transformational software to the wealth management, insurance and private banking industries globally, today announced that Finantix Components have been deployed by HSBC Private Banking as it launches a new global client wealth management portal for its clients. The new portal is a simplified, seamless and globally standardised platform.

 GoldGram Pte. Ltd., creator of the new digital asset-backed token GGC GoldGramCoin^®, and R3, the world’s leading developer of enterprise blockchain solutions for business, announced today that they have entered into a partnership program agreement to develop a native GGC GoldGramCoin token for R3’s Corda blockchain platform.

TreasurySpring, the London-based financial technology company today announced the launch of its Fixed-Term Fund (FTF) platform.

A Fixed-Term Fund is a completely new financial instrument, conceived, designed and built by TreasurySpring, to unlock the multi-trillion dollar wholesale money markets by providing new digital pipelines to connect cash-rich firms to institutional borrowers from the sovereign, bank and corporate sectors. 

Lightico, the pioneer of the next generation platform for digital customer interactions, today announced a $14.5 million investment by Mangrove Capital Partners, a venture capital firm whose portfolio includes major tech companies like Skype, WalkMe and Wix.