This year’s Singapore Fintech Festival surrounds six major themes that will frame 2025.

One of the themes among industry leaders, in particular, is the need to bridge the financial gap and ensure equitable access and usage of financial services and products to the underserved.

On this note, did you know that 1.4 billion people globally still lack access to bank accounts? Yes, and that is according to an article published on the World Economic Forum in just September this year.

So what can we then do to level the playing field for the underbanked and underserved – both individuals and budding entrepreneurs who are starting out?

Well, the numbers appear to point to fintech as the answer, given increased internet adoption and digitalisation.

In this panel discussion on "Bridging the Financial Gap", we talked about the challenges individuals as well as Micro, Small and Medium-sized Enterprises faced in accessing traditional financial services and how the use of digital banking and digital tokens can level the playing field for the underserved.

We also looked at the metrics used to determine progress towards equitable financial outcomes and identify areas for further intervention, and the need to ensure that digital technologies continue to narrow and not widen the wealth gap.

As part of MONEY FM’s on the ground coverage of Singapore Fintech Festival 2024, Money Matters’ Finance Presenter Chua Tian Tian spoke with Kai Qiu, Deputy CEO and CTO, ANEXT Bank and Eric Barbier, CEO, Triple-A for more.

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We want to give you a quick wrap of some of the announcements made at the Singapore Fintech Festival 2024, as well as the implications of the developments on the fintech industry.

One of the biggest announcements released ahead of SFF 2024 was how the Monetary Authority of Singapore set up the Global Finance & Technology Network or GFTN to further strengthen Singapore as a global FinTech hub and enhance global connectivity for impactful innovation in financial services.

The GFTN will catalyse the growth of the Singapore FinTech ecosystem and drive greater synergies and networks with the global FinTech community.

In particular, the MAS has said that the GFTN will work with the central bank to advance industry and policy dialogues in payments, asset tokenisation, AI as well as quantum technologies. It will also support the MAS’ efforts to grow a vibrant FinTech ecosystem, and scale SFF as the premier global FinTech event.

But speaking of driving synergies and advancing dialogues in emerging FinTech trends, we’ve also seen a number of private sector announcements by companies within the industry as well.

As part of MONEY FM’s on the ground coverage of Singapore Fintech Festival 2024, Money Matters’ Finance Presenter Chua Tian Tian unpacked the developments with Wong Nai Seng, Financial Services Industry Regulatory Strategy Leader, Deloitte Southeast Asia and Grace Ho, Chief Commercial Officer, GoImpact Capital Partners.

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In this segment, we want to talk about the people behind a startup’s first few paychecks.

Business management theory would say that the first people who would give startup money to founders are the friends, family and fools, or people who give what they have in their pockets not because they buy into the founder’s idea, but because they genuinely want to help.

As the company grows over time, startup founders would then seek to raise money from venture capital firms or institutional investors to scale their businesses.

But between getting money from friends, family and fools and getting money from institutional investors lie a very special group of people. They’re angels who would put their capital in early stage startups based on their experience and subject expertise.

But how do angel investors work, and how do they decide on what to invest?

How far do they negotiate for a larger stake in the startups they invest in, how much say do they have in a startup’s direction for the future, and how do they prevent dilution as startups seek further funding from larger investors?

Also – does it make sense for angels to join angel syndicates and which are some of the companies that angels are seeking in the fintech field right now?

As part of MONEY FM’s on the ground coverage of Singapore Fintech Festival 2024, Money Matters’ Finance Presenter Chua Tian Tian posed these questions to Ee Chien Chua, a Fintech Executive & Angel Investor and Vanessa Ho, Co-Founder, Investments, Fintech Nation.

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