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

At the front and centre of discussions is the Roadmap for AI and Quantum.

Of particular focus this year is the boom in generative AI, which uses algorithms to identify patterns within existing data to come up with new content, ranging from text, images, videos and even codes.

The technology is said to hold the potential to radically change the financial services industry, with an EY analysis suggesting that rethinking the financial institution with Gen AI at its core has the potential to create US$200 billion to US$400 billion by 2023, with productivity gains reaching up to 30 per cent by 2028.

In this panel discussion on the Roadmap for AI and Quantum, we looked at where fintech players are at right now when it comes down to generative AI adoption and what the road to achieving an AI-embedded future looks like for them.

We also dived into emerging risks surrounding AI and challenges surrounding the adoption of quantum computing.

Money Matters’ Finance Presenter Chua Tian Tian spoke with Lim Him Chuan, Group Head of Strategy, Transformation, Analytics & Research (GSTAR) and Group Executive at DBS, as well as Phoram Mehta, Senior Director and Chief Information and Security Officer, International Markets at Paypal for more, as part of MONEY FM’s on the ground coverage of Singapore Fintech Festival 2024.

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Collaborations in the fintech sector are on the cards today, and with the year end holiday season very much in sight, why not talk about maximising your air miles through credit card spend?

Specifically, we want to talk about how Heymax, a startup aggregating consumers’ fragmented rewards, worked with digital payments leader Visa in rolling out new products and campaigns to customers throughout the course of the year.

In May this year, Heymax announced a new innovation called Card Maximiser, in partnership with Visa. Powered by the Visa Offers Platform, the feature aims to help consumers seamlessly track their spending and optimise credit card rewards.

More recently, Heymax and Visa in September came up with a sustainable travel campaign to double miles earned from MRT or bus rides using Visa-linked cards over the 9.9 period.

But what are the key learnings from such collaborative initiatives? What are the benefits of getting startups and industry leaders to team up and what made them decide to work together again? How far is collaboration the way to go in the fintech space?

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 Adeline Kim, Country Manager for Singapore & Brunei at Visa, as well as Joe Lu, Co-founder & CEO of Heymax.

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Did you know that despite what appeared to be a tough time for funding and valuations, the global fintech report coauthored by Boston Consulting Group and QED Investors in June this year noted that the global fintech market remained a hotbed for innovation and growth.

The firms expect fintech to reach a market size of US$1.5 trillion in revenue by 2030. That’s about a five times growth from numbers seen at the time the report was written.

However, the report, which was based on interviews with over 60 global fintech CEOs and investors, noted that the rules of the game are changing, with growth at all cost, in their words, “no longer the watchword”.

So what are the major themes shaping the financial technology sector in the longer term? What are the headwinds facing the industry right now and how far are they short-term corrections?

And more importantly, what role will Singapore play in the growing fintech space for startups and industry heavyweights?

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 Shayan Hazir, Chief Digital Officer of ASEAN at HSBC and Reuben Lim, CEO at the Singapore FinTech Association.

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Technology is driving the transition to a more sustainable future. Green tech innovations are at the forefront of the global sustainability push, offering practical solutions to some of the most pressing environmental challenges.

Recently, UOB FinLab, the Bank’s innovation accelerator, awarded a total of
more than $100,000 to selected Green Technology (GreenTech) firms to pilot 15 sustainability solutions with UOB and its corporate partners across ASEAN. The pilot solutions and partnerships were unveiled at the GreenTech Accelerator 2024 Showcase Day as part of Singapore FinTech Festival’s Insights Forum.

We find out more about the trends and developments in the green technology space with Marianne Tan, Programme Director at UOB FinLab, and Emmanuel Tay, CEO and co-founder of Circular Unite, which is behind one of the 15 pilots selected for funding by UOB FinLab. They share their insights on the green technology ecosystem and the ways industry players are addressing pain points in sustainability.

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The global quantum computing market is estimated to be worth between US$45 billion and US$131 billion by 2040 (McKinsey). The single largest sector to be impacted is the financial services sector, with an estimated value at stake of US$450 billion.

To this end, the business world is rapidly transforming with two revolutionary technologies leading the charge; quantum computing and AI. Each of these technologies represents immense potential to redefine the boundaries of what's possible. This powerful fusion of quantum computing and artificial intelligence is emerging, and it promises to reshape our world in ways we can hardly imagine.

Dipen Mehta, Head of Financial Services for SoftServe, a global IT consulting and digital services provider, sheds some light on the potential of quantum computing in financial services.

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