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Navigating The FinTech Revolution - ASEAN PATH 2021

COVID-19 has thrust the world into recession, which as a result akin to a domino effect, has led to rapid and accelerated change. Most notably, industries have pivoted online as we hurtle headlong into an increasingly digitalized society. In response to extended lockdowns, society has become more reliant on technology than it has ever been. Fortuitously, this post haste shift to digital has provided Fintech with an impetus for growth in alternative lending, payments, banking, capital markets, SME solutions, wealth management, real estate and insurance sectors. Embedded Fintech is increasingly prolific with non-financial companies such as telecom operators, retailers, e-commerce integrating technology enabled financial services in their product offerings here in South East Asia in order to enhance customer loyalty and monetize customer relationships and data.

The next generation of banking service providers and financial technology enablers who continue to facilitate the growth of open banking around the globe are probing markets across ASEAN given the large ‘underbanked’ and ‘unbanked’ population that legacy banks have failed to serve. Impediments to deployment of digital financial services within ASEAN are fourfold; reluctance to abandon cash, unreliable digitized national identification systems, regulatory prioritization of consumer protection over innovation and the palpable absence of robust credit bureaus.

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