A chargeback is a consumer protection tool that can come at a high cost to businesses — Mastercard estimates every dispute to cost between $15 and $70. Whether the chargebacks are fraudulent or being used as a last resort by disgruntled customers, merchants need to remain vigilant.

When there are too many chargebacks, the business could lose card acceptance, further complicate customer payments, and reduce sales. For example, a 10% chargeback reversal rate in the travel industry could be a fatal blow to a travel merchant’s chances of survival in the post-covid era.

Chargebacks and disputed transactions are always a business risk, so merchants must have a strategy to mitigate as much as possible. Ninety-seven percent of e-commerce CEOs believe the industry needs to innovate its business models to stay relevant, profitable, and resilient in the next 18 months, owing to shifts in online retail. Being proactive and installing prevention measures are some of the best ways to do it.

PRISM+ recognised that it needed more transparency of its data and optimised its transactional process for better customer experience and fraud prevention. It switched to Checkout.com as its payment service provider (PSP) to provide end-to-end data giving complete visibility on its money flow and instant insights on what was going on throughout the customer journey so any issues could be detected and resolved as appropriate.

“Checkout.com provided the expertise for us to improve acceptance rates, cater to chargebacks, optimise our risk settings, improve fraud detection, and understand the different challenges and opportunities for each geography,” said Jonathan Tan, co-founder of PRISM+, which sells high-value and high-performance gaming monitors and smart TVs online in Singapore, Malaysia and, more recently, Australia. The onboarding process was so easy; it went live in just two days.

“Besides seamless, improved payment services, we were also assigned a dedicated Customer Success Manager (CSM) for round-the-clock support,” Tan said. “And when we were hit with fraudulent transactions, the Checkout.com team ran us through the best course of action. They tweaked our risk settings to better adapt to purchase patterns and advised how we can optimise our operations. This guidance was invaluable to us.”

The result? PRISM+ boosted its acceptance rate to over 90% and saw zero chargeback incidents for three months consecutively at the beginning of this year alone.

“Checkout.com gained our confidence as a reliable partner with great expertise, making them the obvious choice when we decided to launch our Australian entity.” It proved to be the right call. There were several fraudulent chargebacks at the start of its expansion which the Checkout.com team proactively identified, and provided advice and solutions to resolve the concerns.

The correct data and insight are crucial to pinpointing the root causes of chargebacks – which are often symptoms of something wrong somewhere in the process. There may be patterns in the transaction stages that might have gone previously unnoticed. For example, suppose an item keeps initiating chargebacks from customers. In that case, the data could flag that the item description lacks specifics and clarity, or a simple return option is overlooked.

Checkout.com is one of the most valuable privately-held fintech decacorns in the world with a market valuation of $15 billion. It has over 19 international offices and processes payments in more than 150 currencies across five continents. Its clients include Grab, Wise (formally TransferWise), SHEIN, Binance, and Jeans West.

Checkout.com provides its customers with the tools for electronic payments, analytics and fraud monitoring together in one platform. Users create custom risk strategies and scale according to need using the range of technology—from simple rules to machine learning models—available on the platform. This also means they can adapt as fraud continues mutating and future-proof their risk-management strategy for defence.

“With our technology, deep payments expertise, and specialist teams with local knowledge in your markets, we help you capitalise on your data. This allows for smarter decision making to meet customer expectations, cut fraud and capture revenue.”

Click here to download the Forrester fraud report and learn how to balance risk in an ever-changing retail landscape.

The post Mitigate chargeback and fraud risk with the correct data and insights appeared first on Tech Wire Asia.

But it’s not just cybercriminals enjoying crypto payments. Several organizations are now offering crypto payment rewards through various programs and offers. For example, MasterCard recently announced that it would allow partners on its network to enable their consumers to buy, sell and hold cryptocurrency using a digital wallet, as well as reward them with digital currencies under loyalty programs.

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Jamilah Lim | 28 September, 2021

Another example is Geolancer, an application to collect manually verified Point of Interest (POI) data on the ground by Quadrant.  It provides cryptocurrency rewards for Geolancers who collect POIs in their neighborhood.

Earlier last month, El Salvador became the first country in the world to adopt bitcoin as legal tender as well.  The Economic Times also reported that Indian, Pakistani, Bangladeshi and Filipino expats in Qatar are increasingly experimenting with cryptocurrencies to remit money to their families back home and save on commissions charged by wire transfer companies and other middlemen.

The situation may not be the same in China though. The government declared all financial transactions involving cryptocurrencies illegal. This move finally brings the final hammer down on the digital trade in China after years of salvos on the volatile currencies.

The rise of crypto payments in Singapore

In Singapore, more Singaporeans have been reported to be investing in cryptocurrencies or using them to pay. In fact, 37% of Singaporeans %) were found to be paying or interested in paying for purchases with cryptocurrencies, according to the latest Worldpay from FIS’ Generation Pay research.

The research explores the spending habits, purchasing experiences, and payment preferences across different generations, from Gen Z to baby boomers. While it may still be a long way to go for cryptocurrencies to become a mainstream mode of payment, the high adoption rate proves that more people are beginning to understand how crypto payments work.

A considerable percentage of Singaporeans (37%) were found to be paying or interested in paying for purchases with cryptocurrencies, according to the latest Worldpay from FIS’ 2021 Generation Pay research, which explores the spending habits, purchasing experiences, and payment preferences across different generations, from Gen Z to baby boomers. Gen Y (58%) is the most open and boomers (16%) are the least open in crypto payments.

On the whole, findings showed that central bank digital currencies CBDCs (23%) are preferred over cryptocurrencies (11%) when it comes to using digital currencies as a form of payment. Another 22% indicated they have no preference and are willing to use both to pay. At a generational level, Gen Zs (18%) is the least interested in CBDCs. 24% said they have no preference and will use both CBDCs and cryptocurrencies. Similarly, a high number of Gen Ys (29%) said they have no preference and will use both CBDCs and cryptocurrencies.

For those who prefer to use cryptocurrencies, the primary reason is that it is decentralized and gives them more autonomy with their money (67%). This is a particularly compelling reason for Gen Y (74%). On the other hand, the main reason cited by those who prefer to use CBDCs is that it would be more secure being backed by the government (64%). Other reasons turning them away from cryptocurrencies include their perception that crypto wallets are more vulnerable (31%) and that cryptocurrencies might be used in illegal activities (30%).

Creating a crypto ecosystem 

Phil Pomford, General Manager for Global eCommerce, APAC, WorldPay from FIS believes that the world is currently in the second wave of wide crypto buying, with quite a bit of institutional money entering the market, but still a few years out from mainstream cryptocurrency usage.

However, he pointed out that there are still various challenges still exist within the ecosystem. For instance, in APAC, Phil explained that crypto merchants are struggling to navigate new regulations or find a partner bank in the region. Some settlement banks are also not willing to process transactions for crypto merchants through their banking facilities.

“Nonetheless, we see demand for crypto rising in certain sectors such as NFT marketplaces which are built on DLT and require the usage of cryptocurrencies. It is also worth noting that there are key players in payments and banking cementing their confidence in the crypto space, such as DBS Bank who is launching its crypto exchange,” said Phil.

Highlighting the excitement in digital currencies, Phil added that FIS is making crypto more accessible to consumers by enabling card-to-crypto payments on exchanges. There is an uptake in card payments by crypto exchanges versus traditional reliance on bank transfers. As crypto continues to gain traction, consumers are increasingly seeking simple, convenient payment methods for making crypto-based purchases using cards and other familiar financial products.

“Our global partnership with crypto merchants (some of the recent ones include CEX.IO, Moonpay, and OKCoin) is also in part driving how other retailers view crypto. Retailers currently want fiat cash backing crypto if they are going to accept it, and this depends on the exchanges to settle transactions,” concluded Phil.

The post Crypto payments becoming a trend among Singaporeans appeared first on Tech Wire Asia.

The central banks of Malaysia and Thailand, in a bid to bridge the transactional gaps between neighboring countries, recently launched a cross-border Quick Response, or better known as QR payment linkage, to enable consumers and merchants in both countries to make and receive instant cross-border QR code payments.

The new move is the first phase in integrating the real-time retail payment systems of Malaysia’s Real-time Retail Payments Platform (RRP) and DuitNow instant bank transfers together with Thailand’s PromptPay, they said in a statement. In short, users in Thailand are now able to use mobile payment applications to scan DuitNow QR codes to make payments to merchants in Malaysia.

This follows Thailand’s 2020 e-payment roadmap which calls for the bolstering of digital financial transactions across ASEAN and the further integration of the regional bloc. According to news sources, the Bank of Thailand (BoT) has formed an alliance with Singapore, Myanmar as well as Cambodia to enable the new digital payment system to last year.

Under phase two, expected in Q4 2021, users in Malaysia will be able to do the same with Thailand. The last phase of the linkage will be expanded to include cross-border remittance. Users in both countries will be able to make real-time fund transfers conveniently by referencing the mobile phone number of the recipient. This functionality is expected to go live in the fourth quarter of 2022, the statement said.

The Central Bank of Malaysia (BNM) in a separate statement said, “This service is expected to benefit more users in both countries when international travel resumes, as they can make payment using their mobile payment applications instead of using cash.” 

Until last year, international business collaborations within the ASEAN region are often limited due to the lack of inclusive digital payment systems – especially ones that would not consume days just to process transactions that are made in different currencies. QR code technology is an emerging solution within the financial landscape that promotes contactless, fast, and secure payment capabilities via mobile apps to both, merchants and consumers.

BNM deputy governor Datuk Abdul Rasheed Ghaffour said the retail payment linkage will enhance the efficiency and convenience of cross-border payments by providing users with faster, cheaper, and more inclusive payment arrangements. “It will give more options for consumers and merchants in the cross-border payment space and serve as a key enabler to strengthen regional connectivity and financial integration,” he said.

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Bank of Thailand’s deputy governor Ronadol Numnonda said the bank recognises the significance of cross-border payment system linkages and had continuously pursued such initiatives. The collaboration between Payments Network Malaysia (PayNet) and the National ITMX (NITMX) as payment system operators has made the project possible. Meanwhile, CIMB Thai Bank and Public Bank Bhd are the first two banks to participate in this endeavor and have started offering instant cross-border QR code payment services to their customers.

In a 2020 report by ACI Worldwide and fintech market research and consulting firm Kapronasia,, ASEAN is following in the footsteps of the European Union by having its very own Single European Payments Area (SEPA)-style payments network, making Southeast Asia a global focal point for cross-border real-time payments growth.

“Southeast Asian countries are making significant strides in payments modernization, with nearly every major country in the region having robust domestic real-time payments infrastructure in place. Despite the lack of uniform regulations and disparate economic priorities across the region, it’s clear that market forces — driven by the needs of businesses and consumers — will propel Southeast Asia towards the realization of a multi-country real-time network,” ACI Worldwide’s managing director for Asia Leslie Choo said.

The post Malaysia and Thailand launch cross-border QR payment appeared first on Tech Wire Asia.

With the emergence of blockchain, banks and technology companies are looking to leverage the digital ledger in expanding financial services.

Just last month, the European Central Bank (ECB) announced plans to develop a single digital currency that could solve the problems of a cross-border payment. The scheme was driven by pressure from tech giant Facebook’s initiative to launch Libra, a borderless cryptocurrency. 

According to GlobalData, cashless payments are predicted to surpass cash in Portugal in 2020. Meanwhile, Sweden has been dubbed the most cashless society with only 13 percent of Swedes reporting that they used cash for a recent purchase, based on a 2018 nationwide survey.

In the US, a majority (70%) of Americans still use cash on a weekly basis. However, a report by consultant Capgemini revealed cashless payment is estimated to grow by 4.7%, rising to US$184.5 billion transactions in the US next year.

In comparison, emerging Asian markets are set to rise by 30% to a figure of US$208.7 billion in 2020, due to popular and well-established payment systems including Alibaba’s Alipay and Tencent’s WeChat Pay.

Emerging markets are going cashless

In China, WeChat has become an integrated part of a user’s life. Besides its social perks, its payment system can be used for vending machines, street vendors, shops, and transit systems. Moreover, its host apps enable users to book a doctor’s appointment or calling a taxi without exiting the app.

The app functions beyond a simple e-payment system but also allows job seekers to send in their resumes by scanning a WeChat QR code at job fairs.

There is no Western app equivalent to the Chinese super app and it’s been speculated to be Apple’s biggest existential threat in China.

Furthermore, mobile-first Southeast Asia (SEA) nations are gravitating towards e-wallets and other digital payment methods. For example, GrabPay is popular across SEA while local digital payments like Momo Pay in Vietnam, Pay Maya in the Philippines, and Fave in Malaysia are prevalent in respective countries.

With the region’s high mobile penetration rate, it serves as a golden opportunity for tech providers and financial institutions to leverage the trends of e-payment and provide services that cater to the payment habit of the world’s fourth-largest economy.

Local retailers and brands recognizing the emergence of e-payment services would jump on board to meet the growing demands of tech-savvy consumers.

At this rate, America is set to lose its top rank leading in cashless payments due to “merchant reluctance to adopt new technology because it requires upgrades or replacement” as stated in the World Payments Report 2019. In addition, an absence of initiations from US regulators to encourage instant payment and open banking has hindered innovation in this area.

It isn’t just a lack of drive in innovation or leadership from regulatory bodies, but there’s also debate that cashless payment is by design discriminatory against individuals without bank accounts or credit cards.

According to the FDIC (Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation), about 7% of US households did not have bank accounts in 2017 and close to 19% with accounts rely on financial services beyond the perimeters of insured institutions.

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Therefore, several states such as New Jersey and San Francisco have passed laws that prohibit most businesses to go cashless and other states like New York plan to follow suit.

Now more than ever, e-payments and digital wallets are on the rise especially in emerging markets like Asia but it may take a few more decades before physical currencies become completely obsolete.

The post Why Asia is powering ahead of rivals when it comes to cashless appeared first on Tech Wire Asia.

After years of trials and regulatory delays, popular messaging platform WhatsApp finally announced the availability of its payments service for app users in Brazil.

“People will be able to send money securely or make a purchase from a local business without leaving their chat,” the company revealed in its blog post announcement. With this first rollout in Brazil, the potential for the messaging platform is tremendous: WhatsApp has over 2 billion active users globally for its free OTT messaging service, and many small-medium businesses (SMBs) and individual online sellers already leverage the platform to discuss sales, share inventory information, answer customer queries, and exchange banking information to complete the transaction.

WhatsApp has been exploring adding its own payments feature for some time, first rolling out a beta version of WhatsApp Pay in 2018 in India. However, regulatory requirements and changing data privacy and compliance laws mean that Facebook-owned WhatsApp could never really get its payments arm off the ground on the Indian subcontinent, where it is still yet to fully launch after two years.

India is by far WhatsApp’s biggest user base with over 400 million registered users, and Brazil is the second-largest market with 120 million monthly average users. While in India, WhatsApp payments trials attempted to integrate with the local UPI payment system which links Indian banks with mobile payments via a unified payment gateway, but in Brazil the service is using its parent company’s Facebook Pay method instead – which might be a reason why it can support transactions from local payment methods including credit/debit cards from Brazilian banks.

Users in Brazil can perform transactions without leaving the app. Source: WhatsApp

“We’re making sending and receiving money as easy as sharing photos,” Facebook chief executive Mark Zuckerberg commented in a celebratory Facebook post. “We’re also enabling small businesses to make sales right within WhatsApp.”

Users in Brazil will now be able to complete the sales cycle by paying for goods directly through WhatsApp, and they will not be charged any commission or other fees for now, although businesses will be charged a 3.99% processing fee to receive payments. WhatsApp’s blog post also revealed that transactions will be secured with a six-digit PIN code or fingerprint scan, to ensure authentic transactions.

Brazil’s successful launch with Facebook Pay, and the ongoing quagmire in India with UPI, reveals the fragmented nature of the global digital payments landscape. In Asia, where a significant portion of the population remains underbanked or unbanked entirely, mobile payment alternatives have become increasingly popular as time passes, and Facebook appears to be navigating this space carefully.

In January, chief executive Zuckerberg commented on the company’s payments ambitions, including for WhatsApp, Facebook, and its other popular mobile application Instagram. “On payments, we’re focused in different places with different products. For things like Instagram and even a lot of what we’re doing on Facebook, it’s a lot more developed countries. For WhatsApp, it’s the biggest countries on WhatsApp. So countries like India and Mexico and Brazil and Indonesia will make up a large part of the community on WhatsApp,” he stated.

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Joe Devanesan | 30 April, 2020

With the Brazil launch of WhatsApp payments, Facebook appears set to take another crack at the emerging markets where WhatsApp is most popular – and that includes Southeast Asia’s fastest-growing digital economy Indonesia, and perhaps another attempt at securing payments in India, where the service has lost significant ground to competing e-payment methods like Google Pay and Walmart-backed PhonePE.

The post After Brazil, WhatsApp Payments sets its gaze on Indonesia, India appeared first on Tech Wire Asia.

Fintech has been on an upwards swing for many years now, putting some fear in the larger but much slower-to-digitize traditional banking sector.

In fact, fintech deals rose to hit 3,000 last year, while total funding hit US$3.5 billion.

Of course, the ongoing pandemic has disrupted organizations worldwide at a massive scale and driven a portion of services to flourish, such as remote working systems and tools providers, but other industries such as aviation and hospitality have been brought to a screeching halt.

The world of fintech – which broadly refers to challenger banks and other  financial services firms using computer programs and other tech to enable enhanced products and services – has been positively impacted by the current market change.

A recent report by the deVere Group found a 72 percent spike in the use of financial apps in Europe – partly as a result of social distancing measures making visits to bricks-and-mortar branches more difficult.

While the going might be good in that respect though, the immediate jump in adoption may not be enough to off-set a wider economic slowdown in fintech, particularly affecting startups looking for funding.

At a time where investors are becoming more cautious and conservative in spending, startups whose appeal may have been largely down to risk and disruptive potential, may have lost their shine in a period of economic uncertainty.

Venture capitalists are shrinking backing for existing or new companies, which could further lower the chances of emerging fintech startups to secure investments.

This is reflected in the global fintech sector, which is found to be experiencing a three-year low in deals and fundings, according to new findings. The decline was noted from March onwards and is projected to follow a similar downward trend in the upcoming months.

But this economic upheaval affects various fintech companies differently — those bolstering payments for e-commerce are performing substantially while others, such as B2B companies, “will need to prepare for longer sales cycles and shrinking budgets,” Satya Patel, founder of Homebrew, explained in a Crunchbase report.

Alongside dwindling enterprise budgets, a drop in transaction volumes globally due to enforced restricted movement orders, closed shops and restaurant outlets, as well as rising employment rate, means spending power is taking a plunge, posing a new challenge for the industry.

As fintech relies on a wider ecosystem of payments and both locally and cross-border transactions, the shift in spending habits of consumers, merchants, and service providers may present new opportunities for fintech to leverage on.

DeVere Group CEO Nick Green, commented on the state of the finance industry currently that there is a “historical precedent” for this crisis.

“Banks and other traditional financial services providers were, in most cases, spectacularly caught off guard by the 2008-2009 financial crash,” he explained.

“As they found their way into a new world with a new regulatory landscape and new customer expectations, business and tech developments were way down their to-do list. They were in survival mode.

“This is when agile, tech-driven challenger banks and fintech firms swooped in to fill the void left between what traditional financial services companies, especially the traditional banks, were offering and what customers were expecting, especially in terms of customer experience.”

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So, while many in this fledgling industry may be feeling the effects of an early, and significant setback, they are some of those companies best placed to fight back and win new market-share, pushing their focus on convenience, personalization and experience.

“The fintech firms, which offer mobile banking, savings and investment apps, and peer-to-peer lending, amongst other services, now have a decade of development, experience and expertise over many traditional banks,” said Green.

The post How will fintech fare through the COVID-19 crisis? appeared first on Tech Wire Asia.

The APAC, which has been championing fintech companies and supporting them with monetary and regulatory support, is expected to see the industry grow at by 72.5 percent for the five year period up to 2020.

Recruitment agency Michael Page recently published the 2019 Salary Benchmark Index, which revealed that this year, fintech companies are looking for a very specific set of skills, such as AI, machine learning, data science, UI/UX, and digital transformation.

Singapore, the hotbed of fintech in the APAC, therefore, is advising hiring managers to belt out comprehensive plans to ensure businesses in the region aren’t suffocated by a lack of talent.

The message is loud and clear — companies not only need to attract the right kind of tech talent but also groom its own for various projects in the fintech industry.

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Contractual employment on the rise 

The scarcity of suitable fintech talent has led to a surge in contractual employees.

Michael Page Singapore’s MD, Nilay Khandelwal told Tech Wire Asia that contractual employment might be a tangible solution to the immediate talent crunch in the country — and in the APAC.

“Contractual employment is a pretty good balance in the West. In the Asian context, contracting was not socially accepted as a form of work.”

The flexibility of contractual employment enables fintech companies to hire people with new skills and roles that to help take their venture to the next level, which is critical in a market that is constantly looking to be wowed by technology.

Khandelwal believes that contractual employment is also a good way for fintech companies to find out if people are the right fit for their business.

“Contracted skills and roles companies see value in would likely be converted into a permanent headcount over time.”

In some cases, companies would have projects which may or may not get rolled out in specific markets. These are the projects that would most likely benefit from contractual employment.

In 2018, Michael Page revealed that there was a 20 percent increase in contractual employment. The increase will continue this year.

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“Singapore’s future lies in innovation and highly skilled talent, and this trend is something we will continue to witness across industries, including functions that have not typically subscribed to contracting strategies,” he said.

Khandelwal highlighted that business intelligence, data analytics, and application engineering are domains where the fight for fintech talent is very high on the global stage.

“Most of the [talent] in these areas are not constrained by geography, but rather the quality of work that happens in each organization and to whom they report to.”

At the end of the day, the value of training your own talent domestically can’t be emphasized enough, and companies need to act now to groom the right talent.

The post Singapore needs more fintech talent says Michael Page appeared first on Tech Wire Asia.

CHINA EXPECTS MOBILE PAYMENTS TO GROW THREE-FOLD

Soumik Roy | 8 January, 2019

Using futuristic digital methods to perform traditional functions may come naturally to the younger generation, but findings from a recent study suggest that it is the middle-aged Chinese tourist who is driving mobile payments in foreign markets.

This Lunar New Year, this particular demographic shopped abroad in more than 40 markets — and paid using a mobile wallet or a mobile payment solution.

China’s growing digital middle class

The ‘middle-aged’ cohort who is considered the main driving force in outbound tourism and foreign consumption, was split into two separate groups in the study;

• Those who were born between 1960 – 1969, and
• Those born between 1970-1979

Compared to last year, the total number of Alipay users from the first group had increased by 23o percent while there was a 190 percent growth from the second group, the study found.

Further, travelers from the third and fourth-tier cities had a higher rate of growth in overseas consumptions than tourists from the top-tier Chinese cities – Beijing, Shanghai, and Guangzhou.

“We are excited to see the robust growth in the use of Alipay by overseas travelers from third-and-fourth tier cities and middle-aged vacationers. This really highlights how mobile payment is taking root in China’s outbound tourism market,” said Alipay’s head of business operation in cross-border business, Janice Chen, in a statement.

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China: Global leader in mobile payments

China, which boasts the world largest smartphone market, had an estimated 890 million people using mobile payment apps in the first half of 2018.

Alibaba backed Alipay and Tencent’s WeChat Pay have emerged as the two most dominant players in China’s massive mobile payment market.

“While providing a better experience for Chinese travelers, Alipay is at the same time a huge drawcard for overseas merchants as a platform to help grow their business,” said Chen.

These two mobile platforms have, in recent times, also ramped up their global expansion targeting merchants and businesses in Europe and Southeast Asia — regions that are frequented by Chinese tourists.

The post Mobile payment platforms a hit with middle-aged Chinese appeared first on Tech Wire Asia.

As the tradition goes, the color symbolizes good luck, and it is given out by married couples and elders, as a gesture,  wishing a prosperous year to friends and family.

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However, in China, the age-old practice is being transformed as money is now more likely to change hands via smartphones.

In a truly modern fashion, befitting the digital age, well-wishers are sending virtual red packets or digital hongbaos, using mobile payment apps.

According to one report, WeChat revealed that the modern way of sending the traditional monetary gift is most prevalent among those born in the 1990s, followed by the 80s and 70s borns respectively.

While the total number of users for this year have not been made public, 688 million people used the feature during the last Lunar New Year period, a 15 percent growth from 2017.

In terms of geographic regions, Beijing, Chongqing, and Chengdu were the cities with the most number of users, with Shenzhen and Guangzhou trailing slightly behind.

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Soumik Roy | 11 December, 2018

Digital payments via smartphones are massively popular in China to the point that, the country’s central bank recently had to intervene and warn businesses from discriminating against cash payments and transactions.

Mobile payment apps, Alipay and WeChat Pay, emerged as the two most dominant apps within the digital payment space in China, accounting for over 80 percent of the market share.

Mass adoption of digital payments has alleviated the issues of counterfeit, dirty, and tattered bank notes which have plagued Chinese businesses in the past. However, gone are the days of cashiers holding up a yuan note to check for the watermarks.

Judging from the growth of mobile payment adoption in China, banks in the near future may not need to worry about customers lining up at their branches, requesting crisp new notes “for gifting purposes” as they often do during festive seasons.

While the method has changed a little, it looks like the cultural tradition of giving hongbaos will survive and thrive in the digital age.

The post How the traditional hongbaos got a digital update appeared first on Tech Wire Asia.

In the grander scheme of things, the industry has a whole has embraced digital transformation and along with it, innovative tech-driven initiatives to enhance customer experience, improve efficiency and reduce cost, all the while complying with regulatory oversights.

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However, the rapidly accelerating advancement in technology will continue to disrupt business as usual in the finance space, and global consulting firm, PWC outlined some of the vital forces that will drive that disruption.

# 1 | FinTech will drive the new business model

There was a time when the industry was an exclusive club whereby a new player would find it hard to break into the market. That is not the case anymore as fintech providers have not only entered into the financial space but continue to chip away market share that was traditionally held by banks.

Often a dynamic and fluid start-up, the fintech providers specialize in a particular technology or process and offers services such as mobile payments, microloans, and insurance premiums.

And since these services are some of the most profitable functions of financial providers, the emergent of new players are could potentially big a big blow to the incumbents.

# 2 | The sharing economy will be embedded in every part of the financial system

Banking services are crucial for consumers, but in the future, they will increasingly get them outside the traditional banking system that we know today.

The sharing economy that started with transportation services and lodging had already expanded to the financial services and the trends decentralized asset ownership model that is matched by internet will continue to grow.

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# 3 | “Customer intelligence” will be the most important predictor of revenue growth and profitability

Customer intelligence that and insights derived from focus groups and surveys in the past, while based on real individualized data, it is still hazy at best.

But thanks to new technology such a big data and deep analytics, businesses can tap into massive data set and far more accurate insights on consumer behavior.

# 4 | Advances in robotics and AI will start a wave of ‘re-shoring’ and localization

In the past 20 years, many companies, specifically the ones from the US and Europe outsourced some of the more repetitive and mundane tasks to parts of the world that offers more cost-effective labor.

At the same time, artificial intelligence or AI has been steadily integrated into the banking sector for years now, starting with the ATM, all the way to the customer-facing chatbots to maximize efficiency and increase service speed.

As AI capabilities continue to become more robust and accessible, coupled with the increasing cost of labor globally, functions that were once shipped off-shore will make their way back home and localized.

# 5 | Cyber-security will be one of the top risks facing financial institutions

In a 2016 PWC survey, 69 percent of CEOs from the financial industry stated that they are somewhat or extremely concerned about cyber-threats and the trend is likely to stay way into the future due to several factors, such as;

• Increased dependency on third-party vendors
• Rapidly advancing complex technology
• Cross-border trade and data exchanges
• Proliferations of mobile and IoT devices
• Increased cross-border information security threats

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Moving forward, the financial service provider may have to spend more resources and invest in proper cybersecurity measure to protect themselves from sophisticated cyber threats and attacks.

The post How technology is transforming financial services appeared first on Tech Wire Asia.