Driving Financial Inclusion in Asia – Seamless Asia Panel
tryb Group was represented at Seamless Summit 2019 conference by Veiverne Yuen who moderated the panel ‘Driving Financial Inclusion in Asia’; some key topics discussed on the panel were:
- The potential role of Facebook’s Libra for banking the unbanked
- It requires “courage, context and collaboration” for successful inclusion
- Regional variety of regulations that either prevented or promoted innovation
Seamless Asia 2019 took place on Wednesday, June 26, 2019 at the Suntec Convention & Exhibition Centre. This conference was designed to showcase payment, card, fintech, ID, e-commerce, and retail companies. The layout consisted of at least 100 stalls with brochures and company salespeople. Most of the companies had been operating for quite a few years and were looking to expand their customer base to Singapore and other parts of Southeast Asia. Few investors were present – rather, representatives from other companies looking for business solutions. There did not appear to be any early stage companies. One notable fintech company was later stage iPay88 of Malaysia, which was recently acquired by a Japanese firm. .
The first group of panellists of the afternoon discussed the adoption of e-wallets in China, India, and Indonesia. Veiverne Yuen, Co-Founder of tryb Group, moderated the second panel discussion focused on challenges of financial inclusion across Myanmar, Vietnam, and Pakistan. These panellists were CEO and Executive Director of Yoma Bank, Hal Bosher; GM Head of Digital Transformation of Habib Bank Limited, Atyab Tahir; and CEO of FE Credit, Singapore, Kalidus Ghose.
The topics discussed during Yuen’s session included: the role of payments in financial inclusion; how fintech companies could work with banks to address the needs of the unbanked; the key differences in population segments served by banks and fintech companies; the regional variety of regulations that either prevented or promoted innovation in the fintech space; the importance of tailoring payment platforms specifically to a fintech company’s customer base; the potential role of Libra in payments. The panellists agreed that “courage, context, and collaboration” were hallmarks of success in Asia’s financial services sector.
About tryb Group
tryb is an investor in Southeast Asia fintech. tryb is positioned to leverage Southeast Asia as the next frontier for fintech opportunities and backs entrepreneurs transforming financial services in the region.