Adrian Chng is an investor in fintech companies whose group, Fintonia, is now focused on crypto – in particular, trying to bridge the traditional world of finance with Bitcoin. He spoke with Jame DiBiasio about Fintonia's ambitions and what the crypto industry looks like in the wake of recent turmoil, such as the collapse of a leading stablecoin.

Timecodes:

0:00 - Adrian Chng, Fintonia

1:31 - From banking to fintech

4:55 - Investing in the thesis of mainstream Bitcoin

6:43 - The stability of payments using crypto

9:16 - Bridging traditional finance and Bitcoin

11:56 - Balance-sheet tools in digital assets

12:58 - Is Bitcoin suitable for treasuries and institutions?

15:36 - Is Bitcoin really a store of value?

19:27 - Lessons from the collapse of Terra stablecoin

23:06 - The centralized nature of crypto markets

25:40 - Purpose of crypto versus stablecoins or CBDCs

26:37 - ESG concerns

30:28 - What's next

Rama Sridhar is responsible for all of Mastercard's new payments, emerging tech, and digital solutions in Asia Pacific. She speaks with DigFin's Jame DiBiasio about how technology is changing the way Mastercard makes decisions, exciting changes afoot in payments, and the massive opportunities as millions of people diversify from relying solely on cash.

Timecodes:

0:00 - Rama Sridhar, Mastercard

1:20 - Sridhar's career in tech, banking, payments – and tech again

2:41 - How technology now drives decision-making

3:29 - Legacy models, advantage or handicap?

5:37 - Changes in the payments landscape, and how to adapt

7:48 - Accessing new customer segments and demographics in Asia

10:32 - Assessing the viability of new business models

13:12 - Managing individual market variation

14:22 - Financial inclusion – practical outcomes versus buzzword

19:27 - Blockchain, metaverse, and other new models of interest

21:26 - Managing the risk of new tech/business models

22:36 - Real-time payments, digital banks, and other success stories

25:34 - Interoperability and the biggest gaps to bridge

28:18 - Workforce inclusion and mentoring

Jason Tu is founder of MioTech, one of Asia's pioneers in bringing data analytics to environmental, social and governance risk for investors and corporations. Jason speaks with DigFin's Jame DiBiasio about ESG trends, Asia's role, and how fintech and data are making new business models possible.

Timecodes:

0:00 - Jason Tu, MioTech

1:10 - MioTech and ESG data

2:22 - China/Asia ESG requirements

4:34 - Pace of change for financial institutions

6:39 - Some ESG factors count more than others!

8:10 - Collecting ESG data

9:56 - Stakeholder v. shareholder capitalism

13:12 - Does ESG create greenwashing?

14:40 - The necessity of global standards

15:41 - Powering investors via data

16:58 - Tech's role, innovations, and future in ESG

Amber Group is a crypto business that moved to Singapore and is now backed by Temasek, among other investors, with a soaring valuation. Annabelle Huang, managing partner, discusses the firm's valuation and potential IPO plans, managing the changing regulatory landscape, and the extension of a prop-trading start to a new embrace of retail business.

Timecodes:

0:00 - Annabelle Huang, Amber Group

1:54 - Amber expands out of pure institutional business

4:20 - Institutional needs in crypto versus TradFi

7:54 - Convergence between crypto and traditional finance

9:07 - How Amber views regulatory uncertainty

10:43 - Amber switches HQ from Hong Kong to Singapore

12:59 - Crypto's prospects if CBDCs emerge

14:52 - Adapting institutional products for retail wealth mgmt

16:56 - Is gamification healthy?

18:31 - Why NFT valuations are falling

21:55 - Web3, institutional versus retail demand

22:41 - Are there social benefits to financializing games?

23:30 - Stablecoin and Tether risks

25:32 - Amber Group's IPO plans

27:00 - Most exciting development for 2022

Ben Quinlan of Quinlan & Associates breaks down the big problem for buy-now pay-later fintechs: they don't make money, and never will, without substantive changes to the business model. Ben tells Jame DiBiasio what went wrong and how BNPL firms can find a path to long-term success.

Timecodes:

0:00 - Ben Quinlan, Quinlan & Associates

1:34 - The threat to buy-now pay-later (BNPL)

2:40 - Non-performing loans and funding issues

4:11 - What makes BNPL a hot trend

6:12 - Drivers of growth

7:52 - Issues with balance sheets and merchant acquisition

11:02 - Acquiring and analyzing user data

13:38 - Breaking down why BNPL firms lose money

15:39 - Lots of competition!

16:25 - Can the BNPL model change?

19:11 - M&A in Asia Pacific's BNPL industry

21:03 - Banks and BNPL

22:20 - Regulation

25:40 - From BNPL to virtual banking

Jack Momose, founder of Tokyo-based gaming company Degica, talks about payments and fintech in Japan, creating payments platform Komoju, and the challenges of going global.

Timecodes:

0:00 - Jack Momose, Degica

1:13 - Japan's payments biz in the spotlight

2:06 - Outdated tech stacks in Japan

5:30 - The innovation scene in Japan

8:00 - Entrepreneurs and startups in Japan

10:11 - Degica's story

14:40 - Cash and other payment methods

16:41 - The birth of Komoju

18:45 - Size of the business

19:26 - Going international

21:21 - Payments infrastructure, Japan and the world

22:39 - Buy now, pay later trends in Japan

24:16 - Challenges to expansion

25:10 - Games, fintech, NFTs

Blue is a purely digital life insurance company. CEO Charles Hung tells Jame DiBiasio how the business is evolving, the use of data in marketing, competing versus incumbents, and his path to profitability.

Johnson Chen is founder and CEO of Singapore fintech CapBridge Financial and its blockchain-infrastructure subsidiary 1X. CapBridge is enabling corporate bonds, unicorn-company equities, real estate and private-equity funds to be accessed and traded by family offices. Johnson speaks with Jame DiBiasio about building CapBridge's investor base and improving markets through next-gen technology.

Timecodes:

0:00 - Johnson Chen, CapBridge Financial

1:30 - CapBridge's two business lines

2:29 - Providing access to unicorn company equity

3:20 - Fractionalizing private equity funds

4:08 - Asian demand for private equity

5:07 - Real estate

7:15 - Facilitating allocations to alternative investments

8:40 - 1X and DLT (distributed ledger technology)

11:25 - Piloting 1X for equities

12:20 - The problems that DLT/blockchain can solve

13:48 - Creating secondary-market liquidity

15:18 - The challenge of adoption

17:14 - Building CapBridge's investor base

19:22 - Backing by AMTD

21:37 - The ceremonial blade

Brad Jones is CEO of Wave Money, a digital payments fintech in Myanmar. In the past year the business has had to weather a military coup, telco outages, deadly Covid, and shareholder changes. Brad speaks with Jame DiBiasio about managing multiple crises and returning to a path of growth.

Timecodes:

0:00 - Brad Jones, Wave Money

1:29 - Multiple shocks to the business

2:50 - Crisis decision making

6:06 - Keys to survival

7:33 - Staying committed

8:43 - Returning to business as usual

9:54 - Ant Group transaction hit

12:36 - Shareholder Telenor exits

14:14 - Ambitions for the tech stack

16:35 - Building in resilience, InfoSec

18:22 - Digitizing Myanmar

19:42 - Marketing and branding

Val Yap is founder and CEO of Singapore-based insurtech PolicyPal, a unit of AMTD Group. She tells Jame DiBiasio about her company's recent acquisition, growth plans, the state of insurtech today, and feedback from writing her memoir.

Timecodes:

0:00 - Val Yap, PolicyPal

1:28 - PolicyPal's mission and evolution

3:46 - Acquiring Value Champion

5:08 - Entering new verticals

5:24 - Creating new insurtech products

7:14 - Platform competition

10:55 - Winning customer attention and trust

13:42 - Competing versus partnering with insurance cos.

15:29 - State of insurtech v Big Tech, incumbents

20:11 - Expanding PolicyPal into new geographies

23:09 - Val's memoir "Balls Inc." as a female founder