Singapore leads HK in race to be fintech hub
SINGAPORE — Singapore is rushing to reinvent itself as Asia’s financial technology, or fintech, hub to fend off a regulatory threat to its wealth management industry and revive a sluggish economy.
State funding, light- touch regulation and a recent move to allow start-ups to test financial products in a controlled environment have put Singapore ahead of rival Hong Kong to be Asia’s fintech hot spot.
Much like Uber, Airbnb and others have harnessed technology and online social networking to disrupt taxi and hotel services, fintech firms are shaking up the traditional banking and financial services industry.
Singapore’s fintech drive comes as its role as an offshore private banking center is under threat from a multi-billion-dollar money laundering scandal in neighboring Malaysia, and as Indonesia chases undeclared money parked in the low-tax city state.
Also, Singapore’s traditional shipping and manufacturing growth drivers are faltering amid a global economic slowdown and a slump in commodity prices and demand.
Singapore is attracting interest, too, from among the 60,000 or so fintech firms based in London’s near-$9 billion market — a trend likely to accelerate with Britain’s referendum vote to leave the European Union.
“We already have registered interest from UK-based companies to move to Asia as it’s getting very crowded there,” said Markus
Gnirck, partner and co-founder of tryb, a fintech consultancy. “Brexit will probably accelerate a few of these conversations.”
Britain’s soft approach to regulation and its influence on Europe would likely wane with “Brexit” and any new barriers that would create.
“In the long term (this) makes Europe much less attractive as a place for entrepreneurs,” Taveet Hintikus, chief executive officer of peer-to-peer money transfer firm TransferWise, told a World Economic Forum session in the Chinese city of Tianjin this week, saying that his firm was looking at Asia for expansion, and Singapore seemed a more vibrant fintech hub than Hong Kong. —