The Wall Street Journal reports on the prevalence of digital investment risk in China; notes 5,700 firms registered with the Association of Shanghai Internet Financial Industry; provides examples of losses from companies including Cosun and Shanghai Kuailu Investment Group. Source
As of September 2016, WeChat had 768 million active users; the service is owned by Tencent; social cash sent to users through customized red packets or red envelopes has been one factor driving increased usage; WeChat has also been helping fuel a cashless society with 300 million users using WeChat Pay; expanding features and red packet promotional efforts have helped the company report an estimated value of $80 billion which is approximately half of Tencent's market cap. Source
New Zealand-based Xero provides cloud-based accounting software for small and medium size businesses; it has now announced new agreements to integrate its software with working capital financing platforms MarketInvoice, iwoca and DueCourse; the business integrations will help to better facilitate invoice finance lending and working capital credit for businesses using Xero. Source
Hongling Capital Monday had a press conference after the company announced to close its online lending business last week; Hongling Capital will be "upgraded" to Hongling Holding, and the latter will focus on industry finance, investment banking, asset management and wealth management, Hongling Chairman Zhou Shiping said in the press conference. Source (Chinese)
Fox Fintech, an affiliate of Sohu.com, was able to obtain the first micro-credit license by the Ningbo City Government in China; Alex Ho, Fox Fintech Group's founder and CEO, commented, "We are applying advanced technologies in big data, facial recognition, machine learning and self-developed algorithms to bring efficient, convenient and inclusive credit service to China."; the internet micro-credit license allows for Fox Fintech to lend across the country, traditional micro-credit licenses are limited to the city where they are approved. Source
SoftBank is a telecommunications and internet focused business with its headquarters in Japan; the firm has announced it will be acquiring asset manager Fortress Investment Group for $3.3 billion; SoftBank owns and invests in a range of internet and digital businesses; the acquisition follows a previous collaboration between SoftBank and Fortress on a new $100 billion Vision Fund; Fortress will be run independently from SoftBank after the acquisition and will be led by existing Fortress principals Pete Briger, Wes Edens and Randy Nardone with close collaboration on the Vision Fund. Source
According to the Wall Street Journal, PayPal and bitcoin have been used for funding Islamic terrorist attacks in Indonesia; the virtual payments were reported to be more difficult to track; the Indonesian Financial Transactions Report and Analysis Center says terrorism financing cases have increased in the country from 12 in 2015 to 25 in 2016. Source
Southeast Asia’s largest bank, DBS Bank, has been one of the most innovative and profitable; while presenting at a Credit Suisse investment conference DBS CFO Chng Sok Hui said they could raise the return on equity to 14.5 percent; the digital customers are three times as valuable to the bottom line of the bank; DBS has implemented chatbots and other innovative technologies to improve the digital experience for a customer who is increasingly using their phones to bank. Source.
The Cambridge Center for Alternative Finance (CCAF) has released its first report on the alternative finance market, titled, "Africa & Middle East Alternative Finance Benchmarking Report"; the report was created with support from Energy4Impact, UKAid and CME Group Foundation; for 2015 the report cites growth of 59% and a total market of $242 million; Robert Wardrop, executive director at the CCAF says development trends in Africa and the Middle East had a different focus which was on equity crowdfunding and online micro finance as opposed to consumer and business P2P lending in other global markets. Source
