BankTech Asia aims to facilitate opportunities for Lankan fintech firms through global fintech chall

• The BankTech Asia Fin5ive Challenge 2017 is powered by Matchi, a fintech matchmaking firm recently acquired by KPMG

Powered by Matchi, BankTech Asia is scanning the globe for five leading fintech solutions to showcase to an audience of 200+ bankers from Asia at their ninth annual event in Kuala Lumpur from 5-6 July with the aim of fostering more fintech partnerships between the incumbents and the disruptors. The organisers of the international conference highlighted that Sri Lanka is amongst the countries they intend to receive applications from.

In tandem with the direction of regulators from Asia, BankTech Asia aims to use this challenge to introduce innovative world class fintech solutions to banks from around the region. Preparations for the BankTech Asia’s Fin5ive challenge kicked off with a fintech survey to 70 participating financial institutions from the Asia Pacific region to identify solutions that were the most strategically important for their bank.

Survey responses were collated to determine key focus areas which now form the five entry categories for the challenge. To enter, fintech firms must have an approved solution on the Matchi portal that is aligned with any one of below five categories:

 

• Category 1:  Mobile/Channel Solutions Mobile/channel solutions that enable banks to provide services to their customers e.g. wearable banking, mobile banking, chatbot
• Category 2:  Payments/Transactions/Remittances Solutions that enable payment/transactions/remittances to be performed efficiently and in a secure manner
• Category 3:  Process Automation Solutions that reduces manual processes within banks
• Category 4:  Financial Inclusion Solutions that deliver financial services at affordable costs to underserved customer groups
• Category 5:  Security/Identification/Biometrics Solutions that enhances the bank’s security against fraudsters, cyber-attacks, data-leaks, etc

Emphasising the synergy of this collaboration, the organiser, Knowledge Group General Manager Vincent Fong said, “The partnership with Matchi is very strategic for both parties with our reach to over 4,000 bankers from around Asia and Matchi’s global reach to over 3,000 fintech firms.” 

He then added, “Having just returned from the BankTech Asia Sri Lanka Conference in March, we feel that there’s a lot high potential fintech firms in Sri Lanka, we believe that this platform would be a great entry point for Sri Lanka Companies to enter the South East Asian Market.” 

The organisers stressed that the quality and relevance of the solution is of paramount importance. In an effort to ensure both those criteria are met, BankTech Asia and Matchi worked closely together to identify a set of industry experts with diverse background from across the region as the panel of judges. Among the panel of esteemed judges are:

• Amran Hassan, Head of Innovation, Maybank, Malaysia
• Paul Ark, CEO, Digital Ventures, Thailand
• Paolo Baltao, Senior Vice President, Union Bank, Philippines
• Markus Gnirck, Founder, tryb Capital, Singapore
• David Milligan, CEO, Matchi, South Africa

The BankTech Asia Fin5ive challenge opened for entry on Wednesday, 17 May and close on Wednesday, 31 May at 23:59 GMT. All entries will be validated and a shortlist will be individually scored against a set of criteria by an esteemed panel of judges.

The Fin5ive winners will be announced on Friday, 9 June. Each of the winning fintech solution providers will have the opportunity to demonstrate their solution live on stage at the BankTech Asia event in Kuala Lumpur from 5-6 July. They will also be given a free exhibition space and one-to-one networking opportunities at the FinMatch event.