Singaporean fintechs engage with UAE digital bank

dubai - They are integrating with the banking and financial ecosystem in the UAE

HI-TRAC: The author's shorthand for Happiness Index, Infrastructure, Talent, Regulations, Access and Capital. The six pillars that make the UAE a great place for a startup. This week's article is about Infrastructure and Access.

Close on the heels of the world's biggest Fintech event - the Singapore Fintech Festival (November 12 to 16, 2018), the Singapore Business Council (SBC) partnered with Enterprise Singapore to organise 'Let's Go Fintech' in Dubai on November 24, 2018. The event showcased award-winning Fintechs from Singapore in conversation with a leading digital bank in the UAE.

First, some interesting information about the Singapore Fintech Festival. Narendra Modi, Prime Minister of India, Justin Trudeau, Prime Minister of Canada, Tharman Shanmugaratnam, Deputy Prime Minister of Singapore and chairman of the Monetary Authority of Singapore, Heng Swee Keat, Minister for Finance of Singapore, as well as Christine Lagarde, Managing Director, International Monetary Fund, attended the event. As did Ong Ye Kung, Minister for Education of Singapore and board member of the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS), Patrick Njoroge, governor of the Central Bank of Kenya, and Sonexay Sithphaxay, governor of Bank of the Lao PDR.

There was international representation from 16 countries - the UAE (both ADGM and Fintech Hive at DIFC had pavilions), Canada, Hong Kong, India, Ireland, Israel, Japan, Kazakhstan, Korea, Latin America, New Zealand, Philippines, Poland, Switzerland, United Kingdom and United States. There were over 250 speakers and over 500 exhibitors. Deals of close to $12 billion were anticipated.

But if you weren't one of the nearly 45,000 visitors and delegates to the Singapore Fintech Festival, there is still the opportunity to get up close with some of these developments via the SBC in the UAE.

The SBC is a non-profit body founded in 1999 and registered with the Dubai Chamber of Commerce and Industry. It operates under the patronage of the Consul-General of the Republic of Singapore in Dubai, as well as the Embassy of Singapore in Abu Dhabi.

Tiruselvi Krishnan-Kelly, president of the SBC, elaborated: "In line with our aim of connecting businesses and professionals, we successfully organised 'Let's Go Fintech' in collaboration with Enterprise Singapore. This was a first-of-its-kind event featuring Singapore Fintechs that are integrating with the banking and financial ecosystem in the UAE. I'm glad our members got to experience this first-hand."

The event featured short but powerful demonstrations and presentations followed by a candid and informative panel discussion. The event was by invitation only and held at Astrolab, JLT. Singapore is famous for its mouthwatering delicacies - a blend of Chinese, Malay and Indian flavours that uniquely outlines the culture of the 'Red Dot'. As usual, the event was book-ended by a journey into this cuisine.

The event commenced with a presentation by Jayash Patel, head of Liv. Bank, ENBD's digital bank. Speaking about the Fintech ecosystem in general, Patel said: "Banks will increasingly work with Fintechs to enable true customer centricity by leveraging the unique capabilities offered by multiple contexts enabling unique insights and experiences at a customer level."

This was followed by Charles Goh, CEO of Inspire-Tech which aims to help future-proof organisations of every size by revolutionising their digital workplace through convergent technologies that enhance productivity and workforce efficiency. David Yeng, CEO of InsureVite, came on next. The company's chatbot RPA platform is designed with the objective of helping insurers better connect and communicate with their customers and automate complex processes.

BetterTradeOff (BTO) represented by Robert Lonsdorfer, founder and CEO, along with Greg Samuel, CFO, did a demonstration of the B2B2C life-planning investment platform. BTO was a winner at the Singapore Fintech Festival awards. Lonsdorfer said: "Our co-creation platform augments advisers to move beyond products and engage clients in exciting lifestyle-centric discussions. Product recommendations now have context, their impact visible at a glance. Dreams and life events can be explored and planned out by the users in the intimacy of their own homes."

Speaking about the Fintech ecosystem in the UAE, Goh said: "The UAE's strategic location enables Inspire-Tech to grow regionally in the GCC and enter new markets in Europe and Africa. The diverse population provides excellent source of talents and networking opportunities to help us accelerate our penetration to the new markets."

Yeng endorsed this positive view, saying: "Financial institutions in the UAE are working towards adopting digital solutions, which to InsureVite, is a boon. Being in the UAE, and Dubai in particular, have enabled us to test our platform to a very diverse demography, enabling us to have a better understanding of different cultures. The openness of this market helps us settle quicker."
A well-received event with a promise of more to come.

The writer is founding partner at Bridge DFS, a bespoke financial advisory firm (www.bridgeto.us). Views expressed are his own and do not reflect the newspaper's policy. He can be contacted at sanjiv@bridgeto.us.