Janet Young is Managing Director and Group Head, Channels & Digitalization and Strategic Communications & Brand at UOB. She tells us more about the transformation of the financial services industry in ASEAN countries and about how UOB is reinventing itself by addressing customers’ changing needs and going beyond banking services.
You recently released a report that shows that ASEAN’s share of global fintech funding is growing, especially in Singapore and Indonesia. How do you explain that?
According to the FinTech in ASEAN 2022 report by UOB, PwC Singapore and the Singapore FinTech Association (SFA), key drivers contributing to fintech growth in ASEAN include rising smartphone penetration, growth of e-commerce spending and a large unbanked population leading to investors’ interest in the region.
Singapore and Indonesia remain the two markets that most investors and fintechs are focused on within the region. The former is due to the maturity of its financial markets and regulator which facilitates trust in young and fast-growing sectors such as fintech, and the latter for the market potential it offers.
• As a financial hub, Singapore’s role would be that of a fundraising center to leverage on its developed financial markets, whereas Indonesia’s market size and growing economy would naturally draw fintechs and investors alike to it.
• This is reflected in the rankings of each country in terms of aggregate fundraising, the number of deals undertaken, and the aggregate number of fintechs operating in each market, each of which has Singapore in first place with Indonesia second.
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