China

Washington, D.C., March 27th, 2020 –SimpleCredit became the newest member of the SME Finance Forum, a global membership network that brings together financial institutions, technology companies, and development finance institutions to share knowledge, spur innovation, and promote the growth of SMEs. 

Washington, D.C., February 20th, 2020 – WeBank became the newest member of the SME Finance Forum, a global membership network that brings together financial institutions, technology companies, and development finance institutions to share knowledge, spur innovation, and promote the growth of SMEs. 

DBS Bank is to offer multi-tier financing on a logistics blockchain platform named Rong-E Lian, to help small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in China get faster access to trade financing. 

Article via Finextra.
 

Member CreditEase, a Beijing-based leading FinTech conglomerate in China, announced today that its CreditEase FinTech Investment Fund (CEFIF), participated in the recent $10 million Series A funding round of Railsbank, a London-based Banking-as-a-Service (BaaS) platform that promises to give technology companies access to financial services using its API platform. Railsbank already has several clients across the UK and Europe and is in the process of opening its Asia-Pacific office in Singapore.

The phenomenon can be traced to the development of emerging economies that picked up just as smartphones were catching on. Millions of people in Asia's emerging markets missed the personal computer era but have leapfrogged straight to smartphones, and using apps is second nature to them.

Read more about WeChat and Go-Jek here.

With initiatives coming from both public and private sectors, including traditional institutions and fintech start-ups, SMEs stand to gain from fintech initiatives within the next few years. 

Those that make the move to digitize their businesses will be able to capitalize on these new products and solutions to improve their business performance.
Read in this article a list of key banking innovations creating new opportunities for SMEs in Southeast Asia:

"If you want to see the future of fintech, just go to China," said Edith Yeung, managing partner of Proof of Capital, a blockchain-focused investment firm at a breakfast roundtable Fortune hosted at its inaugural Brainstorm Finance conference earlier this year.
She cited Alibaba-spinoff Ant Financial and Tencent's WeChat as paragons of digital banking and payments.

The mobile banking units of e-commerce giant Alibaba and internet conglomerate Tencent Holdings are changing the landscape of financial services in China, lending to more than 100 million people so far, including those in rural areas and microbusiness owners.