As Finovate goes increasingly global, so does our coverage of financial technology. Finovate Global is our weekly look at fintech innovation in developing economies in Asia, Africa, the Middle East, Latin America, and Central and Eastern Europe.
FinovateMiddleEast returns to Dubai next week, November 20 and 21. Learn about our Day One and Day Two agendas, our demoing companies, and then visit our FinovateMiddleEast registration page and pick up your ticket today.
Central and Southern Asia
- Yes Bank launches India’s largest banking developer platform.
- Pakistan-based digital lending platform Finja closes $3 million convertible note funding round.
- India’s National Stock Exchange launches an open trading API sandbox.
Latin America and the Caribbean
- Mastercard partners with Mexico’s weex wallet to offer physical debit cards.
- Colombian fintech Simetrik inks agreement to serve as payment gateway for Mercado Pago transactions.
- Brazilian lender Banco Inter unveils new e-commerce app.
Asia-Pacific
- MoneyGram and Wing partner to launch new mobile wallet in Cambodia.
- Bank of International Settlements (BIS) and the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) agree to locate the BIS Innovation Hub Centre in Singapore.
- New Hong Kong license in hand, Tencent announces plans to build a blockchain-based digital bank.
Sub-Saharan Africa
- Visa acquires minority stake in Nigerian digital payments company Interswitch Group, an investment that takes the African firm’s valuation to $1 billion.
- South African P2P insurance provider Pineapple wins $1.5 million (R22.5 million) in taking home top prize in the Connecticut Innovations VentureClash 2019 competition.
- Kenya institutes data protection law to support investment in its technology sector.
Central and Eastern Europe
- Billon, a Polish-British blockchain company, joins initiative with Raiffeisen Bank International to digitize the euro.
- Trusted identities innovator OneSpan partners with Poland’s Bank Millennium.
- Visa teams up with Georgian challenger bank Space.
Middle East and Northern Africa
- A new interest-free, credit service, Postpay, goes live in Dubai.
- Executive Magazine looks at the fintech industry in Lebanon and the role of regulation in stimulating growth.
- Tunisia announces the digitization of its national currency, the dinar, making the first country to convert a portion of its money supply to digital form.