As Finovate goes increasingly global, so does our coverage of financial technology. Finovate Global: Fintech News from Around the World is our weekly look at fintech innovation in developing economies in Asia, Africa, the Middle East, Latin America, and Central and Eastern Europe.
Middle East and Northern Africa
- SoFi announces $500 million investment led by Qatar.
- Emirates NBD to leverage technology from Amazon Web Services to build an AI-enabled “bank of the future”.
- New partnership between Turkey’s Isbank and Yandex.Checkout to support transactions in rubles for Russians shopping online in Turkey.
Central and Southern Asia
- Strands strikes digital banking deal with India’s Tech Mahindra.
- BankBazaar to offer financing options for customers of furniture and home products marketplace Pepperfry.
- Amitabh Kant, CEO of Niti Aayog, a premier think tank of the Indian government, sees a $31 billion Indian fintech market by 2020.
Latin America and the Caribbean
- Brazilian exchange brokerage, Frente Corretora de Cambio, goes live with cross-border remittance solution powered by Ripple technology.
- World Finance features Sao Paulo among its Top 5 Emerging Fintech Hubs.
- IMFBlog looks at how fintech can lower remittance costs in Latin America.
Asia-Pacific
- The central bank of Indonesia, Bank Indonesia, unveils its Quick Response Indonesia Standard (QRIS), a new QR code system.
- Mastercard and UOB partner to introduce the UOB Retail Business Metal Card designed for APAC SMEs.
- B2B cross border payments company TransferMate picks up payment license in Singapore.
Sub-Saharan Africa
- Ghana’s ARB Apex Bank reups with Temenos.
- Titan Trust Bank of Nigeria chooses Oracle FSS for its core and digital banking technology.
- CNBCAfrica profiles South African payments and merchant acquiring solutions provider Crossfin.
Central and Eastern Europe