The COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated fintech adoption in Singapore, pushing demand for digital payment capabilities, virtual banking experiences, and buy now, pay later (BNPL) agreements. The blockchain and cryptocurrency sector is the most popular, accounting for 20% of all fintech firms in Singapore. Payments (17%), investment/wealth tech (13%), and regulatory technology (13%) come in second and third, respectively (10%).
The Top 3 Fintech Trends in Singapore for 2022:
1. Virtual Banking takes off
According to a new report by Fintech News Singapore and Alibaba Cloud, consumers and businesses are flocking to digital banking services, local BNPL players are raising massive rounds of funding, and PayNow, Singapore’s instant electronic payment service, is seeing massive volumes of transactions, demonstrating strong uptake of digital payments. As banking habits change and technology develops, Singaporean consumers and small and medium-sized businesses (SMEs) are rapidly adopting virtual banking, according to our analysis. Customer sign-ups for DBS Bank’s Digibank mobile app increased by 216 percent year over year between June and August 2020. (YoY). Digibank has a customer base of 3.5 million people.
Similar development has been reported by local rival Oversea-Chinese Banking Corporation (OCBC), which said that the number of new SME accounts created online increased by 2.4 times in Q1 2020 compared to the previous year. Similarly, in Q1 2020, United Overseas Bank (UOB) saw a 406% YoY rise in online investment product purchases. Customer expectations are evolving, and demand for digital financial services is increasing, resulting in an increase in virtual banking usage.
2. Digital Payments Accelerate
The rise of digital payment solutions, particularly e-wallets, is being fueled by the increase of online shopping, the shift toward cashless payments in brick-and-mortar establishments, and advancements in real-time payment. According to the FIS 2021 Global Payments Report, e-wallets were the second most common payment method for e-commerce purchases in Singapore in 2020, after credit cards. E-wallets are predicted to surpass credit cards and account for 27% of all online purchase transactions by 2024. Individual registrations for PayNow, Singapore’s peer-to-peer (P2P) financial transfer service based on the Fast And Secure Transfers (FAST) rapid interbank payment rail, increased by 1.6 million in 2020, increasing the total to 4.9 million. In the meantime, PayNow Corporate registrations have more than doubled to almost 240,000.
3. Increase use of BNPL
BNPL is another thriving fintech area in Singapore. BNPL arrangements are a sort of short-term financing that allows customers to buy something and pay for it over time.Since the beginning of the pandemic, these items have grown in popularity in Singapore, as consumers seek to stretch their dollars and online merchants aim to capitalize on the move to online channels to promote sales. According to Milleu Insight research, 30% of Singaporeans aged 25 to 40 have utilized a BNPL service. The greatest motivators for using BNPL services, according to 67% of users, are prizes or cashbacks. BNPL providers have stated that they are seeing a lot of traction and growth. During the epidemic, Hoolah, one of Singapore’s most famous players, had a 1,500 percent increase in transactions.
Conclusion
There are many ways to contribute to the fintech ecosystem, but first it is always best to have the basic understanding of what fintech really is. CFTE provides great fintech courses where you can chat with our CFTE’s customer support to guide you on which fintech path is best suited for you. You can check out the CFTE page to find out more about their self-paced flexible courses from Digital Payments to Open Banking and Artificial Intelligence in Finance. For Singaporean PR and residents, there are loads of subsidies and discounts 80-90% for your benefit, so just reach out to learning@cfte.education to find out more!
