Thought Leadership

Emir Hrnjic, Head of FinTech Training and Senior Research Fellow, Asian Institute of Digital Finance, National University of Singapore discusses why so many local players have been caught out by the MAS’ decision to cease Wirecard’s services here, and whether is this an opportunity for  fintechs to come up with innovative e-payment solutions.

“I’m an illiterate” would be an awkward admission in any society. Admitting one’s innumeracy, however, very much depends on the culture. My many encounters while living in North America suggest that quite a substantial segment of the population wouldn’t hesitate to say: “I’m not good at mathematics.”

News broke recently that fintech company Railsbank has agreed to acquire its competitor Wirecard UK’s remaining assets, clients, and a number of employees. Moreover, Wirecard sold its operations in Brazil and advanced the process of selling its North American operations. [PDF Link]

The Wirecard scandal has revealed that even major companies involved in online payments may be disastrously unreliable and might even enable illegal transactions such as money laundering, according to the Financial Times. [PDF Link]

I would contend that within a decade, many of us will routinely deal in digital currencies, given the strength and intensity of the economic forces unleashed by digital technologies. Money, a medium of exchange, was a necessity-driven human invention long before the advent of written history.