Ernst & Young announced its annual Fintech Asia 100 list at the Singapore FinTech Festival; Next Money, Ernst & Young and Visa all contributed to the list; statistics from the list reported 26% of the individuals were female, 38 entrepreneurs, 41 CEOs, 15 different markets, India with the most members on the list at 18, and Singapore, Hong Kong and mainland China with 15. Source
One of China's e-commerce giants, Baidu, has obtained regulatory approval for Baixin Bank; follows banking sector business activity from competitors Alibaba and Tencent; the banking unit will be digital only, offering online banking, telephone banking, ATM and mobile banking services; Baidu owns 30% of Baixin Bank and will work in partnership with China CITIC Bank which currently owns 70% of the bank. Source
Tencent has reported plans in a white paper for the development of a blockchain platform; the firm says it plans to use the platform for offering digital asset management, authentication and shared economies, among other services; the firm also says the platform will help it to collaborate with other firms; in its white paper, Tencent also advocates for blockchain development and government integration in China. Source
Dianrong and FnConn have launched Chained Finance, a blockchain lending platform for supply chain companies; according to Soul Htite, founder and CEO of Dianrong, "Chained Finance creates a unique ecosystem that will provide supply chains with easier access to funding at competitive rates."; the companies report the platform could triple financing access for supply chain companies. Source
Sequoia Capital and IDG Capital are investing in Bitmain, the world's largest bitcoin mining company; Bitmain is seeking $50 million in funding to expand its artificial intelligence capabilities, after previously focusing on developing chips for mining; Bitmain claimed in August that the company is at a $1 billion valuation, and is planning an IPO. Source
Forbes has released its 30 Under 30 Asia 2017 list of top venture capitalists and fintech entrepreneurs; the list includes fintech entrepreneurs managing P2P lending platforms in India, Philippines, China and South Korea; some of the top entrepreneurs in marketplace lending include Zhang Xiaoliang, cofounder of Beijing Kuaikuai Network Technology, and Wang Zeng, founder of Mujinnong. Source
Bank account applicants must now have assets at the bank averaging 5 million yuan ($730,000) per day over the past three months, this threshold is an increase from 50,000 yuan ($7,280); the changes are being enacted to help restrict capital outflows and ease depreciation of the yuan; sources also report that the Bank of China has taken steps to set additional terms for restricting capital outflow; China Construction Bank and the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China have reported they have no intention to implement similar rules. Source
Koubei was founded in 2015 with investment from Alibaba and Ant Financial; the firm offers online e-commerce services for merchants and is part of a diversified group of Alibaba affiliates; in January the firm reported new capital of $1.1 billion from external investors; investors now supporting the firm include Silver Lake, CDH Investments, Yunfeng Capital and Primavera Capital. Source
China ranks top among 20 world markets in terms of fintech adoption, with 69% of surveyed consumer respondents saying they are actively using fintech services, 33 percentage points higher than the global average, according to a report by consultancy services provider EY; the report is based on more than 22,000 online interviews in 2017; around 64% of fintech users said they prefer using digital channels to manage "all aspects of their life"; money transfer and payment services are major drivers of the fast growth, said the report. Source
The Bitcoin Cash (BCC) blockchain has successfully split away from the legacy chain; the block was mined by the China-based mining pool Viabtc at 2:14 pm EDT; the first Bitcoin Cash block was 1.9 MB in size, holding 6,985 transactions - much larger than BTC's 1MB limit and approximately 3,000 transaction throughput. Source
