Breaking Banks Asia Pacific

Breaking Banks Asia gets the inside look at the incredible innovation and technological changes that are setting the standard for the rest of the world. Led by host Rachel Williamson, we talk to the people across Asia about how their ideas came together, what innovations they are bringing to fintech, and the shifts in customer behavior that are forecasting what will happen in the rest of the world.

Episode 21: What does 2024 hold for fintech in China? 

2024 is shaping up as the Year of the e-CNY, but can China be trusted with a global reserve CBDC? Our last guest Richard Holden says no. Cashless author Richard Turrin offers a full-throated reply, saying the rise of the digital Yuan is a lack of trust in the US dollar and how the US…

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Episode 20: Money in the 21st Century

Host Charis Palmer sits down with economist Richard Holden to chat about his new book: Money in the 21st Century and why he believes the US Fed needs to get going with a ‘Fedcoin’, and the global economics of #crypto #cbdcs #mobilemoney and #cheapmoney and how we’ll all transact in our future cashless world. Produced…

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Episode 19: Hot takes from the 2023 Singapore Fintech Festival

The hosts and producers of Breaking Banks Asia and Breaking Banks Europe get together to swap stories at the world’s biggest fintech event. Plus interviews on the sidelines with DigiFT founder and former Citibank China Deputy CEO Henry Zhang, and Lito Viullanueva, Founding Chairman of the Fintech Alliance of the Philippines and Chief Innovation & Inclusion…

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Episode 18: Standard Chartered CEO Bill Winters on why he loves fintechs

He’s the CEO of one of the world’s biggest banks, but has never been afraid of disrupting the mother ship with digital contenders. In Singapore recently for the fintech festival, we caught up with Standard Chartered CEO Bill Winters for a wide-ranging conversation on why he’s such a fan of fintechs, the bank’s support for…

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Episode 17: You can bank on it: trust and winning customers from incumbent banks

Trust in banks in some markets in the Asia Pacific is at an all time low – so you’d think that would give fintechs and neobanks a red hot chance at stealing main bank customers – think again! In this episode we explore the nuance of trust in digital banking, the relationship between good tech…

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Episode 16: India’s green shadow banking system

India is putting the legal building blocks in place that will create real domestic carbon markets, and it is opening the door for fintechs to begin playing a significant role in fixing the country’s environmental problems. But while the PayUs of India — the country’s largest payments provider — are getting on board by offering…

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Episode 15: Can we trust banks to use AI responsibly?

The Australian government is in the middle of a review of AI use, fielding submissions in response to a paper it put out in June on government mechanisms to ensure AI is developed and used safely and responsibly.    While many of Australia’s Asian neighbours have taken a light touch approach to regulating AI, all…

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Episode 14: How Asia’s Gen Z will change global fintech

There’s no doubt Gen Zs will change fintech as we know it, but the ones likely to have the most influence? Kids today in Asia.  Fintech ideas born in Asia are starting to influence trends around the world. That means the almost 1 billion children and young adults who count as Gen Z, and who were…

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Episode 13: YOLO: Is the activist mindset hitting banking yet? 

There’s a whole movie coming out about the YOLO investing that really messed up some hedge funds and short sellers in 2021. Could we one day expect a movie (we’d even be ok with a made-for-streaming series) about the same kind of you-only-live-once, grassroots take down of… banking?  Dr Usman Chohan says that attitude is…

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Episode 12: When does a fintech become a bank? 

When does a fintech become what they set out to disrupt? Is it when they start offering bank-like products? Get a banking licence? Is it when they go all-in and buy an actual bank? In this episode we ask whether this is good, bad, or something else for competition. The Asian Banker founder Emmanuel Daniel…

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Episode 11: Conflict fintech: what it’s like to lead a company through civil war and crisis

In 2021 Myanmar went through a series of shocks, beginning with a coup d’état in February when the military overthrew the government and ending with a bank run. Brad Jones, the founding CEO of smartphone-based fintech Wave Money, was in the thick of it, working through the Internet ban and supporting staff as well as…

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Episode 10: The bank staying the crypto course 

Once again it looks like the digital asset house is burning down, but in Asia the smoke is clearing — or so believes the Singapore-based digital asset team at Standard Chartered. We talk to the bank’s global head of digital assets Rene Michau and the brand new head of digital assets and governance Danielle Szetho about…

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