Singapore FinTech Festival 2019
Now on its fourth run, the Singapore FinTech Festival (SFF) is the largest FinTech event in the world with over 60,000 attendees and 130 countries represented in the 5-day event.
SFF is the best platform to keep abreast of leading innovations, network and collaborate with industry leaders, and stay up to date on trends in the global FinTech landscape.
The SFF recognizes the most innovative FinTech solutions and leaders from startups and large enterprises in finance and technology in across Asia.
This year was UnionBank’s first time as a major sponsor of the event alongside the likes of Visa, Google, IBM, DBS and Deloitte among others. It was also the second year in a row the bank was an exhibitor and remains as the lone Philippine bank with a presence at the event.
This year was UnionBank’s first time as a major sponsor of the event alongside Visa, Google, IBM, DBS and Deloitte among others. It was also the second year in a row that the bank was an exhibitor and remains as the lone Philippine bank with a presence at the event.
At this year’s booth, UnionBank showcased its multi-awarded products that truly demonstrate why it is the Best Digital Bank in the Philippines. SFF goers experienced over 30 of the bank’s most innovative products and initiatives. At the frontlines were the API Marketplace, blockchain products and pilots by UnionBank and UBX, Convergent Banking, and the Blockchain Institute among others.
Sustainability and Tech
This year’s SFF highlighted Sustainability; Finance and Tech; Future of Finance; Investment and Global Markets Opportunities and Exponential Technologies in its various conferences in the 5-day event.
UnionBank was lauded for its impressive booth design which included a Netflix-like app to browse through products, an interactive wall for blockchain initiatives of the bank, and a second floor lounge for key meetings and press engagements. Philippine touches were added to the design and experience, showing that UnionBank and more importantly the country are fintech-ready, globally competitive, and ripe for innovation.
The first day of SFF also made way for the unveiling of the Tech Up Pilipinas booth powered by UnionBank which hosted the Distributed Ledger Technology Association of the Philippines, the Fintech Philippines Association and eight of the leading fintechs and startups from the Philippines such as GCash, Coins.ph, and DragonPay among others.
The Only PH Bank at the SFF
Our second year at the SFF proves that our mission to Tech Up the Philippines and promote the world-class Filipino talents and technology is growing. With UnionBank remaining the only Philippine bank at SFF for the second year in a row, it is clear why we continue to have the reputation as the “Best Digital Bank”.
Key initiatives between UnionBank and international partners were also showcased. Our API use case with global location platform HERE Technologies showed on-stage how through the Monetary Authority of Singapore and International Finance Corporation (IFC) supported API Exchange (APIX), we engage in cross-border experimentation and collaboration with leading tech companies.
The Send-i2i pilot of cross-border remittance using PayNow, tokenized fiat and blockchain technology was also launched. This initiative is a partnership between UnionBank, OCBC Bank, Adhara, UBX and Cantilan Bank.
Meanwhile, UBX launched its partnership with Ping An on SeekCap, an SME lending marketplace in the Philippines.
The bank continuously builds a name for itself as “a technology company, also a bank.” This coming of age is resounding in the Philippines and across Asia with top-tier media outlets such as Channel News Asia, Nasdaq, and Bloomberg among others that sought out to cover UnionBank at SFF – truly taking UnionBank and the Philippine fintech industry to the world.
Furthermore, Singaporean Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong chose UnionBank as one of the few booths to visit, while BSP Governor Benjamin Diokno graced the UnionBank and Tech Up Pilipinas booths as well. Governor Diokno proudly remarked, “Wow, magaling pala tayo! Thank you UnionBank for carrying the country’s flag”.
Forging Partnerships
It is also a notable milestone for the bank and our FinTech subsidiary, UBx to be the first Philippine partners of the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) Business Sans Borders (BSB).
The Memorandum of Understanding signed will allow Philippine SMEs to gain access to the BSB ecosystem of buyers, sellers, logistics service providers, financing and digital solution providers. This will help the SMEs continuously grow their businesses and empower them to go digital.
Sentro, a comprehensive marketplace of products and solutions will soon be integrated with MAS’ BSB.
The Team Behind the Successful Participation of UnionBank at SFF 2019
UnionBankers who participated in the SFF did an exemplary job in representing the organization as a technology company, also a bank.
Our President, Edwin R. Bautista together with our Chairman, Justo A. Ortiz, who tirelessly introduced our products and services to the visitors lead the whole team.
At the conclusion of the event, ERB left an inspiring message, “To all who made our SFF participation a success – kids and the not so young ones who manned the booths, the Teams who collaborated to create and deploy our showcased products/platforms/services, the people who got our customer onboards, those who supported them – congratulations and thank you. Tito and I were like proud fathers during the event watching in amazement what you guys have achieved!”