Asia Dominates Payment Innovation With 10 Years Of Growth
Big Tech's abusive relationship with banks and smart contracts explained.
Today’s artwork: Shower Below the Summit, from the series Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji, Katsushika Hokusai, 1830-32
Katsushika Hokusai is considered one of the greatest artists in Japanese history, and one of the important masters of the Japanese wood-block print. Hokusai’s most famous work is the series “Thirty-Six Views of Mount Fuji,” created between 1830 and 1832, when the artist was over seventy years of age.
Here, the mountain is shown with clear skies at its summit and a thunderstorm near its base. The combination of the elegant sloping sides of the volcano and the sharp, jagged lines of lightning at the bottom results in an image of great simplicity and visual force.
I use “Fintech at the speed of Asia” as the tagline or slogan for my newsletter, and this week, we’ve got three articles that show why this slogan is far more than a marketing ploy but the honest truth. Asia’s fintech simply astounds!
The top story is that Asia (APAC) came out on top in a massive report on payments for driving the most significant payment innovations. Regular readers won’t be surprised that the home of the superapp is doubling down on its lead.
This is matched by a report prepared for the Singapore Fintech Festival that showed ASEAN’s 10 years of fintech growth and how it avoided the decline in funding that hit Europe and the US.
Asia is getting wealthy, and digital wealth managers are ready to fight it out for $700bn in new funds from newly wealthy young digital-first residents. These younger clients are saying goodbye to heavy fees from traditional asset managers.
Leaving Asia behind, we have a story that impacts everyone, and that is Banks’ abusive relationship with Big Tech. I call it abusive because Big Tech has all the power.
Finally, I have a “Public Service Announcement" covering smart contracts.
I show how smart contracts are neither smart nor contracts, and while they are definitely part of our future, they need work.
I recommend everyone read this, as smart contracts are integral to CBDCs, tokenization, and our financial future.
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