How FinTech Is Taking Over the East
How do you compete in today’s competitive business world? You fund startups. These are the companies that are showing innovation and are making a real impact in the world.
When it comes to the ever-stretching reach of FinTech, this truth is incredibly important. FinTech is changing the financial field and no one wants to be the last one to the party (or the one who stayed home).
When you realize this, Thailand’s push to fund their FinTech startup industry makes perfect sense. The Thai economy is growing as the country becomes more industrialized and Thailand needed to find a way to compete and thrive on the world stage. After all, in order to be considered a real player in the new global economy, countries need to show their innovative nature and their technological savvy and FinTech is how you do this.
Like we’ve seen in North America (for a quick recap read here and here), the major financial institutions are partnering with local startups in order to access the new technology and upgrade their services. Kasikorn Bank, for example, has started a tech fund called Beacon to support the development of startups and Bangkok Bank has its own accelerator program. Siam Commercial Bank, meanwhile, has started Digital Ventures and aims to use this subsidiary to help remake the Thai financial marketplace and support Thai startups.
Of course, the move to embrace FinTech startups helps more than just the entrepreneurs running the companies. These new startups will bring financial services to the section of the Thai population who so far have been unable to access them. Considering the low levels of banking use in the country, this is an excellent thing.
The FinTech technology is doing an amazing job of remaking our broken finance system and billions of people will finally get banking access thanks to its initiative. In a way, FinTech is uniting the world.