OCBC Become The First Bank in South East Asia To Open Public API
Singapore-based bank OCBC made an interesting digital move just recently. The bank embraced the fintech wave by officially opening their internal data to be used as public API services called Connect2OCBC. This move is the first one in the region and no banks has ever done this before even though recently BCA has already moving in the direction by holding a Hackathon. Using this API, software developers can programmatically use OCBC’s data to enrich their own services.
Right now Connect2OCBC offers four different API access :
- Branch Locator : Give location data on all OCBC branch and their opening hours
- ATM Locator : List OCBC ATM machines location
- Smart Card Advisor : Give recommendation on perks and rewards for OCBC card holder
- Forex Rate : Give up to date FOREX rate
Quoted by The Edge Market, OCBC Senior VP for Group Operations and Technology Praveen Raina said that the bank aimed to create a ‘data social network’ which facilitates free flow of certain non-customer data that will benefit any third party and the community as a whole in a secure manner. Praveen added that OCB has been in discussion with several fintech startups and real estate firms in order to help them make an optimal use of this API’s.
“As we mature, we see more and more collaboration with third party app developers, and that’s where the ‘API economy’ comes in. Organisations that don’t do this will be left behind. This is no longer a matter of choice, whether we do it or not,” he added.
Developer manual and use case examples are available on Connect2OCBC site. Being asked about future plans, The bank are focusing to add more services to the platform and the additional services expected to be ready the end of the year. However there are still no information whether the data will include OCBC presence outside Singapore (e.g Indonesia).
More information on this : https://e27.co/no-kidding-ocbc-just-became-the-first-bank-in-southeast-asia-to-have-an-open-api-20160517/
Doku & Dycode Opened Indonesia IoT Challenge 2016
Indonesia online payment startup Doku held a developer competition called Indonesia Internet of Things (IoT) Challenge 2016. This competition invites young Indonesian software developer to submit their creative IoT products which integrates with Doku payment platform. Partnering with software development house DyCode, Doku offered total prize of 30 million IDR for the winners.
In the press release, Doku’s CEO said that this competition aimed to encourage young developers to show their talent and solve real problems using IOT and Payment platform. This competition is open for anyone and participant are free to choose their preferred programming language and IoT tools.
Participant will be judged on several criteria :
- Simplicity of the solution
- Technology understanding of the participant
- Hardware efficiency
- Esthetics and design
- Bonus points for good implementation of DOKU API in the solution
Submission is currently open until 28th of May and finalist will be announced on 5th of June 2016.
More information here : http://edu.dycode.co.id/idiot-challenge/
Finnet launched Finpay Link to Ease Payment via Social Media
Indonesian internet users has an unique habit of using Social Media as an e-commerce platform. Instagram and Facebook has become primary channel for online sellers to showcase their product especially for individual sellers and SME.
Leveraging on this phenomenon, Telkom affiliated company Finnet launched Finpay Link, an online payment gateway services tailored for Social Media sellers. With Finpay Link, sellers will be able to create customizable link for their product and embed them easily in social media. This will enable customer to instantly pay the products just like in ecommerce marketplace sites such as Elevenia or Lazada. More convenient options compared to current practice of doing manual bank transfer.
Finnet CEO Niam Dzikri said that manual bank transfer has 65% error rate. Most of this errors contributed by human factor such as mistyping the account number and payment amount. Finpay Link aim to minimize these mistakes and made payment process in Social Media selling more straight forward. Apart from this, Finpay link also offer real time confirmation notifications and bank account checking.
More information here : http://www.indotelko.com/kanal?c=bid&it=finpay-link-transaksi-ukm-goes-digital
Kredivo, online financing services with real time credit scoring
Singapore based startup, FinAccel, recently launched online financing services called Kredivo. This services enable its users to buy things online on credit which they can also pay it in installments. To do this, FinAcccel partnered with local financing companies BFI Finance.
What makes Kredivo interesting is it offers the capability to do real time credit risk assessment. When Kredivo users buy an item, the platform do a background check based on variety of information. There are about 1000 variables are considered to determine users credit score including self-reported data about income, employment, marital status, but also social network data like how often someone posts, how many friends you have, what type of phone you use etc.
Currently, Kredivo is integrated with 20 online merchants including e-commerce marketplace Jualo. Ahmed Aljunied, Jualo CTO said that they like the product very much and it give significant spike to the transaction.
” Consumers tend to be suspicious of online sellers, so the ability to receive their purchases without having paid a single cent is an extremely attractive proposition,”
Kredivo user has 30 days to pay for the item, without additional fees or interest. If payment isn’t completed in 30 days, interest will be charged with 2.95 percent per month and late fees of 3 percent a month.
More information on Kredivo : https://www.techinasia.com/startup-unlock-ecommerce-growth-southeast-asia
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