Yangon, Myanmar – 10 May 2018 – What will be the new banking future? Banks are innovating. There is an increase in banking fintech partnership. Blockchain and fintechs are enabling finance. These global trends are shaping the new financial landscape and creating opportunities for emerging Asia as it adopts and transforms its rapidly evolving financial sector.
The 3rd Emerging Asia Banking & FinTech Summit 2018 will convene next month on June 26-27 in Yangon, Myanmar. The Summit is timely given the rapid deployment of digital banking platforms by banks and financial institutions in this region. Regulators in this region – including Thailand, Vietnam, Singapore, Malaysia, India, Myanmar and Cambodia – are all working at defining the right framework to promote the sustainable development of the sector. Myanmar is widely recognized as one of the last true frontier economies that can have significant last mover advantages in implementing and leapfrogging technology cycles. Numerous policy reforms have been introduced, investments in payment infrastructure have been made and steps taken to allow foreign participation in the banking sector. With a population of more than 50 million, over 90% of its people are still unbanked. FinTech has been identified as an effective vehicle to drive true financial inclusion driven by rapid mobile penetration rate – telcos are expected to cover 90% of the population within the next two to three years compared to 10% five years ago. There are many core challenges facing regulators and financial institutions as they capitalise on digital opportunities. Deloitte predicts that smart phone owners will interact with their phones on average 65 times per day in 2023, a 20% increase over 2018. Incorporating mobile functionality in banking platforms is therefore a necessity.Regional Speakers leading the discussions on financial services innovation at this 2018 Summit include Buncha Manoonkunchai, Senior Director of the Financial Technology Department, Bank of Thailand; Tim Scheffmann, CEO of Scheffmann Ltd; Veiverne Yuen, Co-founder & CIO of Tryb Group; and Hitoshi Okada, Information and Society Research Division Associate Professor at the National Institute of Informatics, Japan. Rajeev Kumar Gupta, SHIFT Programme Manager for ASEAN & SAARC, United Nations Capital Development Fund (UNCDF) will be sharing their latest studies on financial inclusion in Myanmar, Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos. Senior representatives from banks engaging in robust panel discussions and succinct presentations include Azeem Azimuddin, CFO & Advisor to the Chairman, AYA Bank; Dr Thaung Han, MD & CEO of Myanmar Citizens Bank; and Mark Flaming, Chief Digital Officer of Yoma Bank; amongst others. Stanley Ang, Regional Business Development Manager of Pacific Tech Pte Ltd, one of the Summit Exhibitors, said: “As the war for cybersecurity rages on, this continues to hinder organizations who drive for digital transformation adoption. Organization need to implement fabric based security framework to provide centralized visibility, orchestration and control security strategy. Fortinet Security Fabric security strategy is here to enable the organization to secure their data, workflows and resources while meeting the performance and complexity challenges infrastructure environment.” Maggie Tan, CEO of the conference-organizing company Magenta Global Pte Ltd, commented: “Banks are changing. In the increasing competitive digital era, today’s banks can only be as good as their technology platform. Banks are really thinking about what is happening in their space and making partnerships with fintech. We invite you to deliberate on the many interesting issues at this Summit.”

The two-day event will be held at the ParkRoyal Hotel in Yangon, Myanmar.

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