Southeast Asia’s fintech industry will have to maintain a delicate balance between promoting innovation and implementing strong regulatory frameworks. As this industry evolves, regulators across the region should work together to take proactive measures and collaborate to protect consumers and encourage fair and responsible financial practices. 

This year promises to be an exciting one for Indonesia’s fintech sector. While it still focuses on two main verticals—electronic payment and peer-to-peer (P2P) lending—the Indonesian fintech sector has grown to cover other verticals, such as aggregators, innovative credit scoring, financial planning, and project financing. Lawyers talk about what’s on the horizon for this booming industry.

Fintech in Indonesia is rapidly growing, buoyed by a young population, quick Internet adoption, and innovative new businesses. However, lawyers say that policies and regulations need to keep up with this growth, so as to ensure business innovation continues and customers are not left out in the cold.

In early November, Ant Group’s planned $37-billion blockbuster dual listing in Shanghai and Hong Kong was brought to a halt by financial regulators. In the same day, Chinese regulators also published draft rules to boost the oversight of online micro-lending.

Last year, the Monetary Authority of Singapore announced that it would be issuing digital bank licenses, as the city-state seeks to liberalise its banking sector.

China is becoming one of the world’s key countries for the development of financial technology, and lawyers are set to reap the benefits.

Financial technologies (FinTech) have the potential to supplement or disrupt the financial services industry, with internet banking and mobile payment applications as obvious early examples.

The Asia-Pacific region has become a hub for financial technology or fintech, attracting almost $30 billion in investment last year, according to Accenture. And as fintech businesses proliferate, lawyers find their hands full advising these exciting new companies.

In the first part of a series of articles on legal and regulatory issues in specific industries, we look at fintech, one of the fastest-growing sectors in Asia.