Kota Samarahan: The Financial Technology Enabler Group (FTEG) conducted a FinTech Hacks session at Universiti Malaysia Sarawak (Unimas) on 11 May, from 2.00pm to 5.00pm at the Centre of Academic Information Services (CAIS) Auditorium.
Close to 50 students from various undergraduate programs in Unimas attended the three-hour session.
FTEG was established by Bank Negara Malaysia (BNM) in June 2016 and acts as a cross-functional committee responsible for formulating and enhancing regulatory policies to facilitate the adoption of technological innovations in the Malaysian financial services industry.
Chaired by Aznan Abdul Aziz, Director of the Financial Sector Development Department, it serves as BNM’s dedicated contact point for fintech related queries including on regulatory matters related to the adoption of fintech in the financial services industry.
Fintech, short form for financial technology, refers to computer programmess and other technology used to support or enable banking and financial services. Globally, it is estimated that the value of fintech investments will be around US$40 billion by 2020 (source: statista – The Statistics Portal). In Malaysia, the presence of fintech is still in early days, but is growing rapidly.
The three-hour Fintech Hack session at Unimas is part of Bank Negara (through FTEG) initiative to identify pain points in the delivery and consumption of financial services.
Basically, it is a way to seek ideas from the public on the improvements to financial services sector by harnessing innovation and technology.
The session at Unimas includes a talk session about Fintech by the representative from Fintech Association of Malaysia (FAOM), Dato Hassan Said, followed by a forum session which includes Dato Hassan and also Amelia Lim, the Head of Marketing for GoBear Malaysia. GoBear is a financial comparison site, and also the first among FinTech companies to emerge from the Financial Technology Sandbox Framework from Bank Negara Malaysia.
The last activity for the session was an idea brainstorming session facilitated by Miss IlyFarhana Ahmad Illahidan Miss Nurul Aqasya binti Anis, both from the Financial Sector Development Department, Bank Negara Malaysia.
The three hours session is well received by the students, and it is hoped that the session will provide a brief introduction about fintech to students with the hope that they will further explore fintech for their field of study and also as a career of choice upon graduation.
