A fresh report has revealed that Brazilian banking giant Banco Inter SA is exploring the option of tying up with ride-hailing giant Uber over a financial services partnership. A partnership of this nature is helpful to both the bank as well as the ride-hailing giant. A source who is close to the developments could not divulge the actual terms of any possible partnership, but it is believed that the partnership is targeted at Uber drivers in Brazil. In addition to the drivers, one must also consider the millions of customers of Banco Inter customers in the South American country. At this point in time, Brazil is one of the most important markets for Uber and has emerged as the biggest market after the United States.

As a matter of fact, Sao Paulo alone records the highest number of Uber rides for any city in the world. In this regard, it is important to point out that Uber has done something of a similar nature in Mexico. It partnered with Mastercard and BBVA to create a debit card for Uber drivers. Countries like Mexico mostly run on cash and such partnerships eventually help in bringing formal banking to unbanked people in a big way. Uber could be trying something of a similar nature in Brazil.

This move will also be beneficial to Uber’s biggest shareholder SoftBank, which has invested billions in South America in recent years. SoftBank has invested in Fintech and healthcare sectors in a big way. This move will, hence, help SoftBank’s larger vision of bringing millions of Brazilians into electronic payments platforms. Back in August, the Chief Operating Officer of SoftBank Marcelo Claure spoke about its plans in South America. He said,

“There are so much innovation and disruption taking place in the region and I believe the business opportunities have never been stronger.”

Leading cryptocurrency exchange Binance has announced the launch of Peer-to-peer trading also known as P2P in China. With the launch, the platform aims to extend support to traders making transactions via many popular Chinese payment apps like Alipay and Wechat Pay. The P2P services can be accessed by the citizens of China.

According to a report, Binance launched P2P trading functionality with ETH, BTC, and USDT for trading against the Chinese Yuan or CNY. Binance has emerged as the world’s leading crypto exchange platform in terms of volume. In the beginning, only Android users with Binance accounts will be able to access P2P trading functionality. Additionally, Android users must have registered the Binance accounts for more than 30 days.

Binance has also assured that it will gradually launch this service for iOS and web interface users.

Changpeng Zhao, CEO of Binance, took to his Twitter handle and divulged that they are beginning with China so that over 1.4 billion people can use the latest P2P functionality. The exchange will soon expand the service in several other regions. When asked about the options of choosing Alipay and Wechat Pay as a mode of payment for the service, Zhao revealed that the leading Chinese apps have been supported for users to make payments for one another without any direct involvement of the company.

As of now, Alipay and Wechat pay have been the dominant players in the local payment market for a few years. Users are allowed to use these two apps almost anywhere in the country. These apps QR codes can be displayed right from the vegetable sellers on streets to luxury retailers. China is fast moving in the direction to become a cashless society. A recent survey reflected a swift rise and popularity of mobile payments in the world’s most populous economy. People in China now seldom use cash to make their transactions.

Alipay and Wechat Pay have emerged a force to reckon with. Now Alipay and Wechat have become so popular in the country that it will not be a big surprise if they become popular with cryptocurrency investors in the coming time.

Zhao also clarified that Binance is in no direct connection with Alipay or Wechat to make these features accessible. He tweeted, “Some confusion by some news outlets.”

Meanwhile, the Malta-based Binance is also planning to provide its services in South Korea by launching a new exchange.

Zhao divulged the exchange plan to offers its services in a new market. In a bid to simplify the process, it has decided to collaborate with local news outlets and local associates.

Zhao said, “We do not know the details related to the establishment of the Korean branch. We are working with local partners, but we do not know the details.”

Binance spokesperson informed that the exchange is planning to work with a blockchain FinTech company, BxB and right now is in discussion with the firm. It has not yet taken any specific decision on it. The exchange has yet to decide and consider whether to build a branch in South Korea or not.

Zhao revealed that the exchange firm is clueless about the establishment details of its new headquarter in S.Korea.

It is a well-known fact that banks in India are in trouble but it seems that they could be saved by e-commerce behemoths like Amazon and Walmart-owned Flipkart. The credit has dried up from banks all across the country and in such a situation; it is hard for any bank to survive for long. At the end of the day, credit is the lifeblood of a bank and also of a thriving economy. That being said, the small loans meant for online shopping for Indian customers located in villages, towns and even in large cities, are chugging along at a decent pace. The money disbursed by the banks for online purchases are small but the volumes could eventually be huge due to the rapidly growing appetite for online shopping in the country.

The Indian economy is currently week but the big festive season sales conducted by Amazon India and Walmart-owned Flipkart saw both companies report record sales. Despite not being at the level of China, the two companies recorded combined sales of $3 billion according to a leading consulting firm. In addition to that, another market research firm has estimated that the spending could actually hit $5 billion by October end. However, the most important thing to mention in this regard is the fact that as much as 70% of the transactions that took place during these discount periods were done through credit methods.

That is a key statistic and goes to show that the appetite for online shopping could eventually lead to a revival in banks. On the other hand, a large percentage of the purchases made on both Amazon and Flipkart were from Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities in the country. Moreover, the fact that these loans are often paid off within a short turnaround time makes it an excellent debt asset for the bank. Internet penetration is growing in India at a breakneck pace and that will further help in developing the customer base all across the nation. Notably, extending its operation further, Amazon has come up with a fulfillment center in Rugby, Warwickshire for which, it will soon be hiring locally.

In a bid to provide more connected vehicles in the future, Audi has signed a memorandum of understanding with Deutsche Telekom and Ingolstadt City. According to the press released by the German carmaker, this agreement will enable Audi to use 5G Technology in its cars in the future. The primary aim of the agreement is to provide safe urban mobility with the help of 5G and to aid the overall sustainability of transportation in the coming years. Recently Deutsche Telekom Organization hires a blockchain professor in association with a berlin-based university.

Connected Cars

Audi is planning to use 5G Technology in its future vehicles significantly, and the use of this higher bandwidth will help the occupants to have data access on a real-time basis. 5G will open new avenues of communication between the vehicles on the road, and it could pave the way for the number of future driving technologies included in the automated one. Along with 5G Technology, the internet of things (IoT) will also play a crucial role in providing real-time data to connected vehicles.

Speaking on the development, Managing Director of Audi Electronics Venture GmbH, Peter Steiner, said that the company is working on the theme of “consistently connected” technology and aims to contribute towards improving the urban mobility across the globe. Together with its partners, Audi aims to develop sustainable solutions for safe transportation.

Future Scenarios

One possible future scenario of connected vehicles could manifest in the form of an exchange of information about the traffic and the parking spaces at various road junctions. That will help to streamline the movement of the vehicles as divers can fine-tune their movement according to the available information. Even cyclists and pedestrians are going to get benefited from the adoption of technology, and the overall exchange of information on a real-time basis will help save not only a lot of time but also cost associated with traffic jams and congestions.

The government is coming up with new initiatives so as to simplify the carrying business and to minimize the cost of doing business in Dubai. With these initiatives, Dubai’s economy is entering into a new development stage. Dubai is on its way to becoming a progressive base for all small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).

The Expo 2020 project of Dubai focuses on offering new opportunities to SMEs. World Expo first of its kind will be hosted in Africa, the Middle East, and South Asia. The main goal of the Expo 2020 is to give 20 percent of all contracts value to SMEs. As of now, Expo 2020 has invested around AED2.4 billion in the SME sector and is planning to launch a new round of tenders; these tenders will mostly rely on SMEs for delivery.

The important agency that is supporting the growth of SMEs in Dubai is ‘the Dubai SME’- it is the Department of Economic Development agency responsible for developing the SME sector in Dubai.

Dubai SME CEO, Abdulbaset Al Janahi, mentioned,

“Dubai offers a unique model for creating a vibrant SME sector. His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President, Prime Minister and Ruler of Dubai, has set ambitious development goals in the 50 Year Charter including the establishment of the world’s first virtual trade zone targeting 100,000 companies, as well as the transformation of universities into free zones in order to promote economic growth and innovation. These goals offer exceptional opportunities for promising small and medium enterprises.”

He later mentioned, Dubai SME will continue to provide more opportunities to its members and also boost SME capacity by offering training and consultation and also support collaborations with the private sector and the government. Financial support is one of the important elements of Dubai’s offerings for small-medium sized enterprises.

The objective of the Dubai Plan 2021 is to increase the GDP contribution of SMEs to 45 percent within 2021.

Department of Finance Launches New packages

Back in May 2019, Dubai’s Department of Finance introduced five new incentive packages. These packages were launched to assist SMEs and to promote public-private collaborations.

The first incentive package, within this package, SME suppliers to government departments will receive a payment within a month and need not wait for 90 days for payments as earlier, so as to offer SMEs with more liquidity of AED1.6 billion per year.

Previous, SMEs primary insurance value was between 2 to 5 percent and within the second initiative, the value has been reduced between 1 to 3 percent.

Within the third initiative, ‘performance insurance’ – the final insurance rate has been reduced to 5 percent from 10 percent on every supply.

The fourth initiative allows 5 percent of government capital projects to be provided to SMEs.

The last and fifth initiative consists of providing AED1 billion to public-private based projects.

The first incentive package was launched in 2018 and Dubai had introduced various steps to minimize costs and promote business reliability and it is also building a new specific SME cluster that aims at business innovation.

Recently, Dubai SME, Merras and the Department of the Economic Development collaborated to introduce Al Seef SME District- an innovation center across Al Seef.

The emergence of Fintech and technology into the financial world has been a big jolt to banks that had enjoyed a near monopoly for decades. However, the easy availability of the internet, cheap data plans, and internet-only banks have the potential of completely upending the banking sector in a way that was thought unimaginable even a decade ago. In fact, some of the biggest banks in the world risk surrendering a chink of their market share if they do not move quickly and it seems JP Morgan is currently in the process of taking on that challenge head-on.

According to sources close to the developments, the bank is currently developing a range of digital-first products under extreme secrecy in London, United Kingdom. Moreover, it would also help JP Morgan in gaining market share from its own rival banks that might not have the same level of digital services on offer. Although the sources which spoke to a leading tech magazine could not specify the exact nature of the products that are being built, it has emerged that JP Morgan is hiring personnel with skills in cloud computing and full stack development.

However, it is the secrecy element that makes this an intriguing project. People who are being hired have been asked to sign NDAs (non-disclosure agreements), and JP Morgan is going to run this particular division like an independent startup with no contact with the current tech initiatives that are being pursued by the bank at this point of time. That being said, it is being speculated, that the project in question is possibly a competing product of Marcus, the digital bank that was created by fierce rivals Goldman Sachs. Marcus is engaged in offering savings services and attractive interest rates to the clients. On the other hand, the launch of such a service by JP Morgan will also see it going head to head against companies like Atom and Raisin among others. Needless to say, it is an intriguing project, but everyone will be waiting for the eventual results with impatience.