Afin publishes global fintech registry

Created in collaboration with Boston Consulting Group FinTech Control Tower (BCG FCT) and Temasek-founded Affinidi, ChekFIN was officially announced today by Mr Ravi Menon, Managing Director of the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS), at the Singapore FinTech Festival 2021. ChekFIN will go live on December 1, 2021.

FIs have struggled with the time-consuming effort of finding and evaluating fintech firms before collaborating with them. Many of these issues such as excessive time consumed during the search for a relevant fintech firm stem from the lack of a platform that consolidates all relevant information. FIs also face challenges in assessing the firm’s compliance readiness, being assured of the firm’s credibility, and the inability to share key information in a single repository with relevant parties.

ChekFIN is built using the latest generation of internet Web 3.0 services, and will provide a decentralised, open standard, and trust-based solution enabling and empowering financial institutions to reduce the amount of time spent searching for and assessing a suitable partner firm. The platform includes unique features such as a comprehensive taxonomy and tagging system to facilitate easy search, easy access to aggregated and relevant information on firms in a single place, and the ability to assess their digital reputation and credibility using Verifiable Credentials (VCs) - a key element in ChekFIN.

VCs are a form of digital certificate that are machine-readable, tamper-evident, consent-driven, cryptographically secure and can be used to represent any type of information about its holder. When ChekFIN is launched, every FinTech will be allowed to share three specific credentials to start with - business references from existing financial institution customers, hackathon and other technical awards, and funding support and grants obtained. More VCs will be enabled and added in the future.

The platform will leverage BCG Fintech Control Tower’s assets, which tracks 27,000 fintech firms globally, providing invaluable insights to the fintech ecosystem at large. ChekFIN will also use technology built by Affinidi, a firm that builds global ecosystems centered on identity and data using Web 3.0 principles. The platform has received significant industry acceptance with ten pioneer industry partners working with APIX to issue the first set of VCs. These partners are BNY Mellon, Cantilan Bank, Credit Agricole, Emirates NBD, ING Group, OCBC, Prudential, Swiss Re, Union Bank of Philippines and UOB. They are some of the most leading-edge financial institutions in embracing new technology.

H.E. Serey Chia, Assistant Governor of the National Bank of Cambodia and a member of AFIN’s Advisory Board, said, “We are thrilled to launch ChekFIN, designed to streamline and smoothen the discovery and evaluation process for fintech partnerships. ChekFIN is a modern, one-stop platform specifically designed to reduce the friction between financial institutions and fintech companies during the search for potential partnerships. With our proprietary technology and deep understanding of the needs of the fintech industry, we hope that the platform would bring about greater connectivity in the fintech ecosystem, globally. In the long run, we hope that the platform would serve as a credible, reliable and trusted source of information for the fintech ecosystem and speed up adoption of new technologies by financial institutions to better serve their clients, fast-track financial inclusion and contribute to SDG efforts.”

"FCT is excited to bring our global capabilities in helping Corporates to analyze the latest trends, compare leading players, and engage with FinTechs to transform their businesses," said Pauline Wray, Managing Director, BCG FinTech Control Tower.

“The use of Web 3.0 technology and Verifiable Credentials will set ChekFIN apart as a unique platform helping to accelerate the development of an increasingly innovation-driven financial services industry whilst providing simpler and more robust privacy by design service.” said Glenn Gore, CEO of Affinidi. “With access to a wide variety of information related to FinTechs in a verifiable manner, financial institutions can shorten their search, discovery and other steps leading to formal collaboration faster and more efficiently.”