Question 1

2021 was an exceptional year for fintech. In the year, we witnessed once-nascent businesses scaled up to become the potential next giants in the economy. For example, Coinbase and Robinhood were listed respectively in May and July. Coinbase was listed with a market capitalisation of $86 billion and Robinhood was listed at $32 billion, surpassing the market capitalisation of some decades-old reputable companies such as Nasdaq ($26B). These companies have taken about a decade to dethrone and challenge the market share of big financial services companies.

In this ECA, we seek to explore and understand the chain of events culminating to these major developments and how these developments will further accelerate the adoption of technology to deliver affordable financial services to the masses.

Select and examine four (4) factors that contribute to the meteoric rise of fintech companies.

Make good use of examples, statistics, and events to augment and conclude your discussion.

Question 2

 In 2018, the CEO of DBS Piyush Gupta has said that At DBS, we act less like a bank and more like a tech company and this sufficiently reflects how banks have changed the way they view and use technology.

Appraise and explain banks have changed the way they deploy technology in their banking business.

Make good uses of examples, statistics and events to augment and conclude your discussion.

Question 3

 Assess and discuss how the role of financial regulators has evolved, as we now have both incumbent banks and fintech businesses providing the same financial services to the masses.

Make good use of examples, statistics and events to augment and develop your discussion.

Question 4

In your GBA, we have examined how to design a 3-stocks portfolio to meet the target return of a client. In this question, we will continue to automate and simplify the inputs to the robo-advisor so that it can be used by the client directly, without a human advisor.

Figure 1: Python’s inputs

Given the financial aspirations of the client, your robo-advisor must be able to advise the client on

• the required monthly return and
• the portfolio that is to be created in order to achieve her financial goal

Make use of Python to report the monthly return that is required to fulfill the target_wealth of the client in invt_period years. The client will deposit monthly_invt every month with the robo-advisor to acquire the recommended portfolio.

• Based on the required return, the robo-advisor will design and recommend a portfolio of 3 stocks. Report the names and allocation of stocks to an accuracy of two (2) decimal points (e.g. an allocation of [0.25, 0.49, 0.26]).