Equinix, Inc., the world’s largest digital infrastructure company, has announced that the ASEAN Financial Innovation Network (AFIN) would leverage Platform Equinix® to accelerate financial services innovation in Singapore and the global Fintech Ecosystem.
A news report by IBS Intelligence, the world’s pure-play Financial Technology research, advisory, and media firm, indicated that the collaboration will provide a dedicated on-premise API Exchange (APIX) sandbox platform on Platform Equinix for financial institutions (FIs); and offer FinTechs a fast-provisioning and affordable, enterprise-grade, cloud-like, single tenanted hardware for production services.
The research firm further reported that Asia, and in particular, Southeast Asia, had seen a concerted push for greater digitization and financial inclusion in recent years with the market well-plugged into the rising FinTech players who have seen record growth in transactions and investments in recent years just
as the FIs from the region have also moved quickly to increase their digital footprint globally.
According to the company, there is an openness in collaboration between FIs and FinTechs, who are looking to leverage each other’s strengths to drive digital transformation. Therefore, it is key to have a robust digital bridge between FIs’ IT infrastructure and FinTechs’ cloud-native infrastructure.
To address these challenges, AFIN has collaborated with Equinix to provide FinTechs on APIX access to Platform Equinix and leveraged Equinix Metal to streamline and facilitate infrastructure connectivity and integration.
Commenting on the partnership potential, Chief FinTech Officer at the Monetary Authority of Singapore, Sopnendu Mohanty, said: “Equinix’s secure and scalable infrastructure will provide Fintechs partnering with FIs an option to effectively manage technology risk in the financial sector.
“Further, Equinix will also host APIX Sandbox for FIs looking for on-premise scaled innovation infrastructure. Such a partnership will further strengthen the growing Fintech ecosystem in Singapore and the broader global community. In addition, Equinix’s commitment to reaching climate-neutral globally by 2030 strengthens AFIN’s shared sustainability agenda”, Mohanty added.
In his remarks, Special Advisor to the AFIN Board, Pieter Franken, enthused: “The future of financial services is going to be open, instant, and everywhere. For greater financial innovation and inclusion to take place, co-creation needs to happen. Through our partnership with Equinix, AFIN believes that we will further reduce barriers to entry and time-to-market for FIs and FinTechs in Southeast Asia, paving the way for regional and global financial inclusivity in the future.”
Also, Managing Director, Equinix South Asia, Yee May Leong, said: “We are proud that Equinix has been selected by AFIN to support APIX and be part of its journey to drive digital transformation and financial inclusion across Southeast Asia.
“Having the right digital infrastructure lays the foundation for a dynamic financial services scene that offers agility and ecosystem partnership opportunities critical for the future of Singapore’s economic growth. Equinix is confident that through this partnership, we will support Singapore’s ambitions to become the leading global financial center in Asia”, Leong assured.
Vice President of Partner Account Management, Equinix Asia-Pacific, Sophie Ben Sadia, shared: “We see an acceleration of partnerships between FIs and FinTechs with digital trend and open banking development.
“This is pivotal to collaborate, innovate and transact with partners and investors. Our strategic partnership with AFIN will be the opportunity to offer a powerful platform that partners can tap into to innovate and grow the Digital Finance ecosystems in Southeast Asia and beyond”, the Vice President added.
