Two problems this week: one from inside the bank, one from the people banks serve.
Inside the bank: catching the scam before the money moves
The problem: At FICO's Banking Leaders Forum in Bali in August 2026, 51 senior Asia-Pacific bank executives were polled. 51% said they are not confident their bank can spot a customer being manipulated before a payment goes out. The barriers they named: data and infrastructure (47%), legacy systems and integration (43%), and 39% said intelligence can't move fast enough between banks, telcos and social platforms. Card, app, call-centre and payments data each tell part of the story, and nobody sees the whole journey in time. (The Asian Banker, Sep 2026)
How I'd solve it: Start small and in three steps. 1) Map where scam signals live: system, owner, and how fast each one updates. 2) Build one shared case view for the riskiest moment, a new payee plus a first large transfer, pulling device, login and payee data into one screen. 3) Only then plug in outside data from telcos, platforms and other banks.
Why it's hard: Each data set has a different owner, budget and privacy rule, and real-time integration costs money without a revenue line to show for it.
My take: Fighting scams is now a data-plumbing project, not a rules project. Connect your own silos before you buy another detection tool.
How are you handling this? Hit reply.
Why don't banks launch this? Free transfers for wallet users
The problem: Since the BSP's new pricing rules (Circular 1238) took effect on 4 July 2026, BPI, Metrobank, Landbank, UnionBank and others have made InstaPay transfers free in their apps. GCash and Maya only cut their fee from ₱15 to ₱10. (Philstar, Jul 2026) That matters because a BSP, RCBC and IPA trial found zero fees nearly doubled InstaPay use among mass-market customers, against about 30% for mass-affluent ones. (IPA, Sep 2026) The people who react most to fees are often the ones still paying them.
Here's what I'd launch: A bank account built for wallet users: no minimum balance, ₱0 InstaPay, QR payments, opened in minutes. A digital bank or a big bank's mass-market app could build it. Business model: merchant QR fees, the float, and small loans to users who become active.
Why it hasn't happened yet: Wallet fees earn real money on huge volumes, and the new rules still allow cost-based fees. Banks that went free mostly serve people who already bank with them. And price alone may not move people: digital banks such as CIMB, Tonik and UNO already charge ₱0, but the daily habit and the merchant network sit with the wallets.
My take: The banks have already given up the fee. Now they need to go after the wallet users who still pay it.
Would you use this? Or is there a reason banks are right not to build it? Hit reply.
All the week's SEA fintech news is in the Wednesday issue: frontierbyjetni.com
Know someone fighting scams or building payments in SEA? Forward this to them.
— Jetni
