SUSS Podcast · Singapore University Of Social Sciences

FinTech: A Larger Purpose (Part 1)

·21 min·1 clip

SUSS opens by placing fintech inside a larger story about how technologies change the way people engage with the world and with one another. The episode asks what happens when financial tools stop feeling separate from daily life and become part of ordinary behaviour. Mobile payments are the clearest example of that shift. The speaker recalls how unusual it once would have sounded to do most banking and investment transactions on a phone. The conversation then turns to purpose. What does fintech improve, and who benefits from it? Associate Professor Tan Chong Hui, Head of Finance Program at the School of Business, SUSS, Shadab Tayabi, President of Singapore Fintech Association, and Brian Lim, founder of SUSS Fintech Interest Group, are brought in to approach that question from academic, industry, and community angles. Their exchange treats fintech as more than product design. It becomes a way to think about access, coordination, and participation. The pandemic is named as a major accelerant. Digital transformation moved faster because habits, institutions, and expectations all changed at once. The discussion then shifts to cryptocurrencies and the communities around them. Chong Hui describes these networks as little communities that have their lives on the internet, similar to software development communities. The difference, he suggests, is that token systems have turned those communities into something explicitly economic. That makes virtual activity feel less abstract and more institutional. It also raises the idea that online cooperation can support new kinds of social organisation. The episode does not treat that idea as settled or simple. It keeps circling back to how technology becomes useful in practice. Shadab reinforces that point by linking fintech to the digital transformation of existing financial institutions, products, and services, as well as new companies. The conversation then settles on impact investment and micro-investment. There is a strong emphasis on having a clear taxonomy of what is being measured, a clear mechanism for measurement, and an immutable record on a blockchain so the investment community can tap into it. The result is a pragmatic picture of fintech that still feels aspirational. The episode suggests that the field matters not because it is shiny, but because it keeps finding new ways to connect finance, technology, and social outcomes.

As heard by us

A measured fintech discussion about whether financial technology actually helps people, markets, and inclusion.

SUSS treats fintech less as a shiny convenience and more as a question of whether it actually helps people. The episode moves cleanly from mobile payments and the pandemic bump to virtual communities, digital coordination, and small investments with impact tracking, and the…

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Why you'd press play

Hear fintech framed as a tool for inclusion, coordination, and real-world impact.

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