FINCY, a Singapore-based fintech startup, is pulling out of a new Myanmar border city, amid allegations that it is being used to prevent law enforcement from tracking financial transactions in the city.
Its app, which enables users to perform currency exchange and pay merchants in various countries, is said to be the exclusive provider of financial infrastructure to Yatai City's 40,000 residents, who use the app to make purchases, perform transactions, receive salaries and manage their expenses digitally.
According to reports by The Straits Times in August, about 90 per cent of the shops in Yatai city use the app for transactions - and this is unusual because Myanmar people have famously preferred to do their transactions in cash, even for big-ticket items. Recent reports by the United States Institute of Peace, a US Congress-funded body, have raised concerns that Yatai City, also called Shwe Kokko, is being developed as a front for large-scale gambling activities. The city, located on the border with Thailand, is a site of a US$15 billion gambling-centered project under construction, and seems primed to operate outside of Myanmar law, alleged the report, which was published in July.
The report suggested that the Building Cities Beyond blockchain, the blockchain infrastructure for the development of applications such as digital wallets, secure payments systems, is central to the plan.
Source: News Formal (newsformal.com)
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