Mongolia’s first official digital currency now in circulation www.montsame.mn

Ulaanbaatar /MONTSAME/. The ceremony for ‘Digital currency’--a new method of payment has taken place at the Bank of Mongolia today.

Foreign Minister meets with OSCE Secretary-General Thomas Greminger www.montsame.mn

Ulaanbaatar /MONTSAME/ On September 27, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Mongolia D.Tsogtbaatar met with Secretary-General of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) Thomas Greminger and exchanged opinions on bilateral cooperation.

UN highly appreciates Mongolia’s contribution to maintaining nuclear-free Korean peninsula www.montsame.mn

Ulaanbaatar /MONTSAME/ During the 73rd Session of the United Nations General Assembly Prime Minister of Mongolia U.Khurelsukh met with the UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on September 27. The parties exchanged views on relations and cooperation between Mongolia and the UN.

Tavan Tolgoi coal to be transported to third markets through Taman port www.zgm.mn

A delegation led by the Minister of Mining and Heavy Industry of Mongolia Sumiyabazar Dolgorsuren paid a working visit to the Russian Federation on September 23-25. During his visit, Mr. Sumiyabazar held bilateral meetings with Igor Sechin, CEO, Chairman of the Management Board, Deputy Chairman of the Board of Directors of Rosneft, and Igor Levitin, Aide to the President of Russia. During the fourth Eastern Economic Forum, President of Mongolia Battulga Khaltmaa and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin discussed issues, such as the construction of natural gas pipes, economic corridor and the celebration of the 80th anniversary of the victory at the Battle of Khalkha River together. Mining Minister Sumiyabazar and Rosneft President Igor Sechin exchanged views on wide range of issues including conducting joint research on oil exploration in Mongolia, construction of oil refinery, studying possibilities of building gas pipe through Mongolia at the site and celebrating the 80th anniversary of the victory at the Battle of Khalkha River. In addition, Rosneft agreed to provide fuel for the new airport in the Khushig Valley. “Fuel is an important strategic product for Mongolia. Therefore, it is necessary for us to maintain its supply and increase the capacity of warehouse at the border.

First meeting of Mongolia-China joint research team held www.montsame.mn

Ulaanbaatar/MONTSAME/ The first meeting of the joint research team in charge of studying possibilities to establish free trade agreement between Mongolia and the People’s Republic of China, was held in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia on September 26-27.

Mongolia, Russia to enhance cooperation in mining www.xinhuanet.com

ULAN BATOR, Sept. 27 (Xinhua) -- Mongolia and Russia will enhance cooperation in the mining sector, especially on the exploration of a coal mine in southern Mongolia, a statement from the Mongolian Mining and Heavy Industry Ministry said Thursday.

This Singaporean Fintech Startup Introduced Mobile-based Microlending to Mongolia www.entrepreneur.com/

In Mongolia, where the average monthly income is $400, getting credit and small bank loans is difficult. So the citizens turn to friends or family members for financial help.

Anar Chinbaatar and his friends Boldbaatar Ochirsuren and Bayarsaikhan Volodya got so tired of friends asking to borrow money, that they established AND Global in 2015 to provide non-collateralized instant consumer, micro and micro business. “The endless queues and paperwork requirements of traditional banks are time consuming, and people often are forced to risk their valuables as collateral for pawnshops or other non-traditional lenders. The lending industry in Mongolia is fractured,” says Chinbaatar, the chief executive officer of the Singapore-registered fintech startup.

AND Global started off in microlending in Mongolia. It raised $1 million in seed funding in April 2016, and later received $4 million with a $30.8 million valuation from influential backers in Mongolia and Japan including former Japanese parliament member Takami Yuichi, investor Satoshi Matsumoto and his wife Yasuyo Matsumoto.

“We've developed a suite of digital financial solutions from micro-lending all the way to p2p money transfers for the people in emerging countries,” says Chinbaatar, who, along with his co-founders, has now expanded to other countries in Asia. At present, the company has 220,000 registered users and 63,000 active borrowers. The company has seen 45 per cent month-on-month growth rate for new customers, and the app has a 4.6 star rating in the Google Play Store.

In an interview, we asked Chinbaatar about his business model, work strategy and future plans. Edited excerpts:

What's the idea behind AND Global?

The idea arose from the concept of having a better form of lending since informal lending is common in emerging markets like Mongolia. This is because access to capital is very difficult in emerging markets, particularly for people without a long financial history. Most people have the “willingness and ability” to pay back what they borrow. So the only challenge is to assess potential customers using non-traditional methods and provide them with tailored financial products that fit their needs and ability to repay.

Why AND Global?

“AND” means best friend in Mongolian. We treat our customers like our “best friends”. The way we do this is to use the latest AI technology, combined with non-conventional data, to help identify how much our customers can afford to borrow.

How does LendMN work?

LendMN is the Mongolian consumer face of AND Global. Customers download the LendMNapp, fill in the application, and get approved for a specific credit amount. We use machine learning to offer collateral-free loans to individuals and micro businesses: this technology allows us to issue personal loans in less than 5 minutes. It’s a convenient, speedy and collateral-free service, all carried out through a mobile app. None of these features are offered by traditional finance companies in Mongolia.

How does AND address the issue of loan sharks?

Loans sharks take advantage of people’s desperate situation by taking valuables as collateral, and charging weekly interest rates up to 10 per cent. The approach doesn’t help people in the long run, but instead, they end up losing their collateralized valuables because they cannot repay the loan on time.

We not only charge lower fees for loans, but we don’t take valuables as collateral. Additionally, we are more focused on educating people about financial discipline by providing them a smaller loan that can be repaid without a heavy financial burden, and gradually increasing to the level where the customer is able to repay. Once they have the basics, they become eligible for larger and more official financial services provided by traditional institutions like banks. In July and August, we issued a total of US$9.5 million in loans, and have a repayment rate of 98.5 per cent.

How much money did you initially invest in the venture?

The first $1 million took six months to raise. There aren’t any VCs in Mongolia. There’s no startup ecosystem: people don’t know about startups. So we started at the bottom, showing people a one-pager about our “crazy idea”: lending money with no collateral. People really thought we were crazy. All of the angel investors were actually traditional investors. We had to explain why there wouldn’t be personal responsibility for bankruptcy. But it goes beyond that. It’s an opportunity to create a Mongolian brand from our Singapore international headquarters. An opportunity for the new generation. Different investors respond to different pitches.

After meeting almost 100 investors, we were finally successful in raising $1 million from three angel investors: Oyungerel Janchiv and Idermaa Garavsuren from Mongolia, and Japanese investor Takami Yuichi.

What is your interest rate?

We offer tailored loan products with variable rates for each individual. This varies somewhere between 3-6 per cent a month of the total loan, including all transfer and processing fees. Customers can decrease their fee and increase the loan amount by demonstrating reliable, on-time repayment behaviour.

Did you face any backlash for financial institutions?

Initially, all banks and traditional institutions did see us as a threat, which is natural. Being the first non-bank financial institution was a big challenge for us in Mongolia. They thought it was phishing or hacking or money laundering.

To overcome such challenges, we took LendM public on the Mongolian stock exchange in March, raising $2.1 million. The initial stock price was 25 Mongolian Tugrik. However, in less than four months, it’s reached 69 Mongolian Tugrik and the market capitalization of the local company is valued at $20 million. The whole purpose was not only to raise money, but also to get social license and to prove the valuation of our business model. Imagine that we have such valuation in our first pilot small market, what the valuation would be after we entered 100 times bigger market in South-East Asia. That is the opportunity we tell our partners and investors to realize.

Future plans for AND Global?

We are replicating our lending solutions across new geographies in Southeast Asia, especially in markets like the Philippines and Myanmar. Once we have the proper licensing, we'll be in a good position to go into production in these markets. We have official teams and offices in Singapore, the Philippines and Myanmar to help expedite the expansion process.

We are also trying a new franchising model: we are building our fintech platform on a cloud system to make it available for every country in the world to use. It will be available as a free software trial, and we’ll provide complete support to those who become paying customers.

Vertically, we are introducing newer financial services beyond microlending. With our existing app, customers will now be able to pay their bills, send money to their friends, and make payments using QR technologies.

‘E-Police’ traffic penalty app to be launched www.montsame.mn

Ulaanbaatar /MONTSAME/ Starting from October 1, traffic violation fines will be charged with the information from citizens. People will be able to report traffic violations to relevant officials via ‘E Police’ app.

Freeport, Rio formally yield control of giant Grasberg mine to Indonesia www.mining.com

Freeport McMoRan (NYSE:FCX) and Rio Tinto (LON:RIO) signed Thursday final agreements that give Indonesia a majority stake in their Grasberg copper mine, the world's second-largest, and which would be transferred to the state-owned mining company PT Indonesia Asahan Aluminium (Inalum).

Google grilled over 'Project Dragonfly' at Senate hearing on data privacy www.cnn.com

Google has finally admitted that a "Project Dragonfly" is indeed in the works.
But that's about all a Google executive was willing to divulge Wednesday about the codenamed plan, which has been widely reported to be a search product the company is developing for China — one that would need to comply with government censorship.

The rumored existence of the Chinese search engine came up repeatedly during a Senate committee hearing in Washington, where several major technology and telecommunications executives were testifying about a potential federal law to regulate data privacy.

The prospect of a Google-sanctioned search engine for China has become a hot-button issue. Reports began surfacing last month that Google was working on a product that would block sensitive websites and search terms in accordance with Chinese censorship.

The New York Times later reported that more than a thousand Google employees have questioned the plan. That criticism is ongoing — The Times reported early Wednesday that a former Google research scientist blasted the Chinese search product in a letter to lawmakers this week.

However, Google had refused to comment until Wednseday, when Google (GOOG) chief privacy officer Keith Enright joined executives from AT&T (T), Amazon (AMZN), Apple (AAPL), Twitter (TWTR) and Charter Communications (CHTR) at the Senate hearing (AT&T owns CNN.). The point of the hearing was for the executives to outline what they want out of any new US regulatory proposal — they largely opposed any law as restrictive as the recent data privacy reforms adopted or passed by the European Union and California.

But lawmakers fixated on Enright. They lobbed questions at him about all kinds of controversies facing Google and the rest of the tech industry, privacy-related or otherwise.

Enright did not link "Dragonfly" to the reports about developing a Chinese search engine. He name-dropped it only when pressed about the existence of a "Project Dragonfly" by Senator Ted Cruz, a Texas Republican.

"I am not clear on the contours of what is in scope or out of scope for that project," Enright added.

When Cruz prodded Enright for more information, the privacy officer would only reiterate what CEO Sundar Pichai has already said about the rumored product.

"I need to be clear for the record that my understanding is that we are not close to launching a search product in China," Enright said. "And whether we eventually could or would remains unclear."

Though Google received a lot of the attention at Wednesday's hearing, the other companies did not entirely escape scrutiny. Lawmakers peppered the executives with questions about how they use consumer data, and how they define what is private and what is not.

The concept of a federal law that governs data privacy has become increasingly important to lawmakers, especially in recent months.

The European Union made waves earlier this year when its General Data Protection Regulation went into effect. Those rules forced companies that operate in that region to revise their data privacy policies.

Then in June, California passed the toughest data privacy law in the US. When that law goes into effect in 2020, it will grant consumers the right to know what companies like Facebook and Google are collecting from them, why those companies are collecting it and who they are sharing it with. Consumers will also be able to bar tech companies from selling their data.

AT&T's Len Cali, the senior vice president of global public policy, cited a "host of burdens" associated with the GDPR during his testimony Wednesday.

"Perhaps if it existed at the the companies at this table started, we wouldn't be here, none of them would be here," he said.

Other executives argued along similar lines, adding that whatever law is passed should not be so cumbersome as to hurt innovation, especially at small and medium-sized companies. Many also wanted a law that pre-empts state statutes, like the one California just passed.

Consumer advocacy groups have opposed the industry's objections to GDPR and the California law. In a letter to the Senate committee that conducted the hearing, the American Civil Liberties Union called for legislation that would install safeguards for consumers.

"In the last year, we have seen countless data breaches, sharing of sensitive data without consent, and reports that companies have misled consumers regarding their data practices," the ACLU wrote. "It is past time for Congress to right the imbalance in our laws that has failed to protect consumers from industry practices that strip them over control of their data in the interest of profit."

Senator John Thune, the chairman of the commerce, science and transportation committee and a South Dakota Republican, said Wednesday that lawmakers intend to hold a second hearing next month. He added that a California privacy activist and the head of GDPR enforcement have already agreed to testify.