Fintech startups for the unbanked are seeing a boom in Asia, with 490 million in the region still lacking a bank account. Fintech services like Indonesia’s Coda Payments and Vietnam’s 1Pay tackles this pain-point by letting users pay for bills and services via SMS, cash at convenience stores or prepaid cards. In the Philippines, digital commerce and payment startup Ayannah offers a host of digital financial services that focus on serving the needs of the 100 million resident Filipinos as well as the 12 million overseas Filipinos around the world.

As Southeast Asian merchants, startups and consumers increasingly adopt mobile payment systems, banking executives need to evaluate and integrate mobile solutions or risk being left behind, says a recent report published by Forrester Research. Furthermore, the report says if banks do not move quickly, they risk becoming irrelevant, surrendering customer relationships and missing out on key consumer data.

Fintech is one of the darlings of the startup world right now. VCs and investors are tripping over themselves to back startups with new and innovative ideas in the financial technology space.

If you take a look at all the news about fintech startups, you might get a feeling that the new financial services are built for retail clients and not for businesses. However, these are the entrepreneurs who may become drivers of fintech, especially in Asia. First, SMEs (small-medium enterprises), retail and overall entrepreneurship culture are highly developed in Southeast Asia. Second, we should clarify what exactly do we mean by ‘SME’. I believe the target audience for SMEs can be split in three segments that are most receptive to new technologies and demonstrate the highest customer involvement at the same time.