Fintech and Its Potential Impact on Islamic Banking and Finance Industry: A Case Study of Brunei Darussalam and Malaysia

Fintech is growing at an exponential rate which leads to the emergence of innovative business models. Advanced technologies like Blockchain, internet of things (IoT’s), artificial intelligence (AI), and robotics have become mature enough to create disruption in banking and finance industry both conventional and Islamic finance industry. Brunei Darussalam and Malaysia, both, offer wide range of Shari'a compliant services. The main purpose of this study is to investigate the potential impact of Fintech on the Islamic banking and finance industry in Brunei and Malaysia. Accordingly, this research deals with the qualitative method to accomplish and fulfill the research objectives. Content analysis and Semi-structured interview approach were employed throughout the research. The results clearly show that Fintech has  great potential impact on both conventional and Islamic finance industry. This potential impact is in both ways i.e. positive and negative. And, the response and reaction of Islamic finance industry towards the emergence of Fintech and its potential impact seems very slow as compared to their conventional counterparts. This study has indicated important points which include the necessity for the Islamic financial institution to cope with the growth of Fintech

From Tech Hub to Banking Failure: Exploring the Implications of CBDCs on the Destiny of Silicon Valley Bank

The potential implications of central bank digital currencies (CBDCs) on Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) are vast, particularly when it comes to oversight of the bank. This paper aims to explore how the introduction of CBDCs could have impacted SVB and its eventual collapse. The introduction of CBDCs has the potential to disrupt traditional banking systems, which could impact the stability of the financial industry. However, CBDCs can also provide real-time monitoring and oversight, which could help to prevent bank failures. This paper examines the potential impact of CBDCs on SVB and how it could have been impacted by the real-time monitoring provided by the Federal Reserve. The findings suggest that the introduction of CBDCs could have helped to prevent the collapse of SVB by allowing for real-time monitoring and oversight. The implications of this research are significant, as it highlights the potential benefits of CBDCs in preventing future banking failures and strengthening financial stability

Enhancing Abiotic Stress Tolerance in Cereals Through Breeding and Transgenic Interventions

The success of plant breeding in the 20th century led to new cultivars that, to date, have provided enough food for an increasing world population (Conway and Toenniessen 1999; Mifflin 2000). The results of the Green Revolution-led in the 1960s by Henry M. Beachell andNormanE. Dotlaug—resulted in a dramatic increase in rice and wheal grain yields (Milford and Runge 2007; Ortiz et al. 2007). However, abiotic stresses and climate change are becoming increasingly serious threats to crop production worldwide at a time when food staple supply will need to be significantly higher to meet the demand of the growing human population. Water scarcity (Rockstrom et al. 2007], salinity (Rengasamy 2006). and low soil fertility (Sanchez and Swaminathan 2005) rank among the moat important abiotic stresses worldwide. Similarly, increased climatic disturbances due to global warming are causing the major stresses that necessitate crop improvements to safeguard grain supply, particularly in the developing world (Kumar 2006). Hence, genetic enhancement of cereal crops with respect to abiotic stress tolerance will be essential far ensuring grain yields in water-limited, increasingly hotter agricultural zones, particularly If these conditions combine with poor and saline soils, conditions that prevail in parts of the developing world. Crop breeding for adaptation to abiotic stress-prone environments remains a challenging task, not least because of the complexity of the stress-adaptive mechanisms in plants and particularly cereal crops, which are the staple of most of the world's population (Reynolds et al. 2005}

What will ChatGPT revolutionize in the financial industry?

The launch of the open AI chatbot, ChatGPT, in November 2022 has generated widespread excitement around Generative Artificial Intelligence (AI). While researchers have explored ChatGPT's ability to produce content and respond to input, our study takes a different approach and examines its use cases in the financial industry. We aim to understand what ChatGPT offers the financial industry and how it differs from existing banking and financial chatbots. Financial institutions can use ChatGPT for a variety of purposes, including customer engagement, personalization, up-selling and cross-selling, stock forecasting, product development, and financial education. By focusing on the potential of ChatGPT in finance, we hope to spark discussions about its applications in other domains and explore the possibilities of a larger revolution in the future. Finally, this study identifies the challenges associated with the use of Generative Open AI and LLMs-based chatbots in the financial industry and provides recommendations for addressing these challenges