Retail News CRM

Author: Mei Ling Tan

  • E-commerce saved fashion designer Tadashi Shoji during pandemic

    E-commerce saved fashion designer Tadashi Shoji during pandemic

    After closing all his stores, veteran fashion designer Tadashi Shoji said he has been able to keep his business afloat during the Covid-19 pandemic thanks to the success of e-commerce and custom sales.

    The Los Angeles, California-based brand released its digital runway show online on Saturday during New York Fashion Week.

    Keeping costs low, the video was filmed in the company’s cafeteria with creative lighting and editing.

    “Logistically it’s very hard, but it’s very fortunate for us because of Covid our e-com is increasing tremendously. That’s helping me to survive in this Covid time,” Shoji said.

    “If we didn’t have this strong e-com infrastructure for us I think, I think our business went down,” he said.

    Shoji said this season was inspired by “boundless expression” and has added different silhouettes to his normal body-con repertoire.

    Menswear was the inspiration for many looks with stretch velvet, shimmer and slits providing femininity.

    The designer’s signature draped tulle, lace and hand beading made the collection look familiar to his long-time fans.

    New York Fashion Week will end on Feb 16 with over 150 designers having presented their collections live or online.

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  • Havaianas parent’s sales surge as international strategy pays off

    Havaianas parent’s sales surge as international strategy pays off

    Alpargatas, the parent of Havaianas, is reaping the benefits of a three-year-old international expansion strategy, despite the impact of Covid on cross-border travel.

    In the year to December, Alpargatas recorded sales of  US$739 million, a 25.7-per-cent improvement in 2020. Outside its home market of Brazil, net revenue climbed 41.5 percent US$227 million.

    “The numbers are the result of a long-term strategy. Three years ago, we established that Alpargatas’ long-term value creation thesis would be based on leveraging the strength of desired and hyper-connected brands such as Havaianas,” said CEO Beto Funari.

    “In this short period, we have proved this thesis as we accelerate the brand’s growth and restructure the business portfolio.”

    The company sold a record 260 million pairs of flip-flops, up 13 percent year on year. Of those, 31 million pairs were sold outside Brazil, an improvement of 38.8 percent versus 2020.

    Funari also said the company’s growing portfolio of non-flip flop products – sandals, flats, sneakers, accessories, and apparel – increased by more than 200 percent during the period.

    In December, Alpargatas secured a deal to acquire a 49.9 percent stake in Californian sustainable footwear brand Rothy’s. Now it is planning a share issue to help fund the acquisition, expected to raise around $400 million.

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  • Designer shares his concept of a foldable “iPhone Air” sporting powerful M1 chip

    Designer shares his concept of a foldable “iPhone Air” sporting powerful M1 chip

    Samsung is the early leader in the foldable market with its Galaxy Z Fold and Galaxy Z Flip handsets. While Apple has yet to officially throw its hat in the ring, TF International’s highly accurate analyst, Ming-Chi Kuo, says that a foldable iPhone is expected to be released no sooner than 2023 and that it will be of the Flip variety which means it will be a clamshell design similar to the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip.

    The latest iPhone Flip concept design comes from designer Antonia De Rosa who calls the device the iPhone Air. De Rosa sees a powerful device powered by the 5nm Apple M1 chip carrying 16 billion transistors. That is one billion more than the amount found on the A15 Bionic chip that is found under the hood of the iPhone 13 series.

    The M1 chip powers the latest iPad Pro series and was developed by Apple to replace the Intel processors that drive some Mac computers.

    The iPhone Air mockup uses chrome hinges and similar to the renders that we’ve seen for the iPhone 14, the rear camera array is flush with the back panel. While Apple has been reportedly testing out different designs of a foldable iPhone, it also is keeping its eyes on the consumer reaction to the foldable being sold by rival Samsung.

    If you examine the iPhone Air in the video, you’ll notice that the phone is portless. This is a design that former Apple design chief Jony Ive had been striving for but could not achieve before his departure from Cupertino.

    And instead of the notch, if we can direct your attention to the display, you’ll see that the iconic and still controversial notch is replaced with a pill-shaped cutout at the top center of the screen. The iPhone 14 Pro and iPhone 14 Pro Max will reportedly do away with the notch and replace it with both a hole-punch cutout and a lozenge “pill shaped” opening.

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  • iPhone doubles Vietnam market share

    iPhone doubles Vietnam market share

    iPhone’s market share in Vietnam increased from 4 percent in 2020 to 9 percent last year, making it the fifth-largest smartphone seller.

    The growth of 119 percent was the highest for any brand, Counterpoint Research said in a report.

    Apple was behind Samsung (34 percent), OPPO (19 percent), Xiaomi (13 percent), and vivo (11 percent).

    Strong growth in Apple products was seen in the last quarter of the year, with sales doubling year-on-year, the report said.

    This was when the company launched iPhone 13.

    Last year, taking advantage of the rising demand, several stores were set up to exclusively sell Apple products like FPT’s F.Studio, TopZone and Lazada Apple Flagship Stores.

    Counterpoint analyst Ivan Lam said: “Apple has always had a place in Vietnamese consumers’ hearts. Last year it expanded its distribution campaign in Vietnam.”

    The overall smartphone market grew by 7 percent last year, the report said.

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  • Northern province blocks fruit trucks headed for China border

    Northern province blocks fruit trucks headed for China border

    Lang Son has decided to stop receiving fruit trucks headed for the China border for ten days starting February 16 as over 1,000 trucks are still stuck in the province.

    The provincial Department of Industry and Trade said that as of Friday morning, the total number of trucks waiting at the three border gates of Huu Nghi, Tan Thanh and Chi Ma was 1,640, of which 1,390 were carrying fresh fruit, accounting for nearly 85 percent.

    Due to China’s strict Covid-19 measures, customs clearance efficiency has been very low, with just 70-90 trucks able to cross the borders a day.

    Meanwhile, around 160 to 180 trucks reach the border gate every day, most of them carrying fresh fruits like dragonfruit, watermelon, jackfruit and mango. This will further worsen congestion at the border and damage businesses as well as farmers, officials said.

    The congestion at the northern border gates started in December 2021 after China strengthened its anti-Covid prevention measures. By mid-January 2022, afraid that their fruits would rot, many business owners had returned to the domestic market and sold them at very cheap prices.

    The government, ministries, branches and localities have had held many meetings on the issue but an effective solution to the problem has remained elusive.

    According to the General Department of Vietnam Customs, Vietnam earned $1.75 billion from exporting fruits and vegetables to China in the first 11 months of 2021, up 3.6 percent year-on-year despite Covid-19 impacts.

    China remained Vietnam’s top fruits and vegetables export market with a market share of 54 percent in the 11-month period

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  • Petrolimex welcomes new director general

    Petrolimex welcomes new director general

    Deputy Director General of Vietnam National Petroleum Group (Petrolimex) Dao Nam Hai will become its director general (DG), starting Mar. 1.

    He replaces Pham Duc Thang who retired in November 2021. Holding two master degrees in law and business administration, Hai, 48, Hai was its deputy DG for four years, and 9-year DG of Petrolimex’s insurance subsidiary, Petrolimex Joint Stock Insurance Company (PJICO).

    Petrolimex has a charter capital of nearly VND13 trillion ($573 billion). In 2021, the group posted net revenue of over VND169 trillion, up 37 percent compared to 2020.

    Its 2021 post-tax profit was VND3.1 trillion, 2.5 times higher year-on-year.

    The state-owned Petrolimex has a nearly 40 percent share in Vietnam’s petroleum market, has 43 subsidiaries, with 5,000 gasoline stations nationwide.

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  • Satellite innovations to raise digital inclusion in Asia Pacific

    Satellite innovations to raise digital inclusion in Asia Pacific

    In the digital era, data consumption is poised to grow sharply. Yet, transmitting massive amounts of data is costly especially in locations lacking reliable terrestrial communications infrastructure. Telecom Review Asia speaks with Harsh Verma, Vice President Asia, Global Sales, SES to understand how innovations in satellite connectivity can reliably meet the demands of tomorrow’s networks.

    What are the key technology innovations that are enabling SES to provide differentiated multi-orbit services at a cloud scale?

    Globally, the number of connected devices and demand for bandwidth-intensive applications will continue to soar. Emerging markets in Asia-Pacific and Latin America are likely to witness the strongest growth for satellite capacity demand. Yet, in a heterogeneous region like the Asia-Pacific, where reliable broadband connectivity is often limited to urban centres, much of the population is still unconnected. This adversely restricts digitalisation efforts, now a national ambition for many countries, to leverage technological innovation and reap the economic benefits of a digital economy.

    With digital inclusion high on the agenda for many countries,satellite technology is key to providing connectivity to underserved areas where terrestrial infrastructure is challenging to build and maintain. As a global satellite operator, SES is leveraging its multi-orbit fleet of satellites to provide cost-effective and reliable solutions to extend terrestrial networks.

    We understand different applications require different types of satellite-based solutions. Each of our customers has their own unique requirements which means we need to be able to provide a wide range of services. Our geostationary satellites provide global coverage, allowing us to serve customers anywhere on Earth, while our medium Earth orbit constellation caters for bandwidth-intensive applications with its low latency and high throughput services focused on a particular location or region of high demand.

    As more content is being migrated to the cloud, SES has changed its managed network services portfolio to deliver private, dedicated connectivity from SES’s GEO and MEO gateways to leading cloud service providers. With our SES Cloud Direct service, we enable enterprises and governments worldwide to reach any global end-point, connect to any cloud provider, and scale services as more cloud and edge services are adopted. With the launch of our next-generation MEO constellation, O3b mPOWER, dedicated, secure and reliable cloud services over satellite will be delivered with higher performance than ever. It will be SES’s most flexible and powerful satellite ecosystem to date, stretching the reach and capabilities of telcos and MNOs to narrow the digital gap and meet critical industry needs.

    Around the world, underserved communities are falling behind while global demand for connectivity soars. Communication is a fundamental social process, and recognised as a basic human right under Article 19 of the UN’s Universal Declaration of Human Rights. The way we communicate is increasingly reliant on the internet, and O3b mPOWER will enable the communities that lack any meaningful connectivity solution to leapfrog into the cloud-enabled online world. This in turn enables their success.

    As cloud adoption continues to gain traction in the foreseeable future, how does SES expand leadership in cloud-optimised connectivity?

    SES partners with the world’s leading cloud service providers to provide one-hop, lowest latency connectivity to the cloud to power future-proof connectivity. For instance, our partnership with Microsoft facilitates seamless cloud connectivity to support access to Azure suite of cloud services and applications. We are the first Microsoft Azure ExpressRoute services partner offering Azure customers opportunities to leverage satellite-enabled managed services to connect rural, remote, or underserved areas. With the launch of O3b mPOWER, Azure will be capable of supporting greater resiliency and higher-performing, lower-latency satellite connectivity solutions to customers globally.

    In addition, SES is part of the Amazon Web Services (AWS) Direct Connect Delivery Partner program to deliver seamless global connection between any location and AWS, backed by robust service level agreements covering availability, throughput, and latency.

    These initiatives are aligned with the ecosystem’s shared vision to extend intelligent cloud network solutions to elevate industries and societies in the digital economy.

    e have also partnered with a wide range of terminal providers to ensure that O3b mPOWER is compatible with a plethora of end users in various industries. As we move towards a software-enabled satellite ecosystem, we are trying to become more flexible with the hardware that works with the system so that more customers can seamlessly integrate satellites into their network.

    How does O3b mPOWER differ from the upcoming LEO constellations and why did SES choose MEO?

    Owing to the satellites’ proximity to Earth, upcoming LEO satellite constellations promise negligible latency ideal for real-time applications. However, as these satellites operate near Earth, they cover less region of the earth and require thousands of satellites to provide seamless global coverage. Not only is this costly to install, each satellite, being smaller in size compared to MEO satellites, delivers a lower total throughout. We have also seen that LEO constellations are approximately 3/4th of the time over uninhabitated areas or low demand regions, making the business case very challenging.

    Comparatively, MEO satellites that are launched at higher altitudes provide an optimal balance between realising low latency, ultra-high throughout global coverage with just over a dozen satellites. Further flexibility on O3b mPOWER enables us to steer the beams over the hotspots or high demand regions to provide large concentrated satellite capacity focussed over a particular region.

    Harnessing the benefits of MEO satellite constellations, SES’s O3b MEO constellation offers fibre-like low latency and multiple gigabits of throughput by being closer to the earth. Through the unique O3b MEO constellation, we have been successful at delivering connectivity to urban areas in landlocked Africa and central Asia.

    Founded on the success of O3b MEO, O3b mPOWER is designed to support next-generation network services. This breakthrough provides unprecedented performance and scale, complemented by high throughput GEO satellites, enabling us to extend new, bandwidth-intensive network services and applications.

    A flexible satellite system to date, the O3b mPOWER promises greater total capacity and satellite roundtrip latency at less than 150ms – requirements that support growing demand for bandwidth. As 5G continues to build momentum, O3b mPOWER’s backhaul solutions allow MNOs to dynamically scale up network needs as desired. More importantly, O3b mPOWER is capable of covering 95% of the world’s population to power seamless connectivity in the rural, remote and suburban and create new socioeconomic values in the 5G era.

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  • Jio Platforms Ltd and SES partner to deliver high-performance satellite-based broadband across India

    Jio Platforms Ltd and SES partner to deliver high-performance satellite-based broadband across India

    Jio Platforms Limited, India’s leading digital service provider, and SES, a leading global satellite-based content connectivity solutions provider, announced the formation of a joint venture – Jio Space Technology Limited – to deliver the next generation scalable and affordable broadband services in India leveraging satellite technology. JPL and SES will own 51% and 49% equity stake in the joint venture respectively. The joint venture will use multi-orbit space networks that is a combination of geostationary (GEO) and medium earth orbit (MEO) satellite constellations capable of delivering multi-gigabit links and capacity to enterprises, mobile backhaul and retail customers across the length and breadth of India and neighbouring regions.

    The joint venture will be the vehicle for providing SES’s satellite data and connectivity services in India, except for certain international aeronautical and maritime customers who may be served by SES. It will have availability of up to 100 Gbps capacity from SES and will leverage Jio’s premiere position and sales reach in India to unlock this market opportunity. As part of investment plan, the joint venture will develop extensive gateway infrastructure in India to provide services within the country. Jio, as an anchor customer of the joint venture, has entered into a multi-year capacity purchase agreement, based on certain milestones along with gateways and equipment purchase with total contract value of circa US $100 million.

    The joint venture will leverage SES-12, SES’s high-throughput GEO satellite serving India, and O3b mPOWER, SES’s next-generation MEO constellation, to extend and complement Jio’s terrestrial network, increasing access to digital services and applications. Jio will offer managed services and gateway infrastructure operations services to the joint venture.

    As Covid-19 has demonstrated, access to broadband is imperative for full participation in the new digital economy. This joint venture will be a catalyst for connecting the unconnected areas within India and the region to the full range of digital services, offering access to remote health, government services, and distance learning opportunities.

    Akash Ambani, director of Jio, said, “While we continue to expand our fibre-based connectivity and FTTH business and invest in 5G, this new joint venture with SES will further accelerate the growth of multigigabit broadband. With additional coverage and capacity offered by satellite communications services, Jio will be able to connect the remotest towns and villages, enterprises, government establishments, and consumers to the new digital India. We are excited about this new journey combining our massive reach and customer base with SES’s innovative leadership and expertise in the satellite industry.”

    Steve Collar, CEO of SES said, “This joint venture with JPL is a great example of how SES can complement even the most extensive terrestrial networks to deliver high-quality connectivity, and positively affect the lives of hundreds of millions of people. We look forward to this joint venture whereby we can play a role in promoting digital inclusion in India.”

    The joint venture also aligns with the hon’ble prime minister’s ‘Gati Shakti: National master plan for multi-modal connectivity’ initiative to provide integrated and seamless connectivity by implementing diverse infrastructure. It will also accelerate the achievement of the Connect India goals in the 2018 National Digital Communications Policy and the Digital India programme by expanding broadband connectivity to Indian citizens across Indian geography.

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  • Singtel Dash partners Zip for buy now, pay later options

    Singtel Dash partners Zip for buy now, pay later options

    Singtel and Zip, a leading global buy now, pay later (BNPL) player, announced an exclusive partnership to launch Zip’s pay later service in Singapore on the Dash app. This new service provides an alternate payment option for Dash customers, giving them the flexibility to choose between paying for their purchases immediately with Dash or paying later with Zip.Larry Diamond

    Dash customers can use Zip’s pay later service for in-store or online purchases from merchants such as Klook, Omnidesk, OSIM and Singtel. Zip’s current payment scheme offers four interest-free installments across six weeks. Over the next six months, Zip will be rolling out more payment schemes and bringing onboard more than 2,000 merchants through partner agreements with AsiaPay, Razer Merchant Services and HitPay.

    Gilbert Chuah, head of financial and lifestyle services at consumer Singapore, Singtel said, “Many of our customers want greater choice and control over managing their finances and our partnership with Zip provides just that with an alternative payment method that is transparent and flexible. This collaboration adds to Dash’s rapidly growing financial services business and we are working on expanding our suite of financial products and services to meet our customers’ diverse needs.”

    According to FIS’ 2021 Global Payment Report, BNPL is projected to be the fastest-growing payment method for Singapore, with transaction volume expected to increase from US$210 million in 2020 to US$1.3 billion by 2024. A study commissioned by Zip also showed that 56% of e-commerce users in Singapore have used or will consider using a BNPL service.

    Larry Diamond, CEO and co-founder of Zip said, “We are thrilled to be launching in Singapore through an exclusive partnership with Singtel Dash, one of the country’s most widely-used mobile apps for everyday financial and lifestyle needs. This partnership is consistent with Zip’s strategy to build a truly global BNPL business that supports regional and global partners operating in multiple markets. Our move into Singapore is an opportunity for us to tap into the country’s growing BNPL market and expand our presence in the Southeast Asian region following our strategic investment in BNPL provider TendoPay in the Philippines.”

  • Switzerland and Singapore to Teamup on Fintech

    Switzerland and Singapore to Teamup on Fintech

    Switzerland and Singapore, the often called Switzerland of Asia, are looking towards financial sector digitalization. A conference slated for June in Zurich seeks to do just that.

    The Point Zero Forum» intends to bring public sector leaders together with top private sector counterparts in businesses and finance, from June 21 to 23 in Zurich, Switzerland’s State Secretariat for International Financial Matters (SIF) announced on Monday.

    The event will feature a high-caliber lineup, including Swiss Federal Councillor Ueli Maurer and Singapore’s Deputy Prime Minister Heng Swee Keat, who will open the event. The President of the Swiss National Bank (SNB), Thomas Jordan , and UBS Group CEO Ralph Hamers, will also be in attendance, according to the program from the website.

    The directors of the respective financial supervisory authorities, Ravi Menon from the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) and Urban Angehrn from the Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority (Finma) will also join the conference.

    Deputy Prime Minister Heng Swee Keat, who also serves as Coordinating Minister for Economic Policy,  sums up the need for such an endeavor.

    Digital technology has enormous potential to change the world for the better, especially through finance. To unleash the potential, we need to seek new ways of working together, address key global challenges in partnership, and seize the new opportunities.

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  • AirAsia X signs cargo deal with Teleport in bid to boost freight

    AirAsia X signs cargo deal with Teleport in bid to boost freight

    The announcement came just days after Capital A revealed plans to reorganize the airline division and diversify in an online press conference. During the conference, Capital A’s chief executive Tony Fernandes said that for the foreseeable short-term future, the focus of AirAsia Aviation Group will be on short-term travel within the Southeast Asian region.

    The Teleport deal comes as AirAsia X tries to boost its cargo revenue to make up for the lack of revenue on the passenger side as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.

    On January 26, 2022, AirAsia X announced that it had partnered with French transport, logistics, and supply chain GEODIS to increase cargo capacity in Asia Pacific.

    AirAsia X CEO Benyamin Ismail said that the company is in talks with other “major global clients that have air cargo requirements”.

    “We are also in discussions with several other major global clients that have air cargo requirements, particularly to where we have established bases and flying rights. It’s just two months post our restructuring and the appetite for expansion of our cargo operations is significant. This dovetails neatly into one of the core pillars of our combination carrier strategy. For the foreseeable future, cargo revenue will underpin our route strategy and passenger revenue for the first time, will be ancillary,” Ismail said in a statement.

    COO Captain Suresh Kumar Bangah said that the airline will only fly when it’s profitable and that AirAsia X hopes to bring back more aircraft over the course of the year.

    “We will only fly if it’s profitable to fly. With our restructured low-cost base, we can fly profitably where other airlines may not be able to and this is a significant advantage to us.  We intend to add a further one plane a month to full service from now and we hope to have our full fleet operational by the end of the third quarter. As more aircraft are brought back into service, we are able to recall back pilots and crew who have been through a tough period during this pandemic,” Bangah said.

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  • Private Banking Drops its Traditional Restraint

    Private Banking Drops its Traditional Restraint

    New money is flooding private banks although it is not necessarily from millionaires. The catchphrase is potential. Last year was a record one for Swiss private banking, as one institute after another reported a historic high. There is a key metric that sticks out, and one that the sector had difficulty with until recently.

    Invested assets, or assets under management, are clearly growing again as 2021’s buoyant equity markets drove double-digit gains at UBS, Julius Baer and Geneva-based private bank Pictet.

    It should be a triumph for the sector, the mainstay of Swiss finance. But looking more closely, one thing does stand out – private bankers have become far less choosy.

    The unwritten $1 million US dollar barrier to entry no longer seems to apply when it comes to so-called net new money, net new assets, or even UBS’s mouthful for the term, net new fee-generating assets – all of which can be generalized as expressions of new client investment mandates and assets isolated of exchange rate and market movements.

    Swiss private banks have become more flexible that way, confirms Andreas Arni in an interview with finews.com. We are not a retail bank. In that way, there is an entry threshold. But we don’t have a strict minimum. We look at the potential of the client. You can say that, generally, we welcome younger people who have established their own company.

    Julius Baer, which is seeing new momentum in its Swiss business, has also been swayed by modest fortunes. A spokesperson confirmed that there is no fixed minimum for the bank in its home market. We can lend our hand even with a relatively moderate level of assets for clients who have a long-term perspective related to the growth of their wealth.

    The million seems to have been replaced by the promise of future millions. Although it is by no means a safe bet, it is a trend that digitalization has made possible.

    The trend towards internet-based advisory models has been propelled forward by the pandemic, turning numerous young entrepreneurs into millionaires. And the spread of crypto-investments, and their fluctuating prices, has made some of them very wealthy practically overnight.

    Traditional private banking is a geriatric business. In Switzerland, wealth is concentrated in the hands of retirees. More than out of five households where the male spouse is more than 65 years old has taxable assets of more than $1 million, Zurich statisticians have calculated.

    But private banks can now use digital channels to efficiently serve smaller piles of client assets. A clear example of that is market leader UBS, which bought robo-advisor Wealthfront in the U.S. for $1.4 billion. It did that in the hope of acquiring a more youthful clientele while in the domestic market, Vontobel offers up its Volt app, which gives users active asset management advice. The minimum assets required – about $10,000.

    Practice shows, however, that it is best to invest a medium-sized six digit figure if a client wants to fully benefit from Vontobel’s investment expertise, a company spokesperson maintained.

    And there are, of course, exceptions that only serve to confirm the rule. Pictet says it welcomes clients if they have about $2 million to invest although they do not officially confirm the figure. Although the sector may not be showing as much restraint as before, it still seems to adhere to another well-practiced characteristic. Silence.

  • HSBC Cuts Over 100 Swiss Jobs in Geneva

    HSBC Cuts Over 100 Swiss Jobs in Geneva

    A year ago, HSBC’s Swiss private bank was still considering Geneva as a growth market. Now it is cutting jobs and reducing its office space in Geneva.

    After a bad year for Swiss private bank HSBC in which wealthy clients withdrew a net $1 billion, it is cutting 110 jobs in Switzerland and reducing office space in Geneva, British newspaper Financial Times reported Monday.

    Employees at the Quai des Bergues office in Geneva’s city center were informed last Monday that two floors of the building would be closed and more workers would have to share their desks.

    The move is part of the bank’s plan to reduce the costs of its office space in the city by around 20 percent over the next few years, making a significant contribution to improving the company’s profitability in Switzerland, according to an internal memo seen by the FT.

    The cuts in Switzerland come just a year after HSBC Group said the country was a market it wanted to invest in to grow its wealth management business.

    Many of the back- and middle-office functions will be moved to lower-cost locations, such as Poland and Mumbai, according to further reports. The reduction of office space is part of the British HSBC Group’s strategy to radically cut costs; at its headquarters in London, these costs are to be reduced by as much as 40 percent, as finews.ch also reported earlier.

    The measures taken in Geneva illustrate the pressure on HSBC’s Swiss private bank, which saw net new money outflows of around $1 billion last year.

    The FT suggests the decline was due to some very large clients withdrawing their assets, rather than a decline in the overall number of clients. HSBC will present its 2021 financial statements on February 22, 2022.

    HSBC’s spokesman said the job cuts in Geneva would have no impact on the front office, adding the bank plans to continue hiring relationship managers and investment advisors in the coming years.

    We remain fully committed to Switzerland,» he told the British newspaper. The Swiss bank will grow its business with clients from Europe, the Middle East and Asia, expand its offering to ultra-high-net-worth clients and continue to hire talent.

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  • Ekata Protects 2.5 Billion Digital Interactions Globally in 2021

    Ekata Protects 2.5 Billion Digital Interactions Globally in 2021

    2021 was a transformative year for Ekata, capped by joining the Mastercard family to accelerate our shared goal of building trust in the digital economy. As consumers moved more of their lives online, online businesses grew to serve them. Over the course of the year, Ekata solutions protected billions of digital interactions from fraud and enabled better, faster and more trustworthy onboarding and transaction experiences for consumers and merchants.

    “By any measure, this was an incredible year for us as a business and as a team,” said Rob Eleveld, Ekata’s CEO. “We had the right mix of product, people and strategy to anticipate and navigate the tectonic changes taking place in the global economy. And now, as a part of Mastercard, we have the partnerships and scale to help more businesses know their customers, and, in turn, enable more people to safely interact online.”

    Entering the second year of the global pandemic, consumers continued to transform the way they shop, bank and work, pushing many day-to-day transactions online and rapidly expanding the digital economy. While the availability of vaccines allowed in-person interactions to rebound somewhat in the US, Mastercard found that roughly 20% of the peak in the shift to ecommerce has stuck permanently for the retail sector. According to Mastercard SpendingPulse™, which measures overall retail sales across all payment types including cash and check, US ecommerce sales increased 9.4% year-over year in November 2021.

    The rapid adoption of online commerce also offered new opportunities and new incentives to fraudsters. For businesses, this only increased the challenge of providing frictionless experiences for consumers while minimizing fraud. As the digital economy continued to grow at a rapid pace in 2021, accurate and seamless digital identity verification became even more critical to businesses.

    As a result, we saw unprecedented query volume around the world. Here are a few highlights:

    • Powered by machine learning and an unparalleled data set, Ekata protected close to 2.5 billion digital interactions globally against fraudulent activities in 2021.
    • Query volume grew 258% in APAC, in part driven by new partnerships, and 35% in LATAM in 2021 over the previous year as reflected in the volume of API calls to the Ekata Identity Engine.
    • New partnerships helped drive a 48% increase in partner-related queries from 2020 to 2021.
    • Query volume among banking and lending (+55%) and ecommerce (+26%) customers was up significantly.
    • In 2021, Ekata also saw great gains in the financial service sector being driven by new partnerships with Equifax and Feedzai.

    The introduction of new products and improvements to existing solutions also helped Ekata meet emerging market needs:

    • New fraud detection model releases helped customers even better identify genuine versus risky interactions, with a 10% increase in product efficacy across the globe.
    • We introduced a new Merchant Onboarding solution to help payment service providers (PSPs) and B2B lenders better onboard the growing number of micro-merchants, sole proprietors, and independent contractors across the globe.

    We are grateful to our customers, partners, and employees for their continued commitment to building trust in the digital economy. As we enter 2022, we’re thrilled to accelerate our mission together with Mastercard.

  • Binance Invests in Media To Educate on Blockchain

    Binance Invests in Media To Educate on Blockchain

    Cryptocurrency player Binance is going old school, making a $200 million investment in media brand Forbes via a SPAC investment.

    Forbes is set to go public by the end of the first quarter via an acquisition by Magnum Opus Acquisition Ltd., which is a special purpose acquisition company (SPAC) already listed on the New York Stock Exchange.

    Binance is investing in the deal via a $200 million commitment to the total $400 million private investment in public equity, or PIPE, Forbes said in a press release Friday. PIPEs are common in SPAC deals as the SPAC entity may not have raised enough equity initially to complete its planned business combinations.

    The deal’s PIPE size will remain at $400 million, with Binance taking over existing subscription agreements, the statement said.

    Under the deal, Binance is expected to advise Forbes on its digital assets and Web3 strategy, the statement said. Web3 is a conceptual new iteration of the world wide web-based on blockchain technology, but it has not yet been implemented.

    Forbes is committed to demystifying the complexities and providing helpful information about blockchain technologies and all emerging digital assets, said Mike Federle, CEO of Forbes, in the statement. With Binance’s investment in Forbes, we now have the experience, network, and resources of the world’s leading crypto exchange and one of the world’s most successful blockchain innovators.

    Changpeng CZ Zhao, founder and CEO of Binance, added that media is an essential element for building widespread consumer understanding of blockchain technologies.

    We look forward to bolstering Forbes’ digital initiatives, as they evolve into a next-level investment insights platform, Zhao said in the statement.

    As part of the deal, Patrick Hillmann, chief communications officer for Binance, and Bill Chin, head of Binance Labs, which is Binance’s venture capital arm and incubator, will join Forbes’ board of directors, the statement said.

    The overall acquisition of Forbes values the combined company at an implied pro forma enterprise value of $630 million, Forbes has said previously.

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