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Category: Finance

Retail News Asia is committed to providing both local and global retailers with the latest Finance news throughout the Asian market. This on a daily base.

  • UBS Singapore Rainmaker Departs

    UBS Singapore Rainmaker Departs

    The Singapore-based firm offering end-to-end issuance, custody, and trading of digitized securities, has hired a banking and investment industry veteran as its first chief commercial officer.

    Singapore-based capital markets platform iSTOX has hired Choo Oi Yee as the firm’s chief commercial officer, to commence in January 2020, the firm announced in a press release on Thursday.

    Choo has spent more than two decades in banking, including six years at UBS, where she most recently was the lender’s managing director and head of Singapore corporate client solutions. She has also held senior roles at Morgan Stanley, Nomura Singapore and Parkway Holdings, according to her LinkedIn profile.

    In her new role, Choo will be responsible for driving the platform’s business growth and building its network of issuers and investors, the statement said, noting that iSTOX plans to grow its base of issuers and investors as it works towards graduation from MAS’s Fintech Regulatory Sandbox in early 2020.

    In September, the Temasek and SGX-backed firm hired former Monetary Authority of Singapore deputy director Lim Mei Shen as its chief compliance officer, saying it hopes to leverage her technical expertise and experience to build its position as a trusted and transparent capital markets platform.

    iSTOX shareholders include Singapore Exchange, Temasek Holdings subsidiary Heliconia, ICH Group and Kiatnakin Phatra Financial Group.

     

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  • Singapore’s First Blockchain Trade Financing Platform Launched

    Singapore’s First Blockchain Trade Financing Platform Launched

    CIMB Bank’s Singapore Branch and iTrust have launched Singapore’s First Blockchain Trade Financing Platform, and successfully completed their first structured trade financing transaction on the platform.

    The milestone transaction involves the financing of dairy products imported into China and is expected to generate transaction flows of up to $100 million a year, CIMB Bank said in a media statement on Thursday. iTrust provides secured real-time visibility of the cargo in transit and in the warehouse using blockchain-based IoT.

    Given the rapid technology shifts in the market today, we will continue to focus on digitalization and customer experience to transform the way we finance our corporate customers, thus adding value to our services. This blockchain trade financing with iTrust mitigates fraud risk, and alerts us of any unauthorized movement of the financed cargo, said Mak Lye Mun, CEO of CIMB Bank Singapore.

    All data and documents from the transaction are blockchain in a distributed ledger for provenance and immutability, the bank said. The technology provides all stakeholders with a secured operational dimension of the transaction, which was absent in the past. With iTrust’s security, transparency and visibility for the documents and cargo, CIMB hopes to mitigate risks associated with commodity trade financing and facilitate credit extension for their customers.

    Digitalization is gradually transforming financing. With iTrust, we have used blockchain-based IoT to provide insight into the physical world into a blockchain digital platform. We believe that the day will come whereby all lenders and borrowers would demand to have a secured real-time view of their cargo under financing on a secure and immutable blockchain platform like iTrust,» said Lim Chee Kean, CEO and co-founder of iTrust.

    As much as 80 percent of global flows of merchandise – worth about $9 trillion – is financed by some form of credit, guarantee or insurance, according to a global survey by the International Chamber of Commerce. Trade finance revenues were $39 billion in 2017. Yet, this $9 trillion business of financing global trade has only started to transact digitally.

    While some processes are already being digitalized and banks and commodity traders are experimenting with blockchain technology, paper documentation remains widespread and the risk of fraud elevated. In fact, forgers have become so adept at faking documents used by banks that going digital has become a necessity for the industry, according to OCBC, Southeast Asia’s second-biggest lender.

  • Mastercard Joins ASEAN Fintech Platform

    Mastercard Joins ASEAN Fintech Platform

    It will join AFIN’s board of directors and work with the platform to support the global fintech community and financial industry to foster greater financial inclusion.

    Southeast Asia’s fintech community has been given a boost with Mastercard joining the ASEAN Financial Innovation Network (AFIN) as the platform’s second corporate founding member, the two parties announced in a press release on Thursday.

    Mastercard’s participation in AFIN will enable the firm to work with fintechs to provide engagement and support, and it will bring its Start Path program members onto AFIN’s API Exchange (APIX) ecosystem, the statement said.

    «Having worked with tech start-ups around the globe, Mastercard looks forward to extending its support to ASEAN’s community of builders and change agents by providing access to its technology solutions, expertise and strategic partnerships to enable start-ups to rapidly and effectively scale up,» Rama Sridhar, executive vice president, Digital & Emerging Partnerships and New Payment Flows, Asia Pacific, Mastercard, said.

    AFIN is a non-profit network established in 2018 by the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS), the World Bank Group’s International Finance Corporation (IFC) and the ASEAN Bankers Association that aims to help financial institutions, fintech firms and regulators address issues of connectivity, local compliance and cross border compatibility.

    Its flagship product is a cloud-based APIX platform, an online marketplace for financial institutions to collaborate with innovative fintech solutions in areas from design to marketing.

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  • Citi Appoints APAC CEO

    Citi Appoints APAC CEO

    Citi names its new Asia Pacific CEO six months after the departure of the former regional chief.

    Peter Babej has been named as chief executive officer of Asia Pacific, succeeding Francisco Aristeguieta who left in April and was replaced in the interim by Tim Monger who will return to solely focus on his CFO role.

    Babej joined Citi in 2010 as its co-head of the financial institutions group within its institutional client group before becoming the unit’s sole head in 2017. Previously, Babej held multiple senior roles at Deutsche Bank and Lazard.

    According to the bank, Babej’s deep financial knowledge and dealmaking experience, especially with regards to digital adoption, will serve Citi well given rapid growth in the market.

    Under Peter’s leadership, the Citi has participated in some of the most significant transactions in the sector, including several Asia-driven mergers and acquisitions, said Citigroup CEO Mike Corbat, highlighting marque deals such as the $14 billion fundraisings for Ant Financial.

    In the first nine months of 2019, Citi’s APAC unit posted a net income of $3.91b, accounting for 27 percent of the global sum.

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  • Vietcombank first local lender to open Australia branch

    Vietcombank first local lender to open Australia branch

    Vietcombank, one of Vietnam’s leading banks, has received approval from the central bank to open a branch in Australia.

    The branch will open in Sydney and have a registered capital of AUD71 million ($48.08 million), according to the State Bank of Vietnam’s (SBV) approval document released Wednesday.

    Vietcombank must complete the opening of the branch within 24 months from the date of the SBV’s approval, after which it expires, the document says.

    This move is an important step in Vietcombank’s global expansion strategy, in which it aims to gain a place among the world’s top 300 banking and financial groups by 2020, it said in a statement.

    In June this year, Vietcombank received the final permit to set up a representative office in New York City of the U.S. from the New York State Department of Financial Services (NYDFS).

    Vietcombank has more than 500 branches, representative offices, and member companies in Vietnam and overseas, including a financial company in Hong Kong, a money transfer company in the U.S., a representative office in Singapore and a subsidiary in Laos.

    The lender is one of three Vietnamese banks among the world’s most valuable brands, according to Brand Finance, a global branded business valuation and strategy consultancy.

    Vietcombank, BIDV and Vietinbank are Vietnam’s three biggest banks in Forbes’s list of 2,000 largest listed firms in the world. In the Forbes ranking released in May, Vietcombank jumped 198 spots to 1,096th with revenues of $3.1 billion and a market value of $10.9 billion.

    Japan’s Mizuho Bank is Vietcombank’s largest foreign shareholder, with a 15 percent stake, while the Vietnamese state holds 74.8 percent.

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  • Vietnam fintech sector in the fast lane

    Vietnam fintech sector in the fast lane

    The number of financial technology companies in Vietnam has grown from around 40 in 2016 to 154, focusing on payment, peer-to-peer lending and crowdfunding, a survey has found.

    Out of the 154 fintech startups, 37 operate in payments, 25 in P2P lending and 22 in blockchain and crypto and remittance, according to a survey by the Banking Technology Development Research Institute (BTI), National University of Ho Chi Minh City, released at a fintech conference in HCMC on Monday.

    The rapid growth of fintech has transformed the financial and banking sector by offering consumers more convenient products and services.

    Fintech companies in Vietnam are likely to continue encroaching on the retail market share of traditional banks, with peer-to-peer lending, e-wallets, payment and cashless payments becoming an integral part of everyday life, the report noted.

    However, areas such as asset management, liquidity management, investment management, insurance, and automated advisory services are still in their infancy, it added.

    Hoang Cong Gia Khanh, director of BTI, said: “Because 70 percent of Vietnam’s fintech companies are still startups, it will be difficult to have large-scale fintech firms even with foreign capital.”

    Some 70 percent of them have foreign backers both from developed countries such as Singapore, Japan, the U.S., Canada, Australia, the U.K., Denmark, and France and neighboring countries such as China and Malaysia, he added.

    Vietnamese fintech companies also face challenges like cybersecurity, human resource training and others.

    Startups in fintech received more investment — $117 million — than in any other industry in Vietnam last year, according to startup accelerator program Topica Founder Institute.

    The country’s fintech market was valued at $4.4 billion in 2017 and is predicted

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  • One-in-three Hongkongers leaving plastic credit cards in favor of e-wallets

    One-in-three Hongkongers leaving plastic credit cards in favor of e-wallets

    More than one-third of Hong Kong consumers are ditching plastic in favor of e-wallets, according to a new FIS report on global retail payment trends.

    The report showed that e-wallets are now the preferred way for Hong Kong consumers to pay for goods online. Data from the Worldpay from FIS product suite shows that more than a third (36 percent) of all online retail purchases made in Hong Kong last year were via digital wallets, followed by credit cards (30 percent) and bank transfers (12 percent). In Hong Kong, digital wallets are the preferred payment method for shopping online for clothing and footwear, electrical goods, and health and beauty products, accounting for 36 percent, 44 percent and 32 percent of these purchases respectively.

    Even though credit cards still lead in-store, when it comes to shopping online, Hongkongers embrace digital wallets such as Alipay, WeChat Pay and PayPal, which now account for 36 percent of all online retail purchases.

    The report also shows a growing consumer preference for mobile commerce, which currently comprises 16 percent of all online retail in Hong Kong. Mobile commerce is expected to grow by 34 percent by 2022.

    “Consumers in Hong Kong are increasingly choosing digital payments over the more traditional credit-debit card combinations when shopping online, according to our 2019 Retail Global Payments Report,” said FIS GM for APAC, global enterprise e-commerce, merchant solutions Phil Pomford.

    The report also highlights Hong Kong’s strong overall retail e-commerce growth, which is expected to grow by more than 18 percent to almost US$4 billion by 2022. During the same period, in-store sales are also projected to grow by 4 percent compound annual growth rate (CAGR) to be worth US$70 billion, indicating the sustained long-term health of the retail industry in Hong Kong.

    The data was published in FIS’s 2019 Retail Global Payments Report, an analysis into payments trends of 16 countries from across the world, representing 80 percent of online global retail and 60 percent of instore global retail sales.

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  • UOB Issued Letter of Demand To Libra Group

    UOB Issued Letter of Demand To Libra Group

    UOB has asked  Libra Group, which is mired in financial troubles, to pay up $18.8 million.

    UOB has issued a letter of demand to Libra Group for the above amount, based on outstanding banking facilities, the Catalist-listed company announced in a filing on Friday. The letter, dated Oct 8, reveals that events of default have occurred, and «UOB shall cease to be under any further commitment to the Company.»

    The entire sum of $18.8 million is immediately payable to the bank by last Friday, the filing said.

    The Singapore lender also issued a letter demand to Kin Xin Engineering, a unit of Libra that provided guarantees for the US$18.8 million sum, for repayment by the same deadline.

    Another Libra unit, Libra Engineering & Manufacturing, separately received a letter of demand dated Sept 30 from WMS Industrial Gas & Equipment for 72,940 Ringgit (S$23,940), related to goods sold and delivered.

  • Singapore Fintech Investments Crossed S$1 Billion

    Singapore Fintech Investments Crossed S$1 Billion

    Investment in financial technology ventures in Singapore rose sharply in the first nine months of 2019, led by fundraising with payments startups and insurtech firms and a shift toward more-mature companies.

    The total value of financial technology (fintech) deals in the nine months ended September jumped 69 percent from the prior-year period to $735 million (S$1 billion) from $435 million, and exceeded the $642 million raised in all of 2018, according to an Accenture analysis of venture-finance data from CB Insights, Pitchbook and Tracxn. The 2019 and 2018 figures included $47 million and $12 million respectively in undisclosed venture capital transaction data provided by the Monetary Authority of Singapore.

    Crossing a billion-Singapore-dollar investment threshold is a recognition from investors around the world of the potential of Singapore’s fintech ecosystem and the outlook for digital financial services not just in Singapore, but also in Southeast Asia, said Sopnendu Mohanty, chief fintech officer of the Monetary Authority of Singapore in a statement.

    Singapore’s active investments into its fintech ecosystem, alongside its annual Singapore Fintech Festival, seems to be paying off: the city-state saw a nearly six-fold increase since 2015.

    It’s encouraging to see the local startups financing their global growth from Singapore. Additionally, several global fintech companies with regional headquarters in Singapore have recently raised sizeable funds to fuel their Asian expansion, Mohanty added.

    However, the number of fintech deals fell by almost one-third (29 percent) in the first nine months of 2019, to 94 from 133 in the prior-year period showing that investors made larger bets into fewer deals as startups grow their business.

    As we’ve seen in other parts of the world, fundraising is shifting to support the scaling up of challenger and collaborative fintech, which will cause lumpiness in some rounds as the market becomes more mature, said Divyesh Vithlani, a managing director at Accenture and head of Financial Services in the ASEAN region in a statement on Monday. Investments in payments startups and those in lending took the bulk of fintech fundraising, accounting for 34 percent and 20 percent of the total, respectively, while insurtechs raked in 17 percent.

    The value of payments deals jumped 113 percent, to $251 million, making the biggest contribution to the overall gains this year. Insurtech funding nearly quadrupled, to $128 million from $35 million, and lending rose more than 50 percent, to $145 million.

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  • Citi Setting Up Wholly Owned Securities Unit in China

    Citi Setting Up Wholly Owned Securities Unit in China

    Citigroup, which earlier announced its decision to dissolve its investment-banking joint venture in China, is now setting up a wholly-owned securities business in the world’s second-largest economy.

    The New York-based bank may initially focus on brokerage and futures trading while expanding its custodian services in China, quoting sources familiar with the matter. This comes as China announced the removal of ownership caps for financial institutions.

    The people asked not to be identified because a final decision has yet to be made. It also plans to apply for a futures license as early as the first half of 2020.

    Earlier this year, Citigroup has agreed to sell its stake in its Citi Orient Securities joint venture to its Chinese partner, as it prepares to set up its own brokerage in the world’s second-largest capital market.

    In December, Citigroup Global Markets Asia informed Orient Securities that the bank intended to sell all of its shareholdings, the Chinese company said in an exchange filing. Orient said its board gave the green light for the acquisition of Citi’s stake, adding that the deal will be subject to approval from China’s securities regulator and state asset regulator.

  • UOB Trains Staff to Adapt to Digital Era

    UOB Trains Staff to Adapt to Digital Era

    In order to upgrade its staff and equip them for the digital era, UOB has launched a comprehensive learning and development program to upskill its employees.

    The Better U program includes a 12-week foundation course alongside more specific career pathways and learning tracks. Its 12-week course focuses on five core competencies: encouraging a growth mindset; alongside acquiring skills in complex problem solving; digital innovation; human-centered design; and data.

    For its career pathways and learning tracks, it recently introduced the fields of data management and project management which will be covered in three-year programs.

    According to the bank, the Better U program was the first such training initiative accredited by the Institute of Banking and Finance Singapore (IBF) that included both soft skills coupled with digital and data skills. By 2020, UOB expects that at least 70 percent of its more than 26,000 employees globally will have completed the foundation course and subsequently receive a UOB-IBF certificate of achievement.

    By designing a holistic development program that covers both soft and technical skills, we are sowing the seeds of learning to prepare our people for successful careers in an industry that is undergoing significant change, said Dean Tong, UOB’s head of group HR.

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  • DBS Mulls Second Attempt at Indonesian Bank M&A

    DBS Mulls Second Attempt at Indonesian Bank M&A

    Considerations are being made at DBS on whether or not to submit a bid for Indonesian lender Bank Permata – its second attempt to enter the Southeast Asian market through an acquisition.

    DBS has not yet concluded its decision on whether or not to bid for the bank valued at $2.4 billion, according to a report citing anonymous sources. The submission deadline is believed to be due in about a month.

    Should it decide to pursue the acquisition, DBS will face competition from OCBC and Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group. Bank Permata’s current major shareholders include Standard Chartered (45 percent) and PT Astra International (45 percent).

    Should DBS proceed, it will mark the second attempt at acquiring a major Indonesian bank. In 2013, DBS failed to acquire PT Bank Danamon Indonesia with its $6.5 billion bid following a change to foreign ownership rules. The Indonesian lender was subsequently acquired by Mitsubishi UFJ earlier this year.

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  • HSBC Reviewing Bank’s Equities Team

    HSBC Reviewing Bank’s Equities Team

    HSBC will be reviewing its global equities sales and trading business as it tries to slash costs under Noel Quinn, raising the chances of more job cuts.

    With HSBC’s interim chief Noel Quinn looking to ax 10,000 jobs in Europe, the bank may look to sell or shut down its equities sales and trading business. Some of these headcount cuts could come from the sale of its French retail bank.

    Equity desks are becoming more automated — it wouldn’t be a shock if they take more bodies out,» said an investment banker, who was quoted on Sunday. Global equities revenues were $1.2bn (£930m) last year, representing about 2 percent of group revenues.

    Any job cuts implemented as part of the latest plan would come on top of 4,700 redundancies that HSBC recently announced, according to a report. The lender is struggling with thinning profits amid a challenging environment characterized by low-interest rates, trade conflicts, and Brexit uncertainty.  The bank’s global headcount stands at about 238,000.

    The planned cuts mark the lender’s most ambitious attempt to rein in costs in years, as it would result in a substantial reduction in HSBC’s current headcount. Observers also see it as a move by Quinn to make his mark on the bank, post the exit of John Flint, the previous chief.

    We’ve known for years that we need to do something about our cost base, the largest component of which is people — now we are finally grasping the nettle, said two sources quoted in the Financial Times article.

    There’s some very hard modeling going on. We are asking why we have so many people in Europe when we’ve got double-digit returns in parts of Asia, they added.

    Despite heavy cuts, the London-based bank with a strong franchise in Asia wants to hire more than 600 staff by the end of 2022 for the business in the Asia-Pacific region, said Kevin Martin, regional head of retail banking and wealth management who was quoted in «Bloomberg».

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  • DBS Mulls Second Attempt at Indonesian Bank M&A

    DBS Mulls Second Attempt at Indonesian Bank M&A

    Considerations are being made at DBS on whether or not to submit a bid for Indonesian lender Bank Permata – its second attempt to enter the Southeast Asian market through an acquisition.

    DBS has not yet concluded its decision on whether or not to bid for the bank valued at $2.4 billion, according to a report citing anonymous sources. The submission deadline is believed to be due in about a month.

    Should it decide to pursue the acquisition, DBS will face competition from OCBC and Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group. Bank Permata’s current major shareholders include Standard Chartered (45 percent) and PT Astra International (45 percent).

    Should DBS proceed, it will mark the second attempt at acquiring a major Indonesian bank. In 2013, DBS failed to acquire PT Bank Danamon Indonesia with its $6.5 billion bid following a change to foreign ownership rules. The Indonesian lender was subsequently acquired by Mitsubishi UFJ earlier this year.

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  • HSBC Appoints New Head of Global Liquidity and Cash Management

    HSBC Appoints New Head of Global Liquidity and Cash Management

    HSBC Singapore on Friday announced a new Head of Global Liquidity and Cash Management who will lead the business in Singapore working with customer groups to maximize its potential as a regional treasury hub as they deepen their presence in Southeast Asia.

    David Koh, HSBC’s new head of global liquidy and cash management (GLCM), joins from Standard Chartered, where he most recently led the transaction bank for Greater China and North Asia. He brings over 25 years of experience in transaction banking, having worked across seven geographies including China, Singapore, the UK, and Saudi Arabia, the lender said in a statement.

    Whilst Singapore already enjoys a strong concentration of multinationals basing their regional treasury centers here, Southeast Asia’s rising consumer market means these numbers are ratcheting up even further. When you couple this with the region’s growing digital economy and mobile-first mentality, it becomes clear that businesses require truly innovative solutions to grasp these opportunities,» said Head of Commercial Banking HSBC Singapore Alan Turner.

    With David’s many years of international experience, he will be instrumental in driving cross-border payment and liquidity solutions in this ever-changing dynamic region, Turner added.

    Prior to Standard Chartered, Koh headed the Corporate and Transaction Banking teams for Deutsche Bank in Greater China. Koh began his career at HSBC on the bank’s executive trainee development program.

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