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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.

  • Japanese firm unveils fingerprint payments in Indonesia

    Japanese firm unveils fingerprint payments in Indonesia

    Japanese tech company Liquid has launched a biometric payments service in Indonesia that operates at the point of sale.

    Currently the project is being tested at an enterprise level, with the service offered to the Salim group’s workforce of around 500,000.

    “We are looking forward to developing the next generation payment and business platform in Indonesia, which will contribute to changing people’s lifestyle and have a big business impact in Indonesia,” said Yasuhiro Kuda, CEO of Tokyo-based Liquid.

    Users of the service need to register their fingerprints and deposit money in advance. They can complete payments within three seconds with the system’s fingerprint readers, which have an error rate of one in a trillion, according to Liquid.

    The company will start registering users’ fingerprints this month and start installing fingerprint readers later this year at stores run by Salim, whose businesses range from food and car sales to convenience store operations.

    Liquid is currently providing such fingerprint payment services to tens of thousands users in some cities in Japan.

    The company is aiming to expand the business in Indonesia, counting on the economic growth of the most populous country in Southeast Asia.

  • Standard Chartered Looks at Strategic Options for its Indonesia Business

    Standard Chartered Looks at Strategic Options for its Indonesia Business

    Standard Chartered said its troubled principal finance unit toted up a $650 million loss last year, weighing on the bank’s efforts to improve returns. Standard Chartered’s net loss for 2016 narrowed to $478 million from $2.36 billion in 2015, but revenue and profit figures fell short of analysts’ expectations and the stock fell 5%.

    The emerging-markets focused bank said it sharply marked down its private equity stakes in companies in Africa, Asia and India, as it prepares to exit from the principal finance business in the next couple of years. It said its risk committee reviewed processes and controls in the unit last year, amid the losses and probes by U.S. and other authorities into alleged bribery at a portfolio company, power plant builder Maxpower Group Pte. Ltd.

    Standard Chartered said the unit will be stripped out of its underlying results going forward, with any gains or losses treated as restructuring costs. The principal finance unit manages around $5 billion for Standard Chartered and external investors. The bank’s exposure is around $2 billion.

    Standard Chartered’s smaller full-year loss was the result of a near-halving in bad loans across its businesses. But revenue dropped by 11% to $13.8 billion from $15.4 billion. Standard Chartered blamed the fall on a range of factors including negative revenue in principal finance, dollar strength against emerging market currencies and lower client activity.

    Fourth-quarter revenue was $3.53 billion, up from $3.26 billion in the fourth quarter of 2015. The bank said significant further improvement is needed.

    Chief Executive Bill Winters said the bank is on a stronger foundation after cutting costs and selling around a dozen businesses since he started as CEO in June 2015. He said the bank will look at strategic options this year for its Indonesia business, currently run through two banks.

    Standard Chartered operates under its own name in the country and holds a 44.6% stake in PT Bank Permata. Mr. Winters said the bank is fully committed to Indonesia but wants to operate through a single entity there.

    He said shifts in global trade and potential U.S. protectionist policies posed a threat to the bank, but also opportunity as trade flows realign. “If the U.S. for whatever reasons or through whatever political process makes itself a less desirable trading partner, there are other countries that will want to fill that gap,” Mr. Winters told reporters.

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  • India debuts interoperable QR code payment system

    India debuts interoperable QR code payment system

    The Reserve Bank of India and the Indian Banks Association have launched Bharat QR, the world’s first interoperable QR code acceptance solution.

    The solution was developed by Mastercard in collaboration with National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) and Visa. American Express will also adopt these payment standards.

    Bharat QR aims to provide both merchants and consumers with seamless and secure method for payment transactions.

    For consumers, Bharat QR eliminates the need to use multiple QR codes from different payment networks when transacting with any merchant. Similarly merchants need only display one single QR code at the storefront or through their respective acquiring bank’s mobile application.

    The Bharat QR solution will be rolled out across the nation in phases by banks, with the aim to foster adoption by 57 million small and micro businesses due to the purported low cost of deployment.

    A number of banks in India stand ready to deploy BharatQR, including Axis Bank, Bank of Baroda, Bank of India, Citi Union Bank, Development Credit Bank, Karur Vysya Bank, HDFC Bank, ICICI Bank, IDBI Bank, RBL Bank, State Bank of India, Union Bank of India, Vijaya Bank and Yes Bank.

    Several other banks are also at various stages of implementation.

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  • BT connects world’s five top forex markets

    BT connects world’s five top forex markets

    BT is linking up the world’s five main foreign exchange locations to help boost the competitiveness of its global financial industry customers.

    The company is now offering BT Radianz FX express, which provides dedicated high-speed links between financial hubs in Singapore, Japan, Hong Kong, the UK and the US. The five hubs are involved in almost 77% of the world’s forex trading, according to the 2016 BIS Triennial Central Bank Survey.

    The new Radianz FX express service claims to offer low-latency and cost-effective, fully managed connectivity that will give traders faster access to market data across the five locations, while making it easier for them to execute trades.

    Radianz FX express links directly into the five key third-party global data centers in the forex trading world. These data centers were selected because each of the locations hosts the IT infrastructure of significant clusters of the forex trading community.

    “Foreign exchange is the largest asset class by value traded globally.  An average of US $5.1 trillion is traded on FX markets every day,” BT VP of global industry practices Hubertus von Roenne said.

    “We’ve created managed BT Radianz FX express routes to boost the competitiveness of our financial services customers. With dedicated links within and between the world’s five biggest FX trading locations, BT can help FX firms lower costs while creating opportunities for international growth.”

  • Rakuten expands in-store payment system

    Rakuten expands in-store payment system

    Japanese e-commerce giant Rakuten is expanding its Rakuten Pay in-store payment system to support 14 major digital money brands and Android Pay.

    Rakuten Pay provides affiliated stores with a single payments service that supports a variety of payment methods, including credit cards, electronic money, and a smartphone app.

    It now accepts payments made through Rakuten Edy, the digital payment service provided by Rakuten Group, nine electronic money brands affiliated to transport organizations, including Suica, PASMO, and nanaco which can be used at Seven & i Holdings retailers across Japan; WAON,  the electronic money brand provided by the AEON Group (planned service launch in 2018), as well as QUICPay+TM  and iD*1.

    As the system supports Rakuten Edy, it is also compatible with Android Pay.

    In the future, Rakuten said it plans to make the service compatible with NFV payment services, such as Visa payWave, Mastercard Contactless, and J/Speedy, making it possible for affiliated stores to process payments made by foreign tourists visiting Japan as well.

    Moreover, the Rakuten Card & NFC Reader Elan will become available for purchase from March 6, 2017. This device is equipped with functions that enable payment through both credit cards and electronic money.

    For participating stores that already carry the older device and stores that wish to accept only major electronic money brands, the Rakuten NFC Reader Piu, an electronic money reader that is equipped with NFC functions, is scheduled to go on sale in the summer of 2017.

    Rakuten launched the Rakuten Pay in-store payment system, originally a settlement service for credit cards, in December 2012 to the Rakuten Ecosystem to brick-and-mortar stores. In October 2016, Rakuten began providing a smartphone app service through Rakuten Pay which utilizes the Rakuten Member ID.

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  • Progress on bringing Apple Pay to South Korea ‘still in an early stage’

    Progress on bringing Apple Pay to South Korea ‘still in an early stage’

    Though Apple is working on launching Apple Pay in South Korea, the mobile payments system is still some ways out —and the company has yet to hold a critical meeting with the government, according to a local report.

    A legal director and a senior counselor from the company visited Korea in November to talk with the country’s financial officials. At the time however, Apple’s team is only said to have explained how Apple Pay works —including the tokenization of transactions, for security purposes —while promising to partner with local credit card firms.

    To actually launch in Korea, Apple will need to meet with authorities again to determine whether it should be registered as an electronic financial business operator. No such meeting is scheduled so far.

    On the private side, meanwhile, an official with one local card company told the publication that “work with Apple is still in an early stage.”

    This stands in contrast with Google, which is expected to launch Android Pay in Korea before Apple can get a foothold. The company is not only said to be planning a meeting on the electronic financial business operator issue, but working with card companies like KB Kookmin, Shinhan, Lotte, and Hyundai on online and NFC-based payments.

    It’s believed that Google will probably focus on online transactions first, as most Korean retail stores reportedly lack NFC-ready sales terminals. The situation has in fact given Samsung an edge, since Samsung Pay can be used at any terminal with a magnetic card reader. The firm isn’t registered as an electronic financial business operator, though, since it doesn’t actually generate money from transactions.

    Apple Pay is now accepted in a dozen countries. Apart from the U.S. this includes places like Australia, Canada, China, France, Russia, and Japan. Taiwan has been confirmed as an upcoming market, but hints of a German launch have yet to solidify.

  • Krungsri gears up for return of investors from Japan

    Krungsri gears up for return of investors from Japan

    Bank of Ayudhya, commonly known as Krungsri, is reinforcing its commercial banking after seeing a return by Japanese companies considering investment in the Kingdom in light of the government’s “Thailand 4.0” industrial goals.

    Pornsanong Tuchinda, head of commercial banking, said yesterday that healthcare and wellness and real estate were currently the priority focus of Japanese businesses looking to invest in Thailand again since the government announced the Thailand 4.0 industrial-development policy.

    The actual level of new Japanese investment will be seen when these companies have a clear picture of development plans under the policy, he added.

    Japanese companies invested in Thailand have been a crucial part of the customer base for Krungsri’s commercial-banking operations since 2015, reflecting the successful integration between the Thai bank and BTMU (Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ) Bangkok Branch, which is part of Japan’s MUFG (Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group), he said.

    Pornsanong said Japanese investors were currently eyeing healthcare and wellness business in Thailand because of this country’s increasingly “greying” population.

    Japan has expertise in healthcare and wellness in light of its own ageing population, while real estate is another business that investors are keen on because of its being tourism-related.

    The bank will offer investors total financial solutions, catering to corporate customers that may not only require financing but also financial advice and business-matching services, he said, adding that Krungsri would therefore focus more on how to deliver a package of solutions to such clients.

    A number of medium-sized Thai hospitals also are interested in expanding their healthcare and wellness business, presenting a further opportunity for the bank’s commercial-banking arm, he said.

    Last year, the unit enjoyed loan growth of 11 per cent, with outstanding lending rising to Bt642 billion thanks to the financing of major deals involving Siam City Cement, which acquired a cement business in Sri Lanka; Central Group, which purchased a retail business in Vietnam; and Thai Union Group, which acquired a business in the European Union, Pornsanong said.

    Excluding those large deals, loan growth was 7-8 per cent.

    This year, while the bank’s commercial-banking arm targets 5-per-cent growth due to fewer big deals on the horizon, it should still outpace its peers thanks to the recovering Thai economy and Thailand 4.0-related business activity, he predicted.

    Moreover, with the unit’s customer base sufficiently large for the provision of improved total solutions, it wants to give more importance to the quality of customers and offer value-added solutions to its current clients, he explained.

    Commercial banking at Krungsri covers corporate customers with annual sales revenue of more than Bt1 billion, and small and medium-sized enterprises with annual revenue below that level.

    Based on the loan-growth target of 5 per cent, most lending this year will be contributed by medium-sized enterprises, a segment in which the bank has witnessed lending demand, he said.

    “These firms [mid-sized enterprises] are more confident in the Thai economy, and many of them are in retail, where there is purchasing power but consumer sentiment |has not yet returned. If sentiment improves, purchasing power will be released and SMEs will benefit.

    “On the other hand, most corporate customers are not requiring new lending at present, as they first want to see how the global trade situation settles,” the commercial-banking head said.

  • Bank Mandiri`s net profit falls by 32.1 percent

    Bank Mandiri`s net profit falls by 32.1 percent

    State lender Bank Mandiri saw its net profit plunging by up to 32.1 percent to Rp13.8 trillion in 2016 from Rp20.3 trillion in 2015. The net profit fell, as the bank set aside its operating income to raise its provisions for loan loss coverage, following the rising ratio of non-performing loans (NPLs) to total gross loans, Bank Mandiri President Director Kartika Wirjoatmodjo said in a press briefing here on Tuesday.

    The provisions for loan loss coverage ratio against NPLs rose to 125 percent, as the ratio of NPLs to total gross loans increased by 1.4 percent to 4 percent in 2016 from 2.6 percent in 2015, he added.

    “We put much of the income into the provisions. Before we put it in the provisions, our pre-provision operational profit (PPOP) stood at Rp43.3 trillion,” he stated.

    With the NPLs rising 4 percent, Bank Mandiri has set aside Rp24.6 trillion of its funds for loan loss provisions, he noted.

    After all, the bank recorded positive growth for all of last year, he remarked.

    In 2016, the bank channeled credits worth Rp662 trillion, up 11.2 percent from a year earlier, while third-party fund placement in the bank reached Rp762.5 trillion, up 12.7 percent from the previous year.

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  • Vietnam banks to slam doors on home-based business owners

    Vietnam banks to slam doors on home-based business owners

    Home-based businesses will soon find it, not just increasingly difficult, but impossible to find a bank loan. The central bank has tightened lending criteria for household and other unregistered businesses, meaning they will not be eligible for bank loans.

    With the change coming into effect from March 15, a housewife who wants to earn some extra money by selling handmade soap will have to apply for a consumer loan rather than a commercial loan from the bank.

    A consumer loan is more expensive than a business loan, which will later reflect in the costs of operating her business, limiting revenue growth and profitability.

    Vietnam currently has 5 million unregistered home-based businesses, said Vu Tien Loc, chairman of the Vietnam Chamber of Commerce and Industry (VCCI). However, the country plans to relax the business environment so that by 2020 it will have one million private businesses, most of which will be home-based businesses that have converted to legal entities.

    Loc said because some regulatory requirements, mostly involving administrative procedures and tax policies, are expensive and time-consuming, the vast majority of local businesses choose to remain as home-based micro businesses.

    Also according to the VCCI, about 70 percent of small business owners, including home-based ones, that apply for a bank loan get rejected, even though they are critical to job creation in Vietnam, employing 52 percent of the private sector workforce.

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  • BEI of Jayapura office opens share investment clinic

    BEI of Jayapura office opens share investment clinic

    The representative office of the Indonesian Stock Exchange (BEI) in this Papua capital city has opened a clinic class for non active registered share investors.

    “They need guidance especially as the share customers are different in type. Therefore, we open share investment class for them,” head of the BEI representative office of Jayapura Kresna Aditya Payokwa, said here on Tuesday.

    Participants are told how to buy and sell shares, and how to analyze the marker trend, Kresna said.

    “We open the share investment clinic every Monday, Wednesday and Friday . Now it is already the fifth group,” he said.

    From the class it could be seen who among the investors more active in the share trade, he said, adding a prize is given to the most active traders.

    The clinic is part of the program to promote share trading in a bid to increase the number of investors in BEI.

    By January , 2017, BEI recorded 2,391 investors , up from 1,300 investors a year earlier.

    The number of investors in Papua has continued to increase. Transactions in 2016 were valued at Rp1.3 trillion. Monthly transactions average Rp100 billion, he said.

    Many of the investors at the Jayapura representative of BEI are not active, he said.

    “Transactions in January 2017 were valued at Rp70 billion with active participants making up only 60 percent of the total number of registered investors,” he said.

    Most of the people do not understand share trading. “BEI is new for them , therefore, we need to intensify socialization,” he added.

  • IDX Closes on Regional Election Day

    IDX Closes on Regional Election Day

    The Indonesia Stock Exchange (IDX) will close on the simultaneous regional election day, February 15, 2017, the IDX website page stated. Earlier, Vice President Jusuf Kalla had asked Indonesians to use their voting rights and vote for credible candidates to improve their respective regions.
    JK said that election is a peaceful, responsible, and clean democratic process that ensure individual right to vote. He expects to see a smooth democratic process during the simultaneous regional elections. “Let’s go to the polling station with a smile, happiness, and peacefully vote for leaders who can lead us to a better life,” he said.
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  • Bank Rakyat to enter Indonesia mart in Q2 this year

    Bank Rakyat to enter Indonesia mart in Q2 this year

    Bank Rakyat will enter the Indonesian market in the second quarter (Q2) of this year after getting approval from the authorities, including Bank Negara Malaysia.

    To this end, the bank said, it had signed a memorandum of understanding with Indonesia’s largest bank, Bank Rakyat Indonesia (BRI), today.

    In a statement, the bank said, the collaboration would enable both banks to provide money order services to over 700,000 Indonesians in Malaysia.

    Its Chief Retail Banking Officer, Mohd Shahril Isa, said Malaysia has the highest number of money order transactions worth US$1.9 bilion (US$1 = RM4.44) to Indonesia in 2016.

    “This is one of the main factors for Bank Rakyat to expand its banking services to the country,” he said.

    BRI was set up in 1895 and has 50 million retail clients, with over 10,612 business and services branches all over Indonesia, while Bank Rakyat is the largest Islamic cooperative bank in Malaysia with 147 branches.

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  • BTN to launch micro housing loan by end of February

    BTN to launch micro housing loan by end of February

    State-run mortgage lender Bank Tabungan Negara (BTN) is expected to launch micro housing loan for lower income group by the end of Feb, its president director said.

    “We will launch it around end of this Feb. It is a special loan for lower income group who do not have regular income,” Maryono said at the Vice Presidential office here on Monday.

    According to Maryono, the lower income group includes those with regular income and those without. The first group enjoys the governments housing finance liquidity (FLPP) and interest rate subsidy.

    The group without regular earnings would be supported with micro housing loan to afford a house.

    The bank would impose interest rate as low as 7-9 percent, he said.

    Currently, some 6.3 million workers are categorized into lower income group, which include those who do not have regular earnings.

    Public Works and Housing Minister Basoeki Hadimuljono said that housing provision for lower income group is targeted to reach 700 thousand houses in 2017, up from 516 thousand in 2016.

    Basoeki added that the houses would be built at state properties, and access to the locations would also be improved to cut the transportation costs.

    The minister added that micro housing loan would be given to workers with monthly earnings from Rp1.2 million to Rp2.6 million.

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  • How Thai e-wallet startup T2P is going to help Myanmar go cashless

    How Thai e-wallet startup T2P is going to help Myanmar go cashless

    It’s a little hard to believe, but, four years ago, sim cards in Myanmar used to cost around US$500. If that price is considered exorbitant for even a first world nation, think about how out-of-reach it would be for the working class Burmese, whose minimum wage is only US$87.

    But that all changed thanks to the entrance of two foreign telecoms in 2013, Qatar’s Telenor and Norway’s Ooredoo, which saw sim card prices slashed to about US$1.50. Since then, the mobile penetration in Myanmar has skyrocketed to 90 per cent, up from 7 per cent in 2012, according to government figures. And of that, more than 80 per cent use smartphones; as a result, Burmese are hooking up to the internet more than ever.

    Now, Thailand-based fintech company T2P wants to help Burmese catch up to a tech product already prevalent in many other markets — mobile payments.

    Earlier this week, T2P signed a joint venture deal with City Mart Holdings Co.,Ltd, a leading Myanmar retail chain with over 200 outlets across the nation, which includes fast food restaurants, bookstores and supermarkets.

    The signing was held during a Myanmar-Thailand Business Cooperation event presided over by Myanmar State Counseller Aung San Suu Kyi and Deputy Prime Minister of Thailand Dr. Somkid Jatusripitak.

    The joint venture will see T2P integrate its suite of fintech offerings including its payment platform, loyalty and e-gift platforms, as well as e-wallets to cater to Myanmar’s burgeoning smartphone user demographics.

    According to an official press release, T2P’s overarching goal is to democratise financial services to the country’s large unbanked population.

    “At a company level, we are not only bringing our technology platform to help accelerate technology deployment for our partner, but also indirectly drawing attentions from our investors and other potential investors to take a deeper look at opportunities in Myanmar. When more of this happen[s], I’m sure there will be more parties to help accelerate the growth of startup ecosystem in Myanmar,” said T2P’s CEO Taweechai Pureetip, in an interview.

    He added that through regional events such as Mekong Investment Forum, Thai entrepreneurs are raising awareness about the great potential of tech innovations, as well as enabling other entrepreneurs by sharing their experiences and lessons.

    But like any emerging economy, Myanmar’s tech ecosystem still have many obstacles to overcome. Basic infrastructure is still dysfunctional in certain parts, especially rural areas. And although foreign investments are on the rise in Myanmar, the law regarding such investments in the country’s newly-minted stock exchange is still restrictive.

    Pureetip is aware of such challenges, having faced similar problems in his home market.

    “Since the beginning of our company, we aimed to help improve financial access to those unbanked in Thailand.  We have to take into accounts technology literacy of our customers, access to services, and connectivity issues that may arise in some areas.  These are similar issues but may be more common in Myanmar,” said Pureetip.

    “Aside from technology, both Burmese and Thais are cash base society. Changing cash into electronic money will be our big challenge for us but we also see great opportunities there. We will be working closely with CityMart in adapting our service offerings to encourage them to use more electronic money,” he added.

    Founded in late 2011 by MIT Alumni Pureetip, Natwut Amornvivat and Charatpong Chotigavanich, Panop Kasemsarn, T2P has been providing white label cash and reward card solutions to national retailers in Thailand since 2013. It currently process over 1.5 million card holders,

    In 2016, it raised its first outside financing round in 2016 from 500 Startups, 500 Tuk Tuk and a strategic partner Benchachinda Holding.

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  • Myanmar to adopt UnionPay chip card standard

    Myanmar to adopt UnionPay chip card standard

    The Myanmar Payment Union (MPU) and UnionPay International (UPI) have teamed up to implement a common UnionPay chip card standard in the country.

    The UnionPay chip card standard complies with the global EMV chip card standard, and will be adopted by all banks operating in Myanmar.

    The UnionPay chip card standard emerged as the standard of choice after stringent reviews and extensive consultations with Central Bank of Myanmar, MPU and major financial institutions.

    Following this process, the current local chip card standard will be upgraded to the new UnionPay chip card standard which offers enhanced security. In addition, Myanmar Cardholders can use the locally-issued cards featuring the new UnionPay chip card standard anywhere in the world, at locations that accept the EMV chip card standard.

    This announcement follows the implementation of the UnionPay chip card standard in Thailand and Laos in recent years. In Thailand, all new locally-issued debit cards will need to carry the Thai Bank Chip Card Standard starting August 2017, a chip card standard licensed by UPI and run by Thai Banker Association. In Laos, UnionPay provides support for the construction, operation and maintenance of the local payment systems.

    In 2016, UPI also signed a chip card standard licensing cooperation agreement with seven other member institutions of Asian Payment Network. With this collaboration, the major switch networks in Singapore, Thailand, South Korea, Malaysia, Indonesia and the Philippines will adopt UnionPay chip card standard in card acceptance and card issuance.

    Acting Chairman of MPU, U Zaw Win, said, “The UnionPay chip card standard brings the Myanmar Payments industry to the world stage as it complies with international EMV standard and security. The tripartite collaboration on the chip standard lays a strong foundation for innovation, value-added services, and increase convenience for Myanmar consumers and businesses.”

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