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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.

  • Singapore-Based Crypto Platform Inks Blockbuster Sports Deal

    Singapore-Based Crypto Platform Inks Blockbuster Sports Deal

    Crypto.com has bought the naming rights to the arena that is home to NBA team Los Angeles Lakers, in what is said to be one of the largest naming deals in sports history.

    The Staples Center in Los Angeles, home to the Lakers basketball team as well as the L.A. Kings hockey team and women’s basketball team Los Angeles Sparks, will be renamed the Crypto.com Arena, following a $700 million deal announced on Wednesday.

    The partnership, which takes effect on December 25, will last for 20 years, and ends the arena’s 22-year partnership with the office supplies retailer.

    The deal underscores the rapidly growing influence and widespread adoption of Crypto.com’s cryptocurrency platform and NFT marketplace worldwide, Crypto.com said.

    Crypto.com was founded by e-commerce exec Kris Marszalek as Monaco in 2016, before its rebranding as Crypto.com in 2018. The platform boasts more than 10 million customers today. The crypto exchange’s logo already adorns the jerseys of the National Basketball Association (NBA) Philadelphia 76ers team.

    Earlier this year, rival crypto exchange FTX became the first crypto business to secure naming rights to a major sports venue when it paid $135 million for the naming rights to the home of NBA team Miami Heat in a 19-year deal. Crypto.com then secured a sponsorship deal with hockey team Montreal Canadiens to have its logo brandished on the ice at its home arena, the Bell Centre.

    The platform’s native token, CRO, currently the 16th largest cryptocurrency by market cap, jumped 35 percent in the 24 hours after the announcement to reach $0.545.

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  • DBS Exec to Lead Carbon Credits Exchange

    DBS Exec to Lead Carbon Credits Exchange

    He was most recently DBS’ group chief sustainability officer, responsible for developing the bank’s sustainability framework and driving sustainability initiatives.

    Climate Impact X (CIX) has announced the appointment of Mikkel Larsen as chief executive officer, effective immediately, according to an announcement on Wednesday.

    Larsen has been interim CEO of the platform, a joint venture between DBS Bank, Singapore Exchange (SGX), Standard Chartered, and Temasek, since May 2021.

    Before his nine years at DBS, Larsen spent over seven years at UBS, leaving as CFO of Asia-Pacific, and previously held roles at Citibank in London, and KPMG.

    In his new role, Larsen will oversee all day-to-day operations for CIX, including collaborating with its ecosystem of technology partners to build up its Project Marketplace and Exchange platforms as well as curating a pipeline of high-quality carbon credit projects to feature on its platforms. He will also drive the company’s culture, values, and behavior while building up a high-performing team passionate about catalyzing scalable sustainable solutions.

    The carbon market is going through a transition. We have a unique opportunity to establish a trusted market that can both help preserve the crucially important existing carbon sinks whilst developing new ones, Larsen said.

    CIX said it completed a pilot auction in October of a curated portfolio of high-quality carbon credits, where it successfully cleared 170,000 tonnes of carbon credits from eight recognized NCS projects spanning across Africa, Asia, and Latin America.

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  • HSBC Reshuffles Commercial Bank

    HSBC Reshuffles Commercial Bank

    HSBC has reshuffled senior management at its commercial banking arm in Asia and the U.K. Amanda Murphy and Frank Fang have been named co-heads of the APAC commercial banking business, according to a statement, reporting to global commercial banking chief executive Barry O’Byrne.

    The current head of commercial banking for HSBC U.K., Murphy will relocate to Singapore to become head of commercial banking, South and Southeast Asia to oversee the local commercial banking franchises in India, Southeast Asia, Australia, and international markets.

    Frank Fang will maintain his role as head of commercial banking, Hong Kong and Macau.

    Murphy and Fang will also serve on the global and APAC commercial banking executive committees.

    Succeeding Murphy’s role as head of commercial banking for HSBC U.K. is Stuart Tait, subject to regulatory approval, who led the APAC commercial banking franchise since 2016.

    I would like to thank Tait for growing our business in Asia Pacific over the last five years – his customer-centricity will be equally instrumental in his new role, O’Byrne said.

    Focusing on Asia for growth, investment and capital deployment is a strategic priority for our global business. We aim to grow our market share in the Greater Bay Area, India and Southeast Asia, expanding our customer base and digitizing at scale to help our clients and business to capture global opportunities.

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  • DBS Exec to Lead Carbon Credits Exchange

    DBS Exec to Lead Carbon Credits Exchange

    He was most recently DBS’ group chief sustainability officer, responsible for developing the bank’s sustainability framework and driving sustainability initiatives.

    Climate Impact X (CIX) has announced the appointment of Mikkel Larsen as chief executive officer, effective immediately, according to an announcement on Wednesday.

    Larsen has been interim CEO of the platform, a joint venture between DBS Bank, Singapore Exchange (SGX), Standard Chartered, and Temasek, since May 2021.

    Before his nine years at DBS, Larsen spent over seven years at UBS, leaving as CFO of Asia-Pacific, and previously held roles at Citibank in London, and KPMG.

    In his new role, Larsen will oversee all day-to-day operations for CIX, including collaborating with its ecosystem of technology partners to build up its Project Marketplace and Exchange platforms as well as curating a pipeline of high-quality carbon credit projects to feature on its platforms. He will also drive the company’s culture, values, and behavior while building up a high-performing team passionate about catalyzing scalable sustainable solutions.

    The carbon market is going through a transition. We have a unique opportunity to establish a trusted market that can both help preserve the crucially important existing carbon sinks whilst developing new ones, Larsen said in the announcement.

    CIX said it completed a pilot auction in October of a curated portfolio of high-quality carbon credits, where it successfully cleared 170,000 tonnes of carbon credits from eight recognized NCS projects spanning across Africa, Asia, and Latin America.

  • VietinBank pioneers online foreign exchange services

    VietinBank pioneers online foreign exchange services

    VietinBank has launched FX Online 24/7, allowing customers to perform transactions at any time, anywhere on platforms VietinBank eFAST and VietinBank Ipay.

    VietinBank focuses on innovating its system to improve FX services. Just by taking some simple steps on a smartphone or a laptop with an internet connection, without having to go to the bank, customers can perform FX transactions online with VietinBank for different currencies.

    Corporate customers can buy and transfer foreign currency online within business hours.

    Corporate customers or individual customers can sell foreign currency online from foreign currency accounts and receive Vietnamese dong into their accounts anytime, including weekends and holidays.

    With a multi-level authorized matrix, VietinBank eFAST can meet the diversified demand of customers for authorization. The system provides security methods meeting the State Bank of Vietnam’s requirements including OTP verification and keypass token verification.

    VietinBank is offering a promotional campaign for corporate customers using the service “Customers sell foreign currency online 24/7” through VietinBank eFAST platform. Customers are offered 20 preferential points with USD/VND transactions; 50 preferential points with EUR/VND and 0.5 preferential point with JPY/VND. There are also special offers for other currency pairs.

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  • Dubai Sued Over PE Firm Audit in Dubai

    Dubai Sued Over PE Firm Audit in Dubai

    KPMG is being sued over its role in the insolvency of Dubai private equity firm Abraaj Group which claims the big four accounting company failed to maintain independence and breached its duty of care.

    KPMG was sued for at least $600 million by two units of Abraaj now in liquidation, according to a report citing court documents filed earlier this month.

    The claimants allege that KPMG accountants – Abraaj’s auditor for six years – failed to maintain independence and an appropriate attitude of professional skepticism and breached their duty of care when auditing the private equity firm.

    Irregularities relating to the firm’s financial statements would have been identified sooner had KPMG and its local Lower Gulf subsidiary complied with their duties, the claimants added.

    In 2018, Abraaj collapsed into insolvency after being accused of misusing investor funds in the private equity firm which had $14 billion in assets under management at its peak.

    Founder and chief executive Arif Naqvi allegedly stole more than $250 million, according to U.S. prosecutors, though he denies any wrongdoing.

    Naqvi has been under house arrest in London and faces a whopping maximum sentence of up to 291 years if extradited to the U.S. and convicted.

    This marks yet another scandal for the Big Four accounting firm this year after the Malaysian government filed a lawsuit seeking more than $5.6 billion from 44 KPMG Malaysia partners in July for their role in auditing state investment fund 1MDB.

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  • UBS Asia Bond Manager Exits With Large Evergrande Exposure

    UBS Asia Bond Manager Exits With Large Evergrande Exposure

    The manager of a $3 billion Asia bond fund at UBS has reportedly left with sizeable year-to-date losses and significant holdings in China’s real estate sector including debt issued by Evergrande.

    Singapore-based Ross Dilkes has left UBS Asset Management after first joining 16 years ago, according to a report, though the Swiss firm did not provide a reason for the departure.

    Dilkes is the lead manager of the Asian High Yield fund, which was established around nine years ago.

    UBS’ head of global emerging markets and Asia Pacific fixed income Hayden Briscoe, who co-manages the fund, will take over as lead manager until a successor is found, according to fund analyst Morningstar.

    Currently, UBS is amongst the top five holders of Evergrande bonds at $274 million as of September 30, according to public data, which includes holdings invested client money like the Asian High Yield fund.

    The fund also has sizeable positions in other troubled developers like Sunac China and Kaisa Group.

    Year-to-date, Dilke’s fund has lost around 18 percent with approximately half of its holdings in real estate.

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  • Blockchain game development booms as Vietnamese gamers make their play

    Blockchain game development booms as Vietnamese gamers make their play

    Vietnamese companies are racing to develop blockchain games and mobilize millions of dollars from foreign investors as they seek to make their place in the new industry.

    After the monster-combat game Axie Infinity became the most valuable non-fungible token (NFT) game in the world this year, at least six more games developed by Vietnamese companies have been launched.

    Sipher, a multiplayer online battle arena game, recently raised $6.8 million from investors in the U.S. and South Korea.

    Faraland, a multiplayer role-playing game, had earlier received $2.4 million from investors, while another game, HeroVerse, got $1.7 million.

    Other notable projects include My Defit Pet, MeebMaster and Theta Arena.

    Vietnamese have gained prominence in the blockchain game industry with Axie Infinity, followed by many other projects that have raised millions of dollars, said Phan Tung, co-founder of Faraland.

    Thao Trang, chief marketing officer at Project SEED, a game platform powered by blockchain technology, said global industry insiders see Vietnam as a blockchain ecosystem, not just separate projects.

    The country has a large number of smartphone game players with 57 percent of 68 million smartphone users spending an average of 3.9 hours a day gaming, according to market research company App Annie.

    It is also ranked second in Southeast Asia in mobile game downloads with 22 percent of market, behind Indonesia at 38 percent.

    “Blockchain has opened the door for new business and revenue for game companies. They should take this advantage of this to expand globally,” said Lynn Hoang, national director of cryptocurrency exchange Binance Vietnam.

    However, blockchain game developers in the country face many challenges, especially in recruiting people with adequate skills. There is a shortage of suitable candidates, companies say.

    Trang said that her company usually found people who are either good at blockchain or game technology and had to train them to acquire other skillsets.

    “Conflicts between the two groups are common. Blockchain changes every day and developers have to on their toes all the time, ready to respond to market reactions.”

    Another difficulty is market pressure, which pushes developers to launch their products early, compromising quality.

    Nguyen Thanh Trung, one of the founders of Axie Infinity, said that blockchain game has moved beyond the stage of discovering whether making something possible or not, to how good a creation can be.

    Pham Anh Tuan, a game developer with 10 years in the industry, said that blockchain games could remain popular for at least another 10-20 years.

    The blockchain industry is set to see the entrance of many traditional game giants, he said.

    Technologies like virtual reality and augmented reality will be utilized to create a metaverse, he added.

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  • HSBC Singapore Announces Lending Fund for Tech Firms

    HSBC Singapore Announces Lending Fund for Tech Firms

    The bank will support companies tapping opportunities within Asean’s growing digital economy in sectors such as e-commerce, AI and robotics, fintech, and payments platforms.

    HSBC Singapore has announced a S$200 million ($147.5 million) lending fund to support high-growth technology companies in Singapore that are looking to expand across Southeast Asia and further afield.

    The fund will provide loans to companies that have already received funding from strategic investors, including venture capital or private equity firms, and have surpassed the proof of concept phase, the announcement said. The bank will extend to them bespoke solutions, such as cross-border cash management and foreign exchange to accessing the private and public capital markets, typically available to higher revenue-generating firms.

    Singapore has a vibrant tech culture breeding firms that seek out digital gaps in the consumer and business markets. To succeed, these businesses need to scale quickly, often including customer reach, employees, and data capabilities, Regina Lee, HSBC Singapore head of commercial banking, said.

    Earlier this week, a joint report by Google, Bain, and Temasek noted that 60 million new digital consumers in Asean were added since the pandemic began, with 20 million of them coming in H1 2021.

    It said the region’s internet economy is growing faster than expected, estimating it will reach $360 billion by 2025.

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  • Fintech Funding in Asean Reaches Record High

    Fintech Funding in Asean Reaches Record High

    The region’s fintech firms brought in $3.5 billion in funding in the first nine months of 2021 – up more than three times compared to the whole of 2020.

    The rebound in fintech funding was driven by 167 deals including 13 mega-rounds, which accounted for $2 billion of the total funding, said in the FinTech in ASEAN 2021 report, published by UOB, PwC Singapore, and the Singapore FinTech Association (SFA) this week.

    The largest share of funds was channeled into late-stage fintech firms from the payments sector. Predictably, the pandemic was the main catalyst for the resurgence in fintech funding, as accelerating digital adoption across the region prompted a rise in digital payments and a shift towards digital channels within the financial services sector.

    According to the report, the strong interest in late-stage fintech firms signals a shift in the strategy of investors as they take a more cautious and risk-averse approach of backing mature firms that are seen as standing a higher chance of emerging stronger from the pandemic.

    Singapore-based fintech firms continued to attract the strongest funding in Asean, securing 49 percent of the total 167 deals, amounting to $1.6 billion in funding. This includes six mega-rounds worth $972 million in total. Indonesia retained its second position, with $904 million in funding (26 percent), followed by Vietnam at $375 million (11 percent) as a result of two mega-rounds.

    Singapore, in particular, has seen the most robust funding, supported by a growing number of fintech looking to set up their headquarters here due to the strong regulatory support, opportunities for regional collaboration, and a flourishing startup-focused investor ecosystem, Shadab Taiyabi, president at SFA, said in a statement.

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  • Huobi Pulls Plug on Services in Singapore

    Huobi Pulls Plug on Services in Singapore

    The cryptocurrency exchange, one of the world’s largest, will be gradually phase out access to its services for Singapore-based users and close their accounts on March 31, 2022, to comply with local regulations.

    To comply with the laws of Singapore, we will have to include Singapore as a restricted jurisdiction. Regrettably, this means Huobi Global can no longer offer services to Singapore-based users, Huobi said in an announcement, advising them to take immediate action to close out all active positions and withdraw all digital assets.

    In a statement, Huobi said this was a planned move ahead of the launch of Huobi Singapore – a new, regulated entity that is expected to launch by the end of the year.

    Huobi Singapore is here to stay for good…and we are excited to launch a new platform…committed to complying with both local and international regulations to provide a regulated and safe trading platform for retail and corporate users, Edward Chen, executive director and CEO of Huobi Singapore, said.

    In September, MAS ordered Binance to halt services for Singapore-based users. The regulator said the exchange provided payment services to and solicited business from Singapore residents without an appropriate license.

    Despite this, Singapore is among the most crypto-friendly jurisdictions globally, with the Monetary Authority of Singapore trying to position the city-state as a global crypto hub.

    Some 70 firms, including the Singapore units of Coinbase, Kraken, and Binance, are seeking permits to provide cryptocurrency services in the city-state, according to a report on Thursday. Bybit and KuCoin have also set up their headquarters in the city.

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  • Trading Volume Surges on DBS Digital Exchange

    Trading Volume Surges on DBS Digital Exchange

    A shift to round-the-clock trading in August has seen trading volumes in the two months surpassing the total trading volume of the first eight months of the year by 40 percent.

    DBS has reported strong growth in its digital asset ecosystem, anchored by DDEx, or the DBS Digital Exchange, which now has over S$600 million in digital assets under custody as of end-October, triple the amount recorded in the previous month, according to the bank.

    The bank also said it is seeing a growing number of corporate and institutional customers among its participants, with other banks, a central bank and other digital asset exchanges among the 500 participants on the exchange.

    Becoming a participant of DDEx opens many gateways for our customers to access the burgeoning cryptocurrency and digital asset economy, Eng-Kwok Seat Moey, group head of capital markets and DDEx chair, said in a statement on Thursday.

    DDEx was launched in December 2020 with an initial offering that covered cryptocurrency trading. It has since issued a  bond through a security token offering (STO) on the exchange, and plans to list at least half a dozen security tokens by end-2022. The bank also launched a crypto trust offering that combined wealth planning services with emerging digital currencies, and its brokerage arm received formal approval from the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) to provide digital payment token services.

    At the presentation of its third-quarter results last week, the bank’s chief executive Piyush Gupta said it is planning to open the crypto exchange to the broader retail market in 2022.

    DBS previously said it expects to double the number of participants on DDEx to 1,000 and to grow its base by 20-30 percent annually for the next three years, as investments in digital tokens gain greater acceptance.

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  • Citi Adds Prime Brokerage Duo in Hong Kong

    Citi Adds Prime Brokerage Duo in Hong Kong

    Citi has hired two new directors from BNP Paribas and Goldman Sachs for its prime brokerage unit in Hong Kong.

    Drew Kuech and Oliver Law join Citi as directors of the prime services sales trading team, according to a statement, reporting to APAC head of prime services sales trading Daniel Millwood.

    Kuech has 13 years of prime finance and delta one experience, most recently with BNP Paribas. Previously, he also worked for Societe Generale and Santa Fe-headquartered hedge fund Thornburg Investment Management.

    Law has 14 years of APAC prime finance and delta one experience and he joins from Goldman Sachs. Previously, he also worked for RBS and Credit Suisse.

    We are pleased to welcome two strong additions to our Prime Services trading team as we continue to focus on building out our hedge fund trading and client servicing areas, Millwood said in the statement.

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  • Crypto Platform Zipmex Announces Senior Hires

    Crypto Platform Zipmex Announces Senior Hires

    The Singapore-headquartered exchange will begin scaling up operations with the appointment of a new COO and CFO.

    Zipmex has appointed Uber’s former APAC head of central operations, Scot Cheung, as chief operating officer (COO) and venture capitalist and finance veteran Nicolas Keravec as chief financial officer (CFO), the digital assets exchange announced in a statement on Thursday.

    Cheung brings more than 12 years of experience in helping companies scale and expand worldwide, having worked in Hong Kong, Shanghai, Seoul, Singapore, and London, including over 7 years at Uber.

    Kerevac has over 15 years of cross border experience in driving technology-focused and scalable business models and was most recently managing director and group CFO at Rocket Internet (Asia).The appointments will allow Zipmex to strengthen its presence in Singapore, Australia, Thailand and Indonesia through strategic partnerships, develop its suite of digital assets-related products and offerings, and build its technology infrastructure, the announcement said.

    Cheung will focus on growing the platform in Australia, Zipmex’s newest market, while Kerevac will focus on capital deployment and expansion plans in the platform’s markets.

    Launched in 2019, Zipmex has over $1 billion in transaction volume on its platform. Earlier this year, the company announced that it raised $41 million in a Series B funding round with co-investors such as Krungsri Finnovate, Plan B Media and MACO Thailand.

  • HSBC Mulls Private Banking Re-Entry in India

    HSBC Mulls Private Banking Re-Entry in India

    HSBC wealth and personal banking chief Nunos Matos reportedly shared that the British lender was eyeing a reentry into private banking in India, noting that the market demands a strategic decision this year.

    After exiting the Indian private banking business in 2015 as part of the group’s strategic rejig, HSBC is considering a re-entry into the onshore market in addition to serving the global segment out of hubs in Singapore, London and the Middle East.

    We want to bank mass affluent and high net worth customers. At this moment, the two major pillars we are expanding in India are insurance and asset management, said HSBC’s Nuno Matos.

    On the private banking side, we are not there yet and that’s something that demands a strategic decision this year.

    Elsewhere in the region, HSBC remains in growth mode with the China onshore private banking business expecting headcount to increase from 20 at the end of last year to 64 by 2021-end and doubling again by 2022-end.

    Matos also highlighted growth opportunities in Singapore, where it bought French insurer AXA’s assets for $575 million, and the broader Southeast Asia region.

    Asian wealth is expanding twice as fast as the rest of the world. This is a compelling opportunity for us, Matos added. I’m not going to redo now our goals but what I can say is that in 2021, we will over-deliver our goals on the wealth side.