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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 Poaches Middle East Team From Rival

    UBS Poaches Middle East Team From Rival

    The Swiss wealth giant nabbed five wealth managers from Credit Suisse in the United Arab Emirates.

    Zurich-based UBS is expanding in the Middle East by hiring Georges El Khoury, currently country head in the U.A.E. for Credit Suisse. El Khoury will report to Ali Janoudi, an influential UBS group managing director who oversees the Middle East and Africa private bank, and to Niels Zilkens, the Dubai head.

    The region is both a boon for private banks as well as – reportedly – a source of huge staffing tension. The U.S. outlet five weeks ago published a blistering report about Credit Suisse’s Middle East boss Bruno Daher.

    El Khoury is walking from Credit Suisse to UBS with four staff including Raoul Rahme, another managing director, and Iyad Tamim Jundi, Abdullatif Karami, and Sarika Chandwani.

    A Credit Suisse spokesman said the bank had promoted Saad Osseiran as head of wealth management in the U.A.E. and in Oman, and Fahad Al-Ebrahim as market leader for Kuwait as a result of the team leaving.

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  • SHB sells consumer finance unit to Thai lender

    SHB sells consumer finance unit to Thai lender

    The Saigon-Hanoi Commercial Joint Stock Bank will sell a 50 percent stake in its consumer finance division, SHB Finance, to Thailand’s Bank of Ayudhya.

    Vietnam’s fifth-largest bank said in a statement it would sell the remaining 50 percent to Bank of Ayudhya after three years.

    Bank of Ayudhya said in a stock market filing that the deal is worth VND3.59 trillion ($157.75 million), adding: “The acquisition will enable the bank to capture growth outside of Thailand.”

    Japan’s Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group holds a 76.9 percent stake in the lender, Thailand’s fifth-largest by assets.

    After more than three years since inception, SHB Finance has a presence in 46 provinces and cities and almost 300,000 borrowers.

    Another private lender, VPBank, sold a 49 percent stake in its consumer finance unit, FE Credit, in April to Japan’s Sumitomo Mitsui Finance Group for $1.4 billion.

    Other Vietnamese lenders like VietinBank and MSB are also looking to sell their consumer finance operations.

  • PayPal Launches Singapore Hiring Spree

    PayPal Launches Singapore Hiring Spree

    The U.S. online payments giant is expanding the Singapore-based workforce by 25 percent to support the region’s growing demand for digital solutions.

    Some 150 job openings are on offer at PayPal’s its international headquarters in Singapore, under the Infocomm Media Development Authority of Singapore’s TechSkills Accelerator (TeSA) program and supported by Digital Industry Singapore (DISG), according to an announcement on Tuesday.

    PayPal said it will provide opportunities over the next three years for Singaporeans in areas such as product management, software engineering, cybersecurity, and data science, according to a statement.

    The new hires will work on projects that cover SME digitalization, PayPal’s e-wallet and commerce platform, as well as risk, compliance, trust and security, the announcement said.

    Singapore is a strategic market for the online payments platform, and is home to the only international PayPal Innovation Lab, which has contributed to over 140 patents.

    PayPal is determined to support Singapore’s continued digital transformation into a global technology and fintech hub, Aaron Wong, chief executive officer of PayPal Pte Ltd, said.

    According to the company’s recent earnings report, PayPal processed a total payment volume of $311 billion during in second quarter of 2021, up 36 percent year-on-year. There are 403 million active accounts, including 32 million merchant accounts, on the platform.

    PayPal operates in over 200 markets, with 44 percent of active accounts located outside of the United States.

    Earlier this week, PayPal announced the first international roll-out of its crypto product that first launched in the U.S. in October last year, which lets customers buy or sell bitcoin, bitcoin cash, ethereum or litecoin. It said it hopes to open this functionality to other global markets in the coming years.

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  • Indonesia’s Bank Central Asia Targets Digital Growth

    Indonesia’s Bank Central Asia Targets Digital Growth

    Banks are playing catch-up to technology players in one of the world’s largest unbanked markets.

    Bank Central Asia (BCA) is boosting its digital capabilities amid increased competition from tech players in the banking space, according to a report on Wednesday.

    Indonesia’s biggest lender by market value will be investing $200 million to help its month-old digital unit Blu to increase market share ahead of an initial public offering in two years’ time. Blu currently has about 110,000 customers.

    BCA is targeting a fourfold increase in its capital, to four trillion rupiah (S$376.5 million), and is focused on gaining more customers, partners and merchants on its digital platform before the IPO, BCA president director Jahja Setiaatmadja told the publication.

    The country has an unbanked market of 83 million people, or about one-third of the population, and while traditional players have found it tough to expand across the archipelago nation, technology players have an advantage in their ease of scaling operations to meet this demand.

    Indonesia-headquartered super-app Gojek increased its stake in Bank Jago in December 2020 as part of its bid to accelerate financial inclusion in Asia, while Singapore-based e-commerce and gaming company Sea, which recently won a licence to run a digital bank in Singapore, bought unlisted lender Bank Kesejahteraan Ekonomi in January.

  • Expats Pay Packages Fall in Singapore, Hong Kong

    Expats Pay Packages Fall in Singapore, Hong Kong

    Expat packages have taken a hit as a result of lower cost of benefits and a dip in salaries.

    The average pay package for a mid-level expatriate in Singapore fell by $7,284 a year, and now stands at $225,171 annually – the 17th highest in the world, ECA International said.

    However, cash salaries in the republic stand at the fifth-highest globally, and the city holds the title of the location offering the best quality of living, the global mobility specialist said in its annual MyExpatriate Market Pay report, published this week.

    Expatriate packages comprise three main components: the cash salary, benefits such as accommodation, international schools, utilities, or cars, and tax.

    While expats take home less, the latest rankings are expected to increase the country’s attractiveness to expatriates and companies looking to set up regional hubs in the country, given the cheaper cost of employing expatriate staff, Lee Quane, Regional Director – Asia at ECA International, said.

    Elsewhere, expatriate pay packages in rival regional financial hub Hong Kong dropped by over $5,000 over the last year, to a new average total of $279,399, despite an average salary increase of $265, largely due to falling accommodation costs.

    Globally, Japan was the most expensive location to send workers to, overtaking the United Kingdom, with the average expatriate package there costing $405,685.

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  • Banks Put Kibosh on Adult Content, OnlyFans Says

    Banks Put Kibosh on Adult Content, OnlyFans Says

    The content platform defended its ban on pornography, saying it had been prompted do to so because of difficulties getting financial services if it didn’t.

    OnlyFans banned pornographic content after being denied interbank wires by banks including New York-based BNY Mellon, the London-based start-up’s founder-CEO Tim Stokely said in an interview.

    The decision unleashed a maelstrom among an estimated 2 million content creators – many of them women – who make a living by selling adult content on the platform. Performers like Blac Chyna reportedly earn millions monthly from OnlyFans subscription-based plans.

    Sites like OnlyFans are meant to hand creators – especially women – more control over their own content and revenue. An increasing wariness by financial services firms to cater to adult content complicates these efforts. The ban, effective from October 1, is seen as a war on pornography.

    Stokely, the CEO, said banks had made OnlyFans’ life difficult by holding up payments. «We pay over one million creators over $300 million every month, and making sure that these funds get to creators involves using the banking sector.»

    Stokely said J.P. Morgan was «particularly aggressive in closing accounts of sex workers or…any business that supports sex workers.» OnlyFans’ reported 130 million consumers largely use it for porn, though the platform has tried to push other entertainers like fitness influencers or musicians. Celebrities including Cardi B have also recently joined.

    Stokely is the son of ex-Barclays investment banker Guy Stokely. OnlyFans’ finance chief is John Carlyle, a former Lehman Brothers and J.P. Morgan banker.

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  • Citi Eyes Crypto Opportunities

    Citi Eyes Crypto Opportunities

    The U.S. bank joins its peers in ramping up crypto-related efforts as client demand spikes  Citi is awaiting regulatory approval to trade bitcoin futures on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME), Coindesk reported on Wednesday, citing two sources, including one at the bank.

    One of the sources said the bank is actively recruiting traders to its London crypto trading desk to begin working with bitcoin futures, though Citi denied this in a statement to «Insider.» It also denied that it was looking into products like bitcoin exchange-traded notes.

    We are presently considering products such as futures for some of our institutional clients, as these operate under strong regulatory frameworks, a spokesperson told the publication.

    Citi’s Wall Street rivals have shown increased interest in the space of late. Goldman Sachs reportedly restarted its crypto trading desk in March to deal bitcoin futures and non-deliverable forwards to support clients like hedge funds. In June, it also announced plans to offer options and futures trading in ether, and in July, its asset management unit filed for an application with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission to offer an exchange-traded fund (ETF) focused on crypto-related companies.

    J.P. Morgan opened access for its wealth clients to five related funds and BNY Mellon joined a crypto consortium that includes State Street and six unnamed banks.

    In July, Bank of America’s prime brokerage unit started the clearing and settlement of cryptocurrency exchange-traded products (ETPs) for hedge funds in Europe.

  • StanChart Exec Joins Blockchain Startup

    StanChart Exec Joins Blockchain Startup

    Taipei-headquartered XREX has named a managing director in Singapore as it sets its sights on expanding its platform in the region.

    Taipei-headquartered XREX has appointed Christopher Chye as managing director of XREX Singapore and director of product. In this dual role, he will oversee XREX’s businesses and operations in Singapore and play an instrumental role in bringing new value propositions to XREX’s clients, the startup said on Tuesday.

    Chye joins from Standard Chartered Bank, where he held roles in commercial banking, consumer banking, wealth management, and financial crime compliance. He was also a pioneer of Standard Chartered’s digital bank venture in Singapore, where he led the bancassurance, rewards, and loyalty, and brand and marketing pillars, and was executive director at its regional CEO office. He was previously a  management consultant with KPMG.

    In a separate announcement, XREX said it raised $17 million in pre-Series A funding led by CDIB Capital Group. The funds will be used to apply for financial licenses in Singapore, Hong Kong, and South Africa, and partner with banks and financial institutions, like payment gateways.

    Many of our team members are from or have lived in the markets where we serve. We keenly understand the struggles faced by many cross-border merchants who lack safe access to US dollar liquidity,» XREX CEO and cofounder Wayne Huang, said.

    XREX was launched in 2018 to drive financial inclusion in emerging markets by leveraging blockchain technology.

    The company uses blockchain technology to solve dollar liquidity shortage issues in emerging markets and has products like a payment escrow service and crypto-fiat exchange platform.

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  • Indonesia’s Bank Central Asia Targets Digital Growth

    Indonesia’s Bank Central Asia Targets Digital Growth

    Banks are playing catch-up to technology players in one of the world’s largest unbanked markets.

    Bank Central Asia (BCA) is boosting its digital capabilities amid increased competition from tech players in the banking space, according to a «Bloomberg» report on Wednesday.

    Indonesia’s biggest lender by market value will be investing $200 million to help its month-old digital unit Blu to increase market share ahead of an initial public offering in two years’ time. Blu currently has about 110,000 customers.

    BCA is targeting a fourfold increase in its capital, to four trillion rupiah (S$376.5 million), and is focused on gaining more customers, partners and merchants on its digital platform before the IPO, BCA president director Jahja Setiaatmadja told the publication.

    The country has an unbanked market of 83 million people, or about one-third of the population, and while traditional players have found it tough to expand across the archipelago nation, technology players have an advantage in their ease of scaling operations to meet this demand.

    Indonesia-headquartered super-app Gojek increased its stake in Bank Jago in December 2020 as part of its bid to accelerate financial inclusion in Asia, while Singapore-based e-commerce and gaming company Sea, which recently won a licence to run a digital bank in Singapore, bought unlisted lender Bank Kesejahteraan Ekonomi in January.

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  • HSBC Bolsters ASEAN Sustainability

    HSBC Bolsters ASEAN Sustainability

    HSBC strengthens its sustainability-related capabilities in Southeast Asia with the appointment of a newly created role.

    Kelvin Tan has been named head of sustainable finance and investments, ASEAN, according to a statement, reporting to Singapore chief executive Kee Joo Wong.

    Based in Singapore, Tan will be tasked with supporting Singapore-based clients with their low carbon transition needs. He will oversee the provision of sustainability-linked finance, support the development of innovative climate solutions, lead cross-business and cross-market collaboration across the bank’s ASEAN franchises and enhance employee education on sustainability.

    Tan was most recently CEO of HSBC Thailand, a role he held since 2015.

    According to the Asian Development Bank (ADB), ASEAN is projected to experience some of the most significant temperature increases worldwide which, if left unaddressed, could reduce regional GDP by up to 11 percent by the end of the century.

    The region is also facing a $100 billion per year infrastructure gap, ADB added, which may have worsened during the pandemic.

    Southeast Asia is one of the most vulnerable regions in the world to climate change-related natural disasters. If nothing is done, the environmental, social and economic impact of climate change will be profound, Wong said. Tan’s extensive experience in Singapore and across ASEAN markets, as well as his proven commercial banking ability, makes him the perfect candidate to ensure we take further strides towards a more strategic and coordinated approach.

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  • Deutsche Expands Wealth Unit in Southeast Asia

    Deutsche Expands Wealth Unit in Southeast Asia

    Deutsche Bank continues to expand its wealth business in the region, particularly in southeast Asia where it hired a new investment management team head.

    Alania Concepcion joins Deutsche Bank Wealth Management as a director and investment management team head, according to a statement, reporting to managing director and head of Southeast Asia investment management Coo-Way Law.

    Based in Singapore, Concepcion will work closely with clients and relationship managers from the southeast Asia market which is headed by Shang-Wei Chow.

    Concepcion returns to Singapore after over four years running her own firm and pursuing ESG and fintech-related interests in Europe. Previously, she also worked for Credit Suisse, Barclays and Merrill Lynch.

    This year, Deutsche Bank Wealth Management has been rapidly expanding in the region with a flurry of new hires, particularly with a focus on southeast Asia.

    Last week, it reportedly hired former Pictet Singapore chief executive Domonique Jooris days after announcing the hire of ex-Credit Suisse southeast Asia trio Urs Brudermann, Shawn Ngoh and Pichaya Prawanmeet.

    To capture the opportunities in the fast-growing Southeast Asia region, we are focused to grow and develop our team, said Chow. The recent appointments in southeast Asia show our commitment to the business. We will continue to hire the best talent in the region to support our growth.

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  • Hang Seng Replaces Ailing Chief

    Hang Seng Replaces Ailing Chief

    Major local lender Hang Seng Bank has named a new chief executive to replace Louisa Cheang, who will extend her leave of absence over medical reasons.

    Diana Cesar has been appointed chief executive at Hang Seng, according to a statement, effective September 1.

    Cesar joins from HSBC – Hang Seng’s top shareholder and parent – where she is currently its Hong Kong CEO. She first joined HSBC in 1999 and has since held various senior roles before she was named Hong Kong CEO in 2015.

    Cesar is the right person to build on Cheang’s record and take Hang Seng to the next level, said HSBC’s APAC co-CEO David Liao in a statement. Hong Kong has a bright future, and under Diana’s direction, Hang Seng will be there to help our customers make the most of new opportunities.

    Cesar replaces Louisa Cheang Wai-wan who was in the midst of a three-month medical break announced in May.

    Cheang was made CEO at Hang Seng in 2017, also joining from parent group HSBC where she held senior roles like group general manager and group head of retail banking. She first joined HSBC in its credit card department in 1999.

    At HSBC, Hong Kong chief operating officer Luanne Lim – who also first joined the British lender in 1999 – will step in to serve as interim Hong Kong CEO until a successor is appointed.

    Liao will become a non-executive director of Hang Seng Bank, effective September 1, replacing Peter Wong who retired from his role as APAC CEO and has become a non-executive chairman at HSBC.

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  • Cryptocurrency booming in South Korea but regulations could have a huge impact

    Cryptocurrency booming in South Korea but regulations could have a huge impact

    Cryptocurrency is huge within South Korea at the moment, with it thought that one in three of every resident within the country is being paid or either owning a form of the digital currency.

    It perhaps should not come as a surprise given that the Asian country is one of the most progressive in the world when it comes to innovation and technological advances and with the availability of the virtual coins having been made aware to citizens within the country, it should come as no shock that a number of the population has an interest. Due to the fact that crypto tokens in Asia are gaining popularity, they allow citizens to start partaking in crypto gambling with Ethereum and Bitcoin as it could be possible because a cryptocurrency casino accepts players from Asia, thus making it potentially appealing to bettors within the region. Due to the fact that the country is incredibly receptive to new technologies, there is a suggestion that South Korea could actually look to regulate blockchain-based cryptocurrencies. This would be incredibly different to China, as the Asian country had decided to crack down on digital tokens.

    Nonetheless, the appeal of Bitcoin and Ethereum, as examples, can already be seen widely throughout the country, with the reported volumes to be on top Korean cryptocurrency exchanges is thought to be higher than the nation’s stock market, thus suggesting that people are starting to signal their intentions as many look for change as they feel the stock market is corrupted by the four family-owned “chaebols” (conglomerates) due to their status and political influences.

    Whilst there is thought to be a financial revolution brewing in the country, there is no doubt that the times are changing with a new generation of citizens coming through. Young citizens are adopting and embracing crypto in their waves, with many already familiar with various methods of payment due to the technology and the world’s quickest internet speeds that they have available to them.

    Despite the fact that the government had passed legislation in 2020 to crack down on the investments being made on the blockchain, the youth have continued to leave their jobs to explore the possibility of day-trading crypto instead, as many of them see it as the best and quickest way in which they will be able to generate wealth compared to the traditional employment forms. There have been a number of regulations to have been brought in to try and protect traders, with the Financial Services Commission (FSC) having ordered cryptocurrency exchanges to have a “Virtual Asset Service Provider” (VASP) license to operate and needed to have the license by September 2021, however, none had applied. It would appear that there is a battle within South Korea between the government and their young residents, as the citizens of a certain era clearly believe it could be the way forward for them whilst the government is keen to regulate it in a way whereby it can benefit them, albeit at the expense of their citizens via taxes and new registration laws.

     

    FSC chairman, Eun Sung-soo came under fire for remarks he made about crypto, as his negative comments led to over 300,000 signatures on a petition calling for his resignation from angry South Koreans. Indeed, if none of the smaller exchanges were to apply for the license and were to be shut down for failing to comply with the regulations implemented, South Korean youths could be dealt a huge blow, as could the entire globe looking to invest.

     

     

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  • Online Brokerage Launches B2B Platform

    Online Brokerage Launches B2B Platform

    Xiaomi-backed Tiger Brokers is expanding its reach into the institutional segment with the launch of a business-to-business (B2B) platform.

    Tiger Brokers is partnering Singapore-based financial advisory firm PFPFA as it launches a B2B platform for institutional partners, the company announced on Friday.

    Under the partnership, PFPFA clients will have direct access to Tiger’s online brokerage and platform, which will include technological solutions such as advanced portfolio and risk management tools.

    Tiger Brokers said it hopes to build on the success of Tiger Trade, its Singapore consumer platform that currently has close to 300,000 users since launching 1.5 years ago. It plans to rapidly grow its B2B segment in the coming months by offering its services to more financial institutions, including robo-advisors, banks, neo-banks and fund managers, the announcement said.

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  • Deutsche Bank Hires Ex-Pictet Singapore Chief

    Deutsche Bank Hires Ex-Pictet Singapore Chief

    Deutsche Bank continues to expand in Asia with the latest addition of the former Singapore chief executive from Pictet.

    Deutsche Bank names Dominique Jooris as Asia Pacific head of wealth solutions, according to a statement,

    Jooris was most recently CEO of Bank Pictet in Singapore before he was succeeded in January this year by Sharon Chou. Previously, Jooris held various senior dept capital management roles including 11 years at Goldman Sachs.

    According to the statement, Jooris will be focused on driving coverage of the family office segment in the region.

    Asia Pacific continues to be the fastest-growing region in the world for wealth accumulation and has been for the last 20 years. Asia Pacific is already home to more billionaires than any other region, the bank added.

    Given this dramatic wealth accumulation, many Asian families are institutionalizing their wealth management through more efficient structures and vehicles, primarily via family offices.

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