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Tag: asia

  • Hoolah Joins Visa in Supporting Local Businesses Through Where You Shop Matters Initiative in Malaysia

    Hoolah Joins Visa in Supporting Local Businesses Through Where You Shop Matters Initiative in Malaysia

    hoolah, Asia’s leading omni-channel Buy Now Pay Later company today announced that they will be joining Visa’s Where You Shop Matters campaign. Through the partnership, hoolah will work together with Visa to support local small and micro businesses (SMBs) in growing their online presence through social commerce, as well as enabling Malaysians to support homegrown brands by providing consumers with its Buy Now Pay Later (BNPL) payment option.

    With Malaysia’s economy seeing a projected contraction of 5.8% in 2020[1] due to the pandemic, private consumption has also taken a hit as purchasing power shrunk throughout 2020. Recognising this, hoolah is further accelerating its efforts in this partnership with Visa to help retailers recover quickly. In line with the Malaysian government’s efforts to accelerate nationwide digitisation and widen digital payments adoption among Malaysian consumers and merchants, hoolah aims to aid retailers and encourage consumers to spend responsibly for a speedy economic recovery.

    hoolah solves merchants’ biggest challenges of driving conversion, basket increase, customer traffic, and loyalty with a sustainable omnichannel BNPL solution that operates seamlessly, and in the most cost-effective way. Furthermore, the onboarding process is completely fuss-free for them as it is entirely digital, allowing them to deploy hoolah on their physical and online stores contact-free and with ease.

    To support the local businesses in succeeding in a post-pandemic recovery world, hoolah will be waiving transaction fees for the first 100 orders paid with hoolah through a Visa card, when merchants sign up for hoolah through Visa’s Where You Shop Matters initiative.

    By helping newly onboarded merchants save on merchant transaction fees, they are able to pass on these savings through exclusive discount codes to customers who complete their purchase through hoolah with a Visa card.

    Arvin Singh, COO and Co-Founder of hoolah said, “We are excited to be embarking on this meaningful partnership with Visa, as it further solidifies our dedication in building meaningful engagements in our hoolah ecosystem between our partners, merchants and consumers. We’re delighted to be able to support local SMBs in Malaysia and grow their businesses with our omnichannel BNPL solution, as we push forward together in this time of recovery and growth.”

    Ng Kong Boon, Visa Country Manager for Malaysia said, “With the enforcement of yet another round of movement control order and the declaration of a nationwide state of emergency, we believe that where Malaysians choose to shop can have a big impact. Frequenting local retailers not only helps businesses to survive and even thrive, but it also helps spur the nation’s economy which benefits the society. With these newly formed partnerships, we look forward to seeing more new and existing merchants joining the Where You Shop Matters program. Through this, we hope to be able to bridge Malaysians’ needs with our merchants’ myriad of offerings.”

     

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  • BMW Expects At Least Half Of Sales To Be Electric Cars By 2030

    BMW Expects At Least Half Of Sales To Be Electric Cars By 2030

    BMW expects at least half of its sales to be zero-emission vehicles by 2030, setting a more conservative target than some rivals in the race to embrace cleaner driving. In the short term, the German carmaker forecast on Wednesday a big rise in pretax profit for this year, with a strong performance in all areas – from MINIS through its upmarket BMW brand to top-of-the-range Rolls-Royces. Its shares rose as much as 4.9% to a 2-1/2 year high of 84.42 euros, buoyed by its forecast for a strong recovery from a pandemic-hit 2020.

    BMW said around 90% of its market categories would have fully-electric models available by 2023 and the electric BMW i4 would be launched three months ahead of schedule this year.

    Bernstein analyst Arndt Ellinghorst said BMW had entered 2021 “very confidently.” “In terms of electromobility, BMW is making good progress and is taking significantly fewer risks than VW,” he said.

    Volkswagen has said it expects 70% of European sales at its core VW brand to be electric by 2030 and this week unveiled ambitious plans to expand in electric driving – including building half a dozen battery cell plants in Europe – sending its shares sharply higher.

    BMW said around 90% of its market categories would have fully-electric models available by 2023 and the electric BMW i4 would be launched three months ahead of schedule this year. The carmaker said its MINI brand would be fully electric “by the early 2030s” and electric models would account for at least 50% of group deliveries by 2030.

    When asked if BMW could set a date for ending sales of internal combustion engines, as some rivals have, Chief Technology Officer Frank Weber said: “it’s not us who decides on the end of the internal combustion engine, but it’s the markets.”

    In an industry chasing electric carmaker Tesla and facing tightening CO2 emissions standards in Europe and China, some automakers have promised a faster shift in technology, despite the huge costs and manufacturing changes involved.

    Sweden’s Volvo said this month its lineup would be fully electric by 2030, and Ford said in February its lineup in Europe would be too. Sales of electric and plug-in hybrid cars in the European Union almost trebled to over 1 million vehicles in 2020 and accounted for more than 10% of overall sales, taking zero-emission models from niche products into the mainstream.

    Chief Executive Oliver Zipse told a news conference that BMW could accelerate its plans if consumers embraced electric models more quickly than expected.

    “Should demand in certain markets shift completely to fully electric vehicles in the coming years – we can deliver,” he said.

    Last week, BMW said 2021 had started well after its profit recovered in the second half of 2020 from pandemic shutdowns, thanks largely to strong sales in China.

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  • Singapore’s Fintech and Remittance Associations Ink MOU

    Singapore’s Fintech and Remittance Associations Ink MOU

    The Singapore FinTech Association (SFA) and Remittance Association (Singapore) have signed an agreement to strengthen the money remittance segment.

    The two associations will jointly launch the new SFA Remittance Sub-Committee, which aims to promote the adoption of technologies to strengthen the capabilities, efficiencies and governance of Singapore’s money remittance industry, and catalyse its members’ digital transformation and internationalization efforts.

    The burgeoning number of fintech companies working in remittance and cross-border payments signals an opportune time for both associations to work together and work collaboratively with various stakeholders, the two sides said in a joint announcement on Thursday.

    In Singapore, a lot of existing licensees have to step up to compete as consumers become more technology savvy. It is, therefore, crucial for remittance licensees to explore and adopt technology as the current business landscape evolves, Barakath Ali, Remittance Association (Singapore) chairman, said.

    The sub-committee is chaired by neobanking and digital payments expert Ho Chee Wai, who is the country head for Singapore at cross-border fund transfer startup Nium.

    Among the issues the subcommittee hopes to work on are engagement between the remittance and fintech segments, nurturing the development of the cross-border payment ecosystem, engaging with regulators, and talent development.

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  • Kuo reveals how Apple might keep real life from intruding on VR

    Kuo reveals how Apple might keep real life from intruding on VR

    On Friday, TF International’s crystal ball-wielding analyst Ming-Chi Kuo said that Apple’s AR headset will use eye tracking to detect eye movements, blinks, and other physical movements that will be used to for user input replacing the need for handheld controllers. Kuo’s note to clients on Friday said, “Currently, users primarily operate the Head Mounted Display (HMD), most of which are VR devices, using handheld controllers,” Kuo adds that “The biggest challenge with this type of operation is that it does not provide a smooth user experience. We believe that if the HMD uses an eye-tracking system, there will be several advantages.” The eye movement data can be used to allow images and onscreen content to move in sync with a user’s eayes.

    With eye-tracking, a user could obtain more information about an object by staring at it for a long period of time. Menus might be activated by blinking. And by tracking the position of a user’s eyes, the headset’s resolution could drop in areas that are not in focus thus reducing the demand for processing power where it is not needed. Kuo also said that iris recognition could be used to verify and authenticate the identities of users. The feature could also be used to complete a transaction paid for using Apple Pay.

    Apple has filed for several patents dealing with eye-tracking technology. These could be used on the mixed reality device that Kuo expects Apple to unveil next year for approximately $1,000. The VR component uses 3D and other visual tricks to make it appear that the user is somewhere else and in a situation that feels and sounds realistic. He could be behind the wheel of a race car at a world-famous race track, or in the batter’s box at Yankee Stadium facing a 100 MPH fastball from Marlins’ prospect Sixto Sanchez. With AR, data and information is placed over a real-world image. A user could follow arrows to walk from point “A” to point “B” with the real world view of the sidewalk on the screen. A box could show the time and temperature while a stock ticker could show real-time quotes on the display.

    After next year’s mixed-reality device, we could see the Apple Glass introduced in 2025 with AR contact lenses possibly being developed for a 2030 release. Earlier this month, Kuo said that the mixed reality device will be equipped with 15 cameras along with “innovative biometrics,” He also said that the mixed reality headset will employ Sony’s Micro-OLED displays and optical modules to deliver a “see-through AR experience,” and also provide the user with “a VR experience.” The “immersive experience” on the mixed reality device will be better than those offered by rival headsets at a price equivalent to the cost of a high-priced iPhone model.

    Just Thursday, Apple discussed a patent application that discusses a method that would prevent Apple Headset users from having an accidental impact with real-world objects while VR puts them in a made-up world. In the patent application, Apple writes, “”For example, the user may be fully immersed in VR corresponding to a pre-historic world populated with dinosaurs,” says Apple. “While that virtual pre-historic world may be deficient in living room furniture, the living room in which the user is located continues to include a coffee table.”

    Apple’s previous solution was to tell the user to remover his headset when the reality is about to intrude with the virtual image. But users might not be able to do this fast enough.  “However, as experiences become increasingly immersive, the user may be unable to sense such undesirable interactions fast enough to avoid them,” it says. “Moreover, abruptly removing the electronic device during an experience detracts from that experience. As such, it is desirable to address the concerns related to these undesirable interactions while also minimizing any negative impacts on the experience.”

    Apple’s new solution calls for a picture-in-picture effect to take place. Where the “Apple Glass” wearer is in the era of the dinosaur, using picture-in-picture would allow the user to see a live view of their real-life surroundings. Apple’s goal is to keep the user in the AR experience until he must be alerted to his real-life surroundings.

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  • UBS Loses China Private Banker

    UBS Loses China Private Banker

    A private banker covering the China market has left UBS Global Wealth Management.

    Payling Lee, market team head for China international, has left UBS Global Wealth Management.

    When contacted, a spokesperson for the bank declined to comment.

    Lee rejoined UBS in 2017 after serving a four-year stint between 2003 and 2007 in its investment banking arm where she was focused on the fixed income and derivative sales business in Taiwan. Previously, she also spent a decade with Barclays.

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  • Mobile World eyes 60 pct market share

    Mobile World eyes 60 pct market share

    Leading electronics retailer Mobile World is eyeing a 16 percentage point increase to obtain a market share of 60 percent by 2022.

    The company also wants to raise its smartphone share from 48 percent last year to 55 percent by 2022, according to a recent report put out by brokerage SSI Securities Corporation after its analysts met with Mobile World representatives.

    It plans to achieve these targets by opening 600 new Dien May Xanh Supermini outlets this year, aiming to reach buyers in rural areas.

    After launching this new type of outlet last July, the company has built a network of more than 300 outlets already. These outlets are small, under 150 square meters, and can be operated by four staff. It sells smartphones and household electronic items.

    SSI analysts said that retail chains like Nguyen Kim and FPT Digital Retail will have difficulty competing with this type of outlet since they have limited logistics resources and lack the ability to manage such large number of stores.

    Mobile World is also planning to increase its number of grocery stores by 281 this year to 2,000 and considering the establishment of an e-commerce platform.

    February was a challenging month for Mobile World, having had to temporarily shut down 100 outlets amid the latest Covid-19 outbreak.

    In the first two months, its revenues rose 5 percent year-on-year to VND21.5 trillion ($938 million), compared to a growth rate of 18 percent in the same period last year.

    SSI analysts estimate Mobile World’s revenues will rise 16 percent to VND126 trillion this year, with post-tax profits rising 30 percent to VND5.1 trillion.

    Last year, Mobile World had over 4,000 outlets in Vietnam and 37 in Cambodia. It opened nearly three new outlets a day on average. The company plans to become the top retailer in Southeast Asia by 2030.

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  • BNP Paribas Wealth Management Names China Market Head

    BNP Paribas Wealth Management Names China Market Head

    BNP Paribas nets an ex-Citi private banker to become its new market head for China less than two years after its last reshuffle.

    Kevin King has joined BNP Paribas Wealth Management, sources said, succeeding Philip Wong as the new China market head for the bank. Wong is believed to be retiring from the role after being named as its sole head upon the exit of fellow co-head Andrew Wong in August 2019.

    When contacted, a spokesperson for the bank confirmed the appointment.

    King was most recently with Citi Private Bank as its global market manager for southern mainland China. He previously also worked with UBS and J. Safra Sarasin.

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  • Stocks, cryptocurrencies the new darlings as other assets remain in deep slump

    Stocks, cryptocurrencies the new darlings as other assets remain in deep slump

    With most traditional asset classes taking a beating from the economic downturn caused by Covid-19, investors are flocking to the stock and cryptocurrency markets.

    At lunchtime on a regular working day, a smartly dressed young woman was sitting in a corner in a downtown HCMC cafeteria, staring at a laptop in front of her. She was going back and forth between charts and messaging apps to check what her broker was sending.

    She was a newbie on the stock market, having begun just two weeks earlier.

    Thanh Dang, 26, a full-time administrative assistant, explained her decision: “These days no one in my office does any work except text or talk to each other about stocks, forex and cryptocurrencies.

    “Most investors I know follow others’ advice and learn things on the fly. Some of them initially made profits and became even keener. So I decided to give it a try and started modestly.”

    Doan Duong, 37, a Hanoi architect, quit the forex derivatives market after making a huge loss but shows no signs of being discouraged. When the stock market surged in 2020 and everyone seemed to make a lot of profits, he decided to jump in.

    When talking about a 20 percent profit he made in four months, he smiles confidently and asks rhetorically, “If you want to get rich then you need to take risks, right?”

    Doan and Thanh are just two of the millions of people who have begun to trade stocks and cryptocurrencies in the past few months.

    According to the Vietnam Securities Depository (VSD), they opened 393,659 securities trading accounts last year, a 20-year high in a market that is less than 21 years old.

    In February, they opened another 57,000 accounts, tripling that of the same period last year.

    The vast majority of domestic accounts, 2.73 million, belongs to individual investors.

    In the last six or seven months, retail investors have been piling into the market, helping it shrug off the effects of a sell-off by foreign investors. In fact, the Vietnamese stock market was one of the five biggest gainers in the world, according to StockQ.org.

    In the first quarter of this year retail investors kept the market up while trading value was consistently at VND18-19 trillion ($778.12-821.3 million) per session.

    German data company Statista said following a recent survey of 1,000-4,000 respondents each in 74 countries that Vietnam ranks second globally in terms of ownership of Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies.

    Nhan Trong Nguyen, a financial consultant, skims through hundreds of messages daily from stock traders, brokers and cryptocurrency sellers, almost all asking him to represent consultancies or trading platforms for cryptocurrencies, derivatives and binary options.

    His blog on finance and banking has more than 50,000 followers.

    Nhan says: “If you look closely, Vietnamese are consistently in the top three list of most frequent traders at global BitCoin exchanges such as Poloniex and Bittrex.”

    In recent conversations with his followers he learned that Vietnamese are frantically switching from Bitcoin to other newer cryptocurrencies because it has become increasingly challenging to mine.

    PI is the most popular of the alternatives, supposedly mineable on smartphones.

    There are hundreds of groups calling on people on social media and online forums to join Pi mining networks.

    Dominic Scriven, chairman of HCMC asset management company Dragon Capital, explains: “This is a logical choice to cope with the changes in monetary policy worldwide and in Vietnam to protect their money.”

    Since the onset of Covid-19 in early 2020, the State Bank of Vietnam has cut its policy rates four times to keep the economy afloat, driving banks’ deposit interest rates to all-time lows in February 2021 before they recovered slightly this month.

    The real estate and gold markets too are stagnant and are also beset with difficulties.

    A note by the HCM City Real Estate Association said the number of property transactions plummeted between March and August 2020 before making a marginal recovery since September.

    All this meant that since the start of the pandemic only a tiny portion of investments have been flowing into traditional asset classes as investors sought profitable alternatives like stocks and cryptocurrencies.

    Many stocks gained sharply, making newcomers even more impatient and afraid of missing out, further increasing the number of accounts and causing a cycle in the market.

    In the beginning Vietnamese used the likes of Bitcoin, Ethereum, Litecoin, and Ripple to receive money from abroad since it meant no more bank hassles and exorbitant fees. But it is no longer the main reason for investing in them.

    Lawyer Truong Thanh Duc says: “The State Bank of Vietnam has warned that owning, trading and using cryptocurrencies are risky and not protected by the law, but that does not seem to deter investors.”

    A large number of people are investing now in cryptocurrencies because they want to get rich fast despite a sluggish economy.

    This is also true of stock investors, many of whom seem to believe they can somehow predict market movements and make big profits from short-term trading.

    Though it might be too early to hark back to the stock market bubble of 2007-08 the relentless rise in the market is definitely cause for wariness, according to some economists.

    “It is never a good idea to try to guess the market’s movements, and investors should have a long-term view instead,” Nhan warns.

    Cryptocurrencies are not protected by law, and so all trading in them need to be done with great caution and, most preferable, expertise.

    Decisions driven by rumors and greed might see inexperienced investors burn their fingers.

    The enthusiasm retail investors have had for stocks and cryptocurrencies since 2020 continues to draw in more newbies.

    But one piece of good news for those who fear they have missed out on the action is the prediction by Finland’s PYN Elite Fund that the market will continue to grow, with the VN-Index possibly reaching 1,800 points.

    Nevertheless, new entrants need to move their goalpost from “get rich quickly” to increasing the value of their assets over the long term and hedging inflation.

    Another sensible piece of advice from experts is to diversify one’s investment portfolio.

    Nhan says: “The ideal return from shares should be around twice the bond interest rate. Any broker who promises you way more than that could be scamming you.

    “VN30 stocks and companies with an excellent reputation are always a good choice for beginners.”

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  • BNY Mellon Invests in Crypto Storage Firm

    BNY Mellon Invests in Crypto Storage Firm

    BNY Mellon will further its inroads into the digital asset market with its latest investment into crypto storage firm Fireblocks.

    The world’s largest custodian bank was part of the latest funding round for Fireblocks which raised a total of $133 million, according to a statement.

    In addition to strategic investments from BNY Mellon and Silicon Valley Bank, other participants of the funding round include hedge fund Coatue Management, investment firm Ribbit Capital, growth equity firm Stripes and SVB Capital. Existing investors including Paradigm, Galaxy Digital and Swisscom Ventures also participated in the round.

    To date, Fireblocks has raised $179 million and according to a report citing unnamed sources, the latest funding round values the firm at nearly $1 billion.

    Currently, Fireblocks has a presence in Europe, North America and Asia with a wide range of clients including banks, neobanks, exchanges, hedge funds and market makers. Within Asia, it has over 35 clients including Hong Kong-based crypto financier Amber Group and Singapore-based hedge fund manager Three Arrows.

    Over the past three years, clients have entrusted Fireblocks to secure more than $400 billion in assets.

    «Fintechs and banks require not only a specialized custody and settlement infrastructure to ensure customer funds are safely managed, but a platform that enables new lines of digital offerings,” said Fireblocks CEO Michael Shaulov. «While we have no plans to become a bank, we believe our infrastructure will lend itself perfectly to power an entirely new era of financial services.»

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  • Time to Unlock the Payments Pocessing Conundrum

    Time to Unlock the Payments Pocessing Conundrum

    To say the industry has been through some seismic changes over the past decade is an understatement, to put it mildly. From ever-increasing defaults and regulatory changes to clearing and collateral, not to mention the continued use of technology and automation.

    Global financial markets have been exposed to a series of changes in what is an incredibly vast and complex landscape. However, if there is one thing that has remained constant is processing and lots of it.

    Processing, the plumbing that underpins the entire financial system, is vital to ensuring the health and stability of markets. It needs to be done in a timely fashion, and the data needs to be correct and in-line with any regulatory obligations. Some parts of the post-trade lifecycle are well-oiled, mainly due to regulatory pressures on specific focus points as well as the central network effect and interoperability between both asset-classes and process types. Others, though, simply are not.

    The evolution of derivatives has in other areas resulted in continued layered manual processing. Not only does it still rely heavily on email and excel spreadsheets, but also offers relatively low levels of control. If this was not enough, ever-rising volumes and the fragmented nature of these processes have led to costly and unscalable workloads. We all know volumes can be erratic.

    Too many factors to list constitute an impact on volumes, but decisions are often made that result in ‘quick and dirty’ layered manual processes that become really challenging to manage over time. Factor in the current global pandemic that has now surpassed a year in the making and the challenge only gets harder.

    The payments and settlements space is not only huge but also fundamental to all other parts of the trade-lifecycle. Ultimately, trades need to settle, yet a lot of inefficiencies exist. Traiana’s research from 2019 showed that $500 million a year is spent supporting certain inefficient payment and settlement processes for the top 450 financial firms (50 global investment banks/400 Global Investment management firms) and could be higher with continued challenges.

    The bulk of this is centered around the messaging and matching of cashflows. There are several key challenges and inefficiencies when it comes to the messaging and matching of these cash flows, including:

    • Different cashflows: these can be handled by different internal systems, which can use various data types. Typically, inefficiencies exist in uncleared products.
    • Margin management: inefficiencies exist in uncleared products. Depending on the asset class and the regulated domicile of the entities there may be some level of margin management occurring, but these are large exposures, often running uncovered and into the tens of millions of dollars that can remain unsettled past the expected settlement date due to the manual nature of the confirmation/affirmation process.
    • Settlement errors: with an increase in regulatory focus for late or incorrect settlement fines, inefficiencies can soon cost more than just the cost to manage.
    • Uncleared headaches: the OTC world, while under tighter controls from the phased-in uncleared margin rules (UMR), remains fairly antiquated in part. Many banks and buy-side firms are still using email and excel based processes to agree to, and then often instruct cashflow movements across all asset classes, including in OTC where products could be cleared but aren’t. These flows are often mismatched, unmatched, or sent to the wrong place entirely to agree and confirm.

    Large banks and buy-side firms are still using email and excel based processes to agree to, and then often instruct cashflow movements across all asset classes, including in OTC where products could be cleared but aren’t. These flows are often mismatched, unmatched, or sent to the wrong place entirely to agree and confirm.

  • 4 important things to do when starting an ecommerce business

    4 important things to do when starting an ecommerce business

    Creating a new ecommerce store is no longer an arduous task, as the processes to bring a store online have become more streamlined.

    You now have a variety of ecommerce out-of-the-box web builders pre-built with store pages, user login areas, payment systems, and promotional options. In most cases all you need to do is add your brand’s logo, upload your items on relevant pages, add a description, photo, and then set your price—you are ready to go!

    Although the process is easier than ever before, there is still a list of important prerequisites you need to research and implement before you launch your new site and create a new buzz in your chosen marketplace.

    1.           Choosing the right ecommerce website builder

    Most pre-packaged ecommerce stores are brilliant to put it simply. The architecture behind them is so good that even the lesser tech savvy of us out there can figure out how to create a fully operational store. However, that does not mean to say that you should just go out there and pick the first one you like the look of. And there are some good reasons why you need to choose the right one for your ecommerce project you need to take heed of.

    Although many ecommerce web builders are easy to set up, you may find that some features are not free. You should compare ecommerce platforms, use demos available, and take a close look at the monthly costs versus free tools that come with the package.

    The best ecommerce website builders, like Wix for example, offer free web hosting, 24/7 support, domain security via 128-bit SSL encryption HTTPS, and you can get a personalized business email with a custom domain name. You can even use the Wix business name generator and once you are happy with the name, you can then choose your domain name.

    Other sites may not offer the little things that matter, and save you time, which just complicates things and adds additional costs. Therefore, in the case of Wix, you are getting an all-in-one solution under one roof.

    2.           Create Social Media Profiles

    Social media is not just a way to promote your site, but it is also a way to build a brand presence. As long as you offer a top-quality service, you should get great reviews, and it also gives you a chance to connect personally with your customers via the comments section and personal messenger tools.

     

    Another reason social media is important is because each platform helps you to connect with different audience types, i.e., personalities, demographics, and those with varying buyer behaviors. Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and Pinterest all have unique audiences and statistics.

    “Did you know? Shopping is a top priority for 48% of Pinterest users and Pinterest is most popular with women—especially moms (Source: blog.hootsuite.com)”

    It is these crucial facts about certain social media platforms that will determine whether your ecommerce product will fit or attract those using these platforms!

    3.           Use Consistent Marketing Messages

    Marketing is a strange game, and for those new to it, rookie mistakes are inevitable no matter how much you read up on the subject. That is, unless you have a marketing degree or experience in the field.

    Now marketing a product all seems straightforward, and in many respects it is. You are selling a product; it has unique selling points, and you need to highlight them. However, here is where it gets tricky causing your business to trip even when they have the best intentions in mind.

    Today we have little choice but to use multiple advertising and social media platforms. The problem is that messages across these platforms often get mixed up. Even large corporations are still guilty of sending out different brand/marketing messages across their digital and offline marketing platforms. By doing so, this only serves to confuse customers and tarnish your brand reputation.

    Therefore, the message here is clear—always remain consistent across every platform you use to project your brand name, be it Facebook, Google Ads, guest post blogging, or offline magazine/newspaper ads. And more importantly, ensure these messages match exactly what your website ‘says’, ‘displays’, and ‘offers’.

    4.           Customer Support

    The very last point to make is probably the most important for long-term success. Yet, we left it until the end because you need to get the above 3 points spot on before your customer services kick into action.

    In the past, ecommerce was great. You could set up a store, visitors come, they buy, and you kick back and enjoy the ride as your automated emails and online sales systems do all the hard work for you.

    Now while that worked in the past to some extent- having no live support, email support, after care, pre-sales care, and out of business hours support like chat bots used by Cebu Pacific. Without these vital customer care components in place, you could lose your clientele to your competition that have more efficient customer care solutions.

    Therefore, make sure you research customer services, how to scale your customer support, and how to reward as well as continue to retain your loyal customers. You should also look at how companies lost their reputation and ended up sinking ships because they implemented poor customer support solutions.

     

     

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  • HSBC Launches Fund Administration Services in Thailand

    HSBC Launches Fund Administration Services in Thailand

    This move is in line with the change in the securities services landscape in Thailand, which has relaxed outsourcing rules to boost the efficiency of local fund managers’ operations.

    By outsourcing their back-office operations to HSBC, asset owners and managers will be able to focus on their core offerings, the bank said in an announcement on Tuesday.

    The service will be available on HSBC’s Multifonds fund administration platform. HSBC clients already have access to custody and fund supervisory services offered by the bank.

    “Our clients have expressed a keen desire to improve efficiency and reduce cost, reduce operational risk, adapt to their investors’ need and manage regulatory changes effectively, Utumporn Viranuvatti, HSBC head of securities services, Thailand, said in the announcement.

    The bank said it has many other offerings planned as a part of HSBC Securities Services’ Asia-first strategy to accelerate growth in the region by ramping up its investment in additional solutions and capabilities.

    HSBC has been expanding its offerings in Thailand as part of its bid to strengthen its Asean coverage. HSBC Private Bank launched its onshore business in the kingdom in February 2021, the bank’s second onshore business in the region after Singapore.

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  • Buying Art Online Goes Mainstream

    Buying Art Online Goes Mainstream

    While overall art sales contracted in 2020 amid the Covid-19 pandemic, online sales doubled in value. Aggregate online sales reached a record high of $12.4 billion, doubling in value from 2019, while the share of online art sales grew from 9 percent of total sales by value in 2019 to 25 percent in 2020, according to the fifth Global Art Market Report, published by Art Basel and UBS.

    This was the first time the share of e-commerce in the art market exceeded that of general retail. This growth also came despite a 22 percent dip in sales of art and antiques globally, which stood at $50.1 billion in 2020

    According to Christl Novakovic, CEO UBS Europe SE, head wealth management Europe and chair of the UBS Art board, called 2020 a «turning point for digital innovation in the art market, which traditionally relies on discretionary purchasing, travel and personal contact.

    The crisis also provided the impetus for change and restructuring, the most fundamental shift being the rollout of digital strategies and online sales, which had lagged behind other industries up to now, said Clare McAndrew, founder, Arts Economics, who authored the report.

    The report incorporated a survey of 2,569 high-net-worth (HNW) collectors, of which 66 percent felt the pandemic had increased their interest in collecting, while 32 percent reported it had significantly done so. Some 57 percent said they planned on purchasing more artwork in 2021.

    And while the pandemic prompted the cancellation of high-profile art fairs – where the largest deals traditionally are sealed – some 45 percent of collectors also said they made a purchase through an art fair’s online viewing room.

  • Validus’ Indonesia Arm Wins Lending License

    Validus’ Indonesia Arm Wins Lending License

    The platform, which caters to the financing needs of micro, small, and medium enterprises (MSMEs) in the country, experienced strong growth in 2020.

    Batumbu, a subsidiary of Singapore-based Validus, has received regulatory approval to operate as a licensed digital financing platform in Indonesia, it announced in a statement.

    With the license, the startup will ramp up efforts to improve financing access and financial literacy within business ecosystems across provinces in Indonesia, Jenny Wiriyanto, CEO of Batumbu said.

    Batumbu has disbursed over S$207 million ($153.76 million) to MSMEs since starting its operations in April 2019. In the past year, it has grown by some 650 percent as MSMEs pivoted their businesses amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

    The strong performance is expected to continue as economic recovery and activity picks up, Validus said.

    Our “glocal” structure gives us a strategic advantage in implementing best practices, strong credit models and governance framework across our markets, Ajit Raikar, Validus’ co-founder and executive chairman, said in the announcement.

    Launched in 2015, Validus has since facilitated over S$775 million in SME financing through its entities in Singapore, Indonesia, Vietnam, and most recently, Thailand.

    Validus is backed by the likes of Netherlands development bank FMO and Temasek Holdings’ Vertex Ventures and Vietnam’s VinaCapital.

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  • IMAS’ Fintech Mentorship Program Returns

    IMAS’ Fintech Mentorship Program Returns

    The digital acceleration program gives fintechs the opportunity to work with professional mentors and develop solutions that can be rapidly commercialized.

    The Investment Management Association of Singapore (IMAS) has announced details of its 2021 edition of the Digital Accelerator Programme (DAP), which will focus on ESG, automated data management, and risk assessment.

    The Association-led buyside accelerator program is looking for fintechs with new approaches to improve and streamline operational processes, better manage data and risks, and create innovative tools to help managers manage their ESG regulatory requirements and reporting amidst fragmented global requirements. Partners for Track 1 include Nikko AM and Schroders. Interested fintechs have until 29 March 2021 to apply.

    In Track Two, which will take place in June/July, IMAS will invite asset management firms to work closely with fintech companies to create opportunities for the showcase of shortlisted solutions with the best fit.

    As many organizations operational processes change with the new CV-19 realities, we are creating a second opportunity for asset management firms to contribute problem statements which IMAS will then launch a global search for the relevant fintechs to solve, IMAS said in the announcement.