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Tag: BigPay

  • Fintechs Challenge Traditional FIs in Malaysia Digital Bank Race

    Fintechs Challenge Traditional FIs in Malaysia Digital Bank Race

    A crowded field of contenders are vying for the five licenses on offer by Bank Negara Malaysia. The race for digital banking licenses digital banking license is heating up, with more than a dozen applications involving over 50 companies submitted before the closing date on Wednesday.

    With the exception of a few players, most of the digital banking aspirants have not publicized their aspirations. However, a Grab-Singtel joint venture and Singapore-based investment solutions firm iFAST Corporation confirmed their applications on Thursday.

    The notification on the grant of the license will be made by the first quarter of 2020, Bank Negara Malaysia said.

    Among the contenders are also Malaysian conglomerate Sunway, which teamed up with Tencent-backed Chinese firm Linklogis and Bangkok Bank. Likely applications also include e-commerce giant Sea Group, gaming company Razer Fintech and telco Axiata, which previously expressed an interest in the license.

    At least five banks — CIMB Group Holdings, Affin Bank, Hong Leong Bank, AMMB Holdings and Standard Chartered Bank Malaysia — had signaled their interest in pursuing a digital banking licence in Malaysia.

    AirAsia’s fintech unit BigPay also announced its bid for a license on Thursday. The company is partnering with Malaysian Industrial Development Finance – a unit of the country’s largest asset manager Permodalan Nasional – and Singapore-based private equity firm Ikhlas Capital.

    BigPay was launched in 2018 by AirAsia as an e-wallet, hoping to leverage the low-cost carrier’s dominance in regional air travel in Southeast Asia.

    BigPay Bank will allow us to execute deeper on our mission to build a connected financial future for Malaysian consumers and entrepreneurs, Salim Dhanani, CEO and founder of BigPay, said in the announcement.

  • Malaysia’s AirAsia applies for digital banking license

    Malaysia’s AirAsia applies for digital banking license

    Malaysian budget airline AirAsia Group Bhd said on Thursday its fintech unit has bid for a digital banking license in the country as part of a consortium.

    BigPay, the unit, has partnered with Malaysian Industrial Development Finance Berhad – a unit of the country’s largest asset manager Permodalan Nasional Bhd – and private equity firm Ikhlas Capital.

    Singapore-based Ikhlas was founded by Nazir Razak, the former chairman of CIMB Group Holdings.

    The consortium also includes a foreign conglomerate with fintech expertise, AirAsia said in a statement.

    Citing sources, Reuters reported earlier on Thursday that AirAsia and its partners were among the bidders for up to five digital banking licences that the Malaysian central bank has said it will issue by early 2022.

    Other bidders include a joint venture between ride-hailing-to-fintech group Grab and Singtel, telecoms operator Axiata and a consortium backed by Chinese tech firm Tencent.

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  • BigPay gears up for regional expansion, with early access coming to Singapore users in coming weeks

    BigPay gears up for regional expansion, with early access coming to Singapore users in coming weeks

    BigPay is coming to Singapore, after 2 years of rapid growth with over 1 million users in Malaysia. The fast-growing Fintech is on an aggressive growth path and is getting ready to make its mobile money app and prepaid Visa card available to all Singapore residents in the coming weeks.

    “We quietly opened up our waiting list on the app earlier this year and already have 20,000 people ready to get early access” said Christopher Davison, Co-Founder and CEO. “People are turning to digital financial services and the pandemic has accelerated the need for fair and transparent alternatives to traditional banking – which is exactly what BigPay stands for.”

    Launched in 2018, BigPay has grown to be one of the largest e-money issuers in Malaysia by gross transaction value. The company’s business was unscathed by the global pandemic, showing strong growth in international money transfers and online spending thanks to the worldwide acceptance of its card. BigPay has received its licence from the Monetary Authority of Singapore to operate in Singapore early this year.

    BigPay will make its two core features – payments and remittance – available in Singapore. Users will be able to seamlessly open an account from their mobile phones and make payments at any local or international merchant. They will also be able to make free and instant money transfers to friends, split bills, manage work expenses and track their spending all in one integrated app.

    In addition, Singapore users will be able to remit money quickly and at a competitive rate to 10 markets, namely: Malaysia, China, the Philippines, Indonesia, Thailand, Vietnam, India, Bangladesh, Nepal and Australia, with more to come.

    Operating on a challenger bank model, BigPay’s goal is to give consumers access to all the mainstream financial products typically offered by retail banks – at a much lower cost and with greater efficiency. BigPay also plans to launch new business lines such as loans, insurance and wealth management in the coming months, as well as expand to other Southeast Asian markets early in 2021.

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  • BigPay introduces international money transfers

    BigPay introduces international money transfers

     BigPay, an ASEAN-focused fintech company, has launched international remittance services enabling users to send money directly from Malaysia to bank accounts in Singapore, Thailand, Indonesia and the Philippines, with no hidden fees or extra charges.

    BigPay is pioneering digital remittance through its mobile application, offering a seamless experience with instant money transfers. Users can deposit funds into BigPay through their bank cards or via bank transfer.

    In line with BigPay’s mission to deliver fair and transparent financial services, international remittances will be offered to customers at a fixed fee per corridor with competitive exchange rates. This is the first wave of BigPay’s international remittance rollout, with additional corridors to be announced in the near future.

    “We’re focused on democratising financial services in ASEAN, so it’s an exciting moment for us to be able to offer Malaysians a cheaper and better alternative to remit money,” said Chris Davison, CEO and Co-Founder, BigPay.

    “Technology can dramatically reduce the cost of remittance and we want to make it easy for people to move money abroad – whether it is sending money to family, friends or other overseas payments – without having to pay exorbitant exchange rates and transfer fees. Approximately US$25 billion is lost globally per year through remittance fees and with BigPay we can change that. Financial inclusion is a cornerstone of BigPay and offering low-cost, accessible money transfers is part of that strategy.”

    BigPay is also one of the first fintechs in Malaysia to receive approval from Bank Negara Malaysia to use eKYC (electronic Know Your Customer) for remittance. This allows BigPay’s customers to submit all documents electronically within th

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  • AirAsia launches new route to Belitung, Indonesia

    AirAsia launches new route to Belitung, Indonesia

    AirAsia has launched a new route connecting Kuala Lumpur to Belitung, an island off the east coast of Sumatra, Indonesia.

    In a statement today, AirAsia said its four times weekly direct service will commence on Oct 2, 2019.

    AirAsia regional commercial head Amanda Woo said Belitung is a place with huge untapped tourism potential.

    “We hope that with this new direct service, more and more people will be able to discover this hidden gem.

    “The new route is also a testament to our firm commitment to support the Indonesian government in its efforts to develop 10 new priority tourism destinations,” she said.

    To celebrate this new route, AirAsia is offering special all-in AirAsia BIG member fare from as low as RM79 from Kuala Lumpur.

    Passengers were advised to book their flight on airasia.com or the AirAsia mobile app from today until Aug 25 for travel between Oct 2 and March 28, 2020 to enjoy these special fares.

    BIG members will enjoy zero processing fees when making payment using BigPay.

    In addition to the new route, AirAsia also operates daily flights to Belitung from Jakarta beginning Oct 1, 2019.

    AirAsia currently connects Kuala Lumpur to 14 other Indonesian destinations — Jakarta, Surabaya, Medan, Bali, Lombok, Yogyakarta, Pekanbaru, Pontianak, Padang, Palembang, Semarang, Makassar, Bandung and Banda Aceh.

  • AirAsia targets 100 million passengers in 2019

    AirAsia targets 100 million passengers in 2019

    AirAsia Group is out to monetise its digital businesses and broaden the group’s digital footprint this year but has no plan to open more new airlines over the next three years. The airline wants to focus on growing its existing business especially in Indonesia and Philippines. “As 2019 approaches I would like to confirm that AirAsia will not be opening up any more new airlines for the next 3 years,’’ AirAsia Group chief executive officer Tan Sri Tony Fernandes (pic) said in his series of posts on Twitter yesterday.

    He added that “after Vietnam, we will focus on what we have. Focus this year is to make Indonesia and Philippines very profitable.’’

    There is where “all the major population and growing economies (are), coupled with two great countries (India and China) to enable us to cover the world,’’ he added.

    Fernandes added that he was confident the airline’s operations in India and Japan would be profitable in 2021.

    This year Fernandes is hoping that his airline group would be able to carry over 100 million passengers.

    When contacted he merely said it is “around there”.

    In the first nine months of 2018, the airline group carried 61.4 million passengers across its network. The target set for 2018 was 90 million passengers.

    “We are on track to achieve a group load factor target of 85%,’’ Fernandes had said earlier.

    With fuel prices falling, the airline also expects to maintain its cost this year and hopefully offers more low fares to travellers. It was reported that AirAsia group has hedged 48% for Brent at US$67.24 bbl for the first quarter (1Q19) and 27% for 2Q19 at US$65.40 bbl to manage volatility of fuel prices.

    Turning to the digital side of the business, Fernandes said in a tweet “this is the year people will begin to see our strength in digital’’.

    He would not go into details but earlier he has been talking about the BigPay app, which is a digital alternative to bank accounts and it comes with a card that allows users to use and spend it anywhere in the world.

    AirAsia Group has in mid-December completed the transfer of its non-digital businesses to Redbeat Ventures, its wholly owned subsidiary. The digital-related services include AirAsia BIG Loyalty, BigPay, travel360, ROKKI, Ourshop, RedCargo Logistics, RedBox Logistics, Vidi and RedTix.

    That is the first step towards monetising the digital business and allow AirAsia to broaden the digital footprint.

    In an announcement to Bursa Malaysia earlier, AirAsia deputy group CEO (digital, transformation and corporate services) Aireen Omar said that by placing the digital assets under Redbeat Ventures, they hope to more effectively expand and monetise the digital businesses and broaden AirAsia’s digital footprint.

    The vision for Redbeat Ventures was to connect with the start-up community globally through collaboration to foster entrepreneurship and stimulate market-driven innovation that would benefit not just AirAsia’s ecosystem but help lead the digital economy and lifestyle in Asean.

    Redbeat Ventures will work with tech start-ups and look out for investment opportunities in the high-tech and digital space to remain competitive and relevant in these rapidly changing commercial and technological environments.

     

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  • AirAsia introduces its own mobile wallet, BigPay

    AirAsia introduces its own mobile wallet, BigPay

    AirAsia has joined the ranks of digital wallet providers with its own app, BigPay

    AirAsia Bhd Group chief executive officer Tan Sri Tony Fernandes announced the service on Twitter, saying it was part of AirAsia’s digital strategy.

    “One day this product will be worth more than @AirAsia. Many features being rolled out. Soon no more cash on AirAsia,” he said.

    He added that the BigPay electronic wallet would eventually offer foreign exchange remittances and possibly even money lending to AirAsia’s database of 63 million names.

    According to the BigPay’s Google Play page, the app was linked to Mastercard and could be topped up from their debit or credit cards.

    The app is said to be accepted at over 30 million merchants that accept Mastercard globally, plus users would earn AirAsia BIG loyalty points when they spend and get zero processing fees when booking a flight with the airline.

    The app’s page also assured that it was regulated by Bank Negara Malaysia and had the latest security protocols including fingerprint and facial recognition to verify the user’s identity.

    BigPay is available on Google Play store and the Apple App store.

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