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Tag: Finance

  • 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.

  • 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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  • 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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  • Standard Chartered Adds ASEAN Private Banker

    Standard Chartered Adds ASEAN Private Banker

    Standard Chartered added a private banker focused on the south and southeast Asia market, joining most recently from Bank of Singapore.

    Standard Chartered Private Bank appoints Lawrence Goh as managing director and deputy market head for ASEAN and South Asia, according to a statement.

    Based in Singapore, Goh reports to Cedric Lizin, regional head, private banking ASEAN & South Asia and global head of global South Asian community.

    Goh has 20 years of experience in the financial sector including five in asset management and the last fifteen in private wealth management, specifically in the ASEAN region. He was most recently at Bank of Singapore where he spent 12 years covering various southeast Asia markets. Previously, he also worked for Citi Private Bank covering ultra-high net worth individuals and families in Singapore, Malaysia, Brunei and Australia.

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  • Thai Central Bank to Trial Retail Digital Currency

    Thai Central Bank to Trial Retail Digital Currency

    The pilot will initially be conducted on a limited group under the BOT before it is expanded to the public, retail stores, banks and non-banking facilities.

    The Bank of Thailand is set to begin testing a retail central bank digital currency (CBDC) in the second quarter of 2022, the central bank said in a statement on Thursday.

    The BOT will assess all results and associated risks from the Pilot Test, to ensure that Retail CBDC is beneficial to the public, business sector, and country as a whole, and does not undermine economic and financial stability in the future, Vachira Arromdee, BOT assistant governor, said in the statement.

    BOT said public demand for retail CBDC will gradually rise over time and that CBDC could become an alternative payment option in the future.

    It cited a public survey and focus group discussions conducted in April 2021, in which most respondents agreed with the BOT’s approach to retail CBDC development and viewed the currency as a beneficial infrastructure open to access and competition, with the potential to foster greater development of a safe financial innovation in the future.

    Respondents also agreed that the CBDC design guidelines can help mitigate any negative impacts on the Thai financial sector.

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  • Vietnam leads globally in cryptocurrency adoption

    Vietnam leads globally in cryptocurrency adoption

    Vietnam leads globally in cryptocurrency adoption with 41 percent of respondents claiming to have bought Bitcoin and the like, according to a recent survey.

    Twenty percent of Vietnamese said they had purchased Bitcoin, the highest among 27 countries polled with 42,000 respondents, according to the survey by U.S. based financial consultancy Finder.

    “Remittance payments may have played a significant role in these numbers, with cryptocurrency an option for migrants who want to send money home and avoid exchange fees,” the report stated.

    Despite having the 53rd largest economy based on gross domestic product, Vietnam placed 13th in realized Bitcoin gains for 2020, according to Cointelegraph.

    Adoption was especially high in Asia, with 30 percent of respondents in Indonesia and India claiming to have bought cryptocurrency, the Finder’s survey found.

    In Malaysia and the Philippines, this proportion was 29 percent and 28 percent, respectively.

    There were between 1,160 and 2,511 respondents for each country covered in the study.

    Data from Statista in February showed Vietnam had the second-highest rate in terms of cryptocurrency use among 74 surveyed economies, driven by remittance payments.

    Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies are not recognized as legitimate means of payment in Vietnam. The State Bank of Vietnam has warned that owning, trading and using cryptocurrencies are risky and not protected by law.

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  • UOB Investment Banker Joins Chinese Brokerage

    UOB Investment Banker Joins Chinese Brokerage

    The experienced equity brokerage and investment banker will head up Haitong Securities’ corporate finance team in Singapore.

    UOB’s former head of equity capital markets (ECM) Jack Kang has joined Haitong International Securities (Singapore) as an executive director.

    Kang, who moved to Haitong in July, spent 11 years at UOB. He was previously ECM vice president at CIMB Securities, and ECM head at Phillip Securities.

    The publication noted the demand for investment bankers in Singapore, especially those with experience in the tech sector, amid a surge in deals, as well as a rapid expansion of Chinese firms in the city-state.

    We are expanding cautiously in line with business needs, Kang said.

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  • HSBC Launches Portfolio-Based Advisory for HNW Clients

    HSBC Launches Portfolio-Based Advisory for HNW Clients

    HSBC continues expanding its wealth management offering with the latest addition of a portfolio-based advisory solution.

    HSBC has launched its portfolio-based advisory solution Wealth Portfolio Plus (WPP) targeting its Hong Kong-based Jade segment – clients with $1 million or more in investable assets.

    Previously, HSBC Jade clients could only select individual products that are aligned to their risk profiles but the new offering will enable them to review investment portfolios holistically and grant access to a wider range of products.

    We’re thrilled to bring portfolio-based advisory services to customers for the first time outside of a private bank through Wealth Portfolio Plus, powered by BlackRock’s Aladdin Wealth technology, said Sami Abouzahr HSBC’s head of customer wealth, wealth, and personal banking, Hong Kong. Since WPP provides portfolio-level rather than transactional-level analysis, new investment options can then become available to customers that fit their needs.

    The WPP offering follows the launch of risk management solution Wealth Portfolio Intelligence Service (WPIS) last year which targets high net worth and affluent banking clients.

    Thus far, WPIS has generated over 130,000 risk assessment reports and contributed nearly HK$30 billion ($3.86 billion) in net sales growth from more than 70,000 cases of investment portfolio rebalancing.

    HSBC continues to expand its offering as part of its broader ambitions to become a leading wealth manager in Asia by 2025.

    In June, the private bank launched online trading in Asia. And in April, it rolled out institutional services for single-family offices in the region.

  • Asia Assets Climb Higher at HSBC Private Banking

    Asia Assets Climb Higher at HSBC Private Banking

    Assets under management at HSBC Private Banking climbed higher, driven in part by more than $9 billion of net new inflows in the first half of 2021.

    Asia assets under management at HSBC Private Banking grew 25 percent to $193 billion in the first half of this year, according to a statement, driven in part by $9.3 billion of net new money inflows.

    This accounts for over 45 percent of HSBC Private Banking’s total assets under management worldwide at $427 billion, according to its recent interim report.

    In addition to private banking, HSBC also saw growth across its affluent segments in Asia – Premier and Jade – with a 7 percent increase in the number of affluent and higher net worth clients to 1.7 million.

    Asian wealth revenues in the first half increased 26 percent and account for much of global wealth revenue growth.

    Asian wealth balances – the sum of client assets from HSBC’s Premier, Jade, and private banking segments – reached a new high of $810 billion and accounted for $49 percent of global assets.

    HSBC continues to pursue its ambitions of becoming a leading wealth manager by 2025.

    It has rolled out a series of mobile solutions and digital enhancements for wealth clients in key Asian markets.

    The bank also added around 600 full-time employees in the first half – including 350 personal wealth planners for its mainland China mobile services HSBC Pinnacle with plans to add another 100. The bank said it is on track to hire over 1,00 client-face wealth staff in Asia by the end of 2021.

    The positive momentum of our Asian Wealth business this year shows the traction we are seeing on-the-ground with our clients, as we forge ahead with our considerable investments in technology, products, and people,» said APAC regional head of wealth and personal banking Greg Hingston.

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  • DBS Reports Progress on Digital Exchange

    DBS Reports Progress on Digital Exchange

    The Singapore bank, one of the first traditional lenders in the region to launch its own digital exchange, now has S$100 million in digital assets in custody.

    I’m quite pleased, it is going quite well,» chief executive Piyush Gupta said on Tuesday during a briefing with analysts after presenting the bank’s second-quarter 2021 financial results, Blockworks reported.

    The exchange – DDEx – now has around 400 clients and did around $133 million in transactions during the quarter, Gupta said. Its assets under custody are also up 60 percent since May, when it had an investor base of 120 clients and some S$80 million in digital assets under custody.

    At the same time, Gupta said his target was to grow the digital exchange’s investor base to about 1,000 customers this year, adding that he expects the volume to pick up once the exchange extends its trading hours past the Singapore business day.

    DDEx launched in December 2020 with an initial offering that covered cryptocurrency trading of bitcoin, ether, bitcoin cash, and XRP, now expanded to include digital stocks and bonds. In May 2021, the bank launched a crypto trust offering that combined wealth planning services with emerging digital currencies.

    Overall, the bank posted a record-high profit of S$3.71 billion ($2.75 billion) for the first half of 2021, marking 54 percent year-on-year growth.

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  • DBS Reports Progress on Digital Exchange

    DBS Reports Progress on Digital Exchange

    The Singapore bank, one of the first traditional lenders in the region to launch its own digital exchange, now has S$100 million in digital assets in custody.

    I’m quite pleased, it is going quite well,» chief executive Piyush Gupta said on Tuesday during a briefing with analysts after presenting the bank’s second-quarter 2021 financial results, Blockworks reported.

    The exchange – DDEx – now has around 400 clients and did around $133 million in transactions during the quarter, Gupta said. Its assets under custody are also up 60 percent since May, when it had an investor base of 120 clients and some S$80 million in digital assets under custody.

    At the same time, Gupta said his target was to grow the digital exchange’s investor base to about 1,000 customers this year, adding that he expects the volume to pick up once the exchange extends its trading hours past the Singapore business day.

    DDEx launched in December 2020 with an initial offering that covered cryptocurrency trading of bitcoin, ether, bitcoin cash and XRP, now expanded to include digital stocks and bonds. In May 2021, the bank launched a crypto trust offering that combined wealth planning services with emerging digital currencies.

    Overall, the bank posted a record-high profit of S$3.71 billion ($2.75 billion) for the first half of 2021, marking 54 percent year-on-year growth.

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