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Tag: Singapore

  • StanChart Nets Ex-Safra Singapore CEO

    StanChart Nets Ex-Safra Singapore CEO

    Standard Chartered has hired the former Singapore chief executive of J. Safra Sarasin to lead its South Asia private banking segment.

    Vinay Gandhi joins Standard Chartered as its regional head, ASEAN and global head, global South Asian community, private banking, according to a statement, subject to regulatory approval.

    Based in Singapore, Gandhi will report to global head of affluent coverage Raymond Ang when he joins the bank in the first quarter of 2022.

    Seasoned Private Banker

    Gandhi has 30 years of financial experience, most recently with J. Safra Sarsin where he was last its Singapore CEO and Asia deputy CEO.

    Previously, he also worked for UBS Wealth Management, Deutsche Bank and Citi Private Bank.

    Gandhi’s profound knowledge of affluent clients in Standard Chartered’s footprint markets and proven track record in leading effective teams will be a strong addition to our team, Ang said in the statement.

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  • SGX Opens Offshore Office in India

    SGX Opens Offshore Office in India

    The office will kick-start SGX India Connect IFSC, a special purpose vehicle that will facilitate SGX’s upcoming connection with India’s National Stock Exchange (NSE).

    Singapore Exchange (SGX) has opened the SGX-International Financial Services Centre (IFSC) office in India’s Gujarat International Finance Tec-City (Gift City), according to a report on Friday.

    SGX will also be launching Gift Data Connect to provide SGX’s international members with access to real-time trading data of Nifty contracts via its derivatives trading platform and give investors unrivaled insights into India’s equity market.

    The upcoming NSE IFSC-SGX Connect aims to bring together the trading of Nifty products in Gift City and create a larger pool of liquidity comprising international and home market participants.

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  • DBS Appoints Chief Risk Officer

    DBS Appoints Chief Risk Officer

    A career DBS banker has been named chief risk officer for the Singapore lender, replacing Tan Teck Long.

    Soh Kian Tiong has been named chief risk officer (CRO), according to a statement, reporting to DBS chief executive Piyush Gupta.

    In addition, Soh will also be accountable to the board risk management committee as well as join as a member of the group management committee and group executive committee.

    Soh replaces ex-CRO Tan Teck Long who will be leaving the bank to take on a client-facing role elsewhere.

    Soh has over 25 years of experience, having first joined DBS as a trainee officer in its corporate banking unit in 1995. Since then, he held various senior roles, most recently as a senior risk executive for DBS Hong Kong, Greater China chief credit officer, management committee member of DBS (Hong Kong), and Hong Kong risk executive committee chairman.

    Under Tan’s leadership, DBS has further enhanced our credit underwriting capabilities, multi-year credit architecture program, and strengthened our attention on ESG risks, financial crime risk, and cyber security and data protection. While he will be sorely missed, we respect his desire to return to a customer-facing role,» Gupta said.

    Soh’ appointment is testament to our ability to groom leaders from within. Over the span of his longstanding DBS career, he has been rotated across markets, and embraced a mix of business and risk roles. I am confident that he will bring this experience to bear meaningfully in his new role.

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  • Deutsche Bank Hires Ex-Bank of Singapore MD

    Deutsche Bank Hires Ex-Bank of Singapore MD

    A former managing director from Bank of Singapore has joined Deutsche Bank’s wealth unit in Singapore.

    Deutsche Bank Wealth Management hired Faye Lee as a managing director, according to a statement, tasked with covering ultra-high net worth clients in Southeast Asia.

    Based in Singapore, she joins a team led by Southeast Asia head Shang-Wei Chow and reports to group head of Southeast Asia Terence Leong.

    Lee has over 17 years of wealth management experience, most recently with Bank of Singapore where she was a managing director. Previously, she also worked for ING Asia Private Bank, prior to OCBC’s acquisition in 2009, Citi and HSBC.

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  • Flash Coffee opens Singapore flagship

    Flash Coffee opens Singapore flagship

    Singapore-based Flash Coffee has announced plans to rapidly expand across Asia after securing $15m investment from investors including DX Ventures, Global Founders Capital, and Conny & Co. In a press release, the coffee chain said it intended to debut in Hong Kong, Taiwan, South Korea, Japan, Malaysia, the Philippines, and Vietnam in 2021.

    First launching in January 2020, Flash Coffee currently operates 50 locations across Singapore, Thailand, and Indonesia. Despite opening amid the Covid-19 pandemic, the company reports the majority of its stores are profitable.

    Flash Coffee says it is currently opening three new outlets per week and plans to increase the rate to 10 stores per week in order to achieve its target of 300 additional stores across the Asia by end of 2021.

    “Our dream is to have a Flash Coffee every 500 metres in all major Asian cities,” said Flash Coffee CEO David Brunier. “We will also build a regional HQ in Singapore and expand our regional tech hub in Jakarta to 50 people to support our vision of fully leveraging technology to improve customer experience, proactively drive growth and significantly increase operational efficiency.”

    The value-focused coffee chain deploys a similar ‘new retail’ model popularised by China’s Luckin Coffee. Customers can order drinks for pick-up via an app and online, with the brand stating its intention to ‘digitise today’s offline-dominated coffee industry’. Like Luckin Coffee, Flash Coffee is also seeking to catalyse growing demand for premium coffee and aspirational hospitality concepts among Asia’s growing young middle-income demographic.

    There is undoubtedly vast untapped potential for domestic and international coffee chains alike across East Asia. World Coffee Portal data shows the region’s branded coffee chain market grew 5.1% in 2020 to exceed 74,500 outlets, with 13 out of 17 markets achieving outlet growth during the period.

    China is, however, curiously absent from Flash Coffee’s intended growth markets. East Asia’s second-largest branded coffee shop market after South Korea grew 2.1% to exceed 21,400 outlets in 2020, with consumers already highly familiar with app-based transactions, pick-up and beverage delivery. 86% of Chinese consumers surveyed by World Coffee Portal in 2020 indicated they have previously ordered coffee for delivery, with more than half doing so 2-3 times per week.

  • Singapore to Expand Quarantine-Free Travel

    Singapore to Expand Quarantine-Free Travel

    Following its announcement of more Vaccinated Travel Lanes (VTLs) on Saturday, the city-state has said it is working to expand travel to more countries, including its regional neighbors.

    Singapore aims to reestablish the city-state as an international aviation hub with the expansion of its VTL scheme to more countries ahead of the year-end holidays.

    From October 19, VTLs will be launched with Canada, Denmark, France, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain, the United Kingdom, and the United States, with South Korea to be added on November 15. Singapore currently has VTLs with Germany and Brunei, launched September 8 under a pilot scheme.

    Under the scheme, fully vaccinated travelers will be able to enjoy quarantine-free travel both ways. However, there is currently a limit of 3,000 arrivals under the scheme.

    Pre-Covid, these countries accounted for about 10 percent of arrivals, Transport Minister S. Iswaran said on Monday.

    These countries under the VTL scheme are «collectively an important set of partners» for Singapore, Iswaran said in an interview, noting that the countries have significant investments in Singapore and are among the top 20 trading partners, with sizeable business communities and families here.

    We want to do more, but in a manner that is cautious and calibrated,» the minister said, adding that Singapore is currently in discussions with counterparts around the world, including its regional neighbors.

    Since the announcement over the weekend, there has been a rush to secure tickets. Singapore Airlines’ website crashed on Saturday afternoon amid the surge in demand, while visitors to its service center at Ion Orchard had to wait in line for several hours.

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  • Singapore retail sales growth halts in August

    Singapore retail sales growth halts in August

    Singapore retail sales growth – excluding motor vehicles – remained static in August, following July’s 2-per-cent increase.

    Of the estimated $2.9 billion in retail sales (excluding vehicles), online sales accounted for 16.4 percent, a similar proportion as in July. By category, the strongest online was computer & telecommunications equipment, with 56.5 percent of turnover online rather than in-store. Online accounted for 31.5 percent of furniture & household goods sales and 14 percent of supermarkets & hypermarkets.

    In terms of overall category sales, most sectors recorded year-on-year declines in sales during August. Optical goods & books were worst affected – down by 9.6 percent – followed by department store turnover, down by 8.5 percent.  Sales through petrol service stations and of watches & jewelry rose by 23.7 percent and 7.9 percent respectively, driven by higher petrol prices and greater demand for watches, said Statistics Singapore.

    Meanwhile, sales of food & beverage services fell 6.7 percent in August compared to the 6-per-cent decline in July, due mainly to stricter dine-in restrictions this year.

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  • Philippines’ Union Bank Opens Fintech HQ in Singapore

    Philippines’ Union Bank Opens Fintech HQ in Singapore

    Union Bank’s fintech subsidiary UBX is expanding its operations in Singapore as it eyes growth in Asia.

    UBX, the financial technology venture studio and fund of Union Bank, hopes its Singapore headquarters will be a bridge for startups to enter the Philippine market, according to an announcement on Tuesday.

    Operations will be led by Singapore country head Cryus Cruz, who joined UBX five months ago after over three years at Tokio Marine Insurance Group, where he was regional manager of digital strategy and its innovation lab. He also brings experience from stints at Chubb, Axa, AIG and J.P. Morgan.

    UBX cited the wealth of start-ups and deep fintech talent pool as among the reasons why it is launching in the city-state. It also noted the rapid rise of fintech in financial transactions, and the «significant growth» UBX ventures are experiencing, fueled by the coronavirus pandemic.

    UBX has strategically set up an office here to contribute to, and benefit from the established ecosystem. This will not only expand our network, it’ll also help us learn from different companies in the country, Cruz said.

    UBX previously partnered with the Monetary Authority of Singapore in its Business Sans Borders (BSB) project.

  • HSBC Hires Digital Platforms Specialist in Singapore

    HSBC Hires Digital Platforms Specialist in Singapore

    The bank said the newly created role will help one of its key pillars of embedding its solutions into the digital platforms that its clients are adopting.

    HSBC has appointed Aman Narain as head of platforms for global commercial banking, a role in which he will lead its strategy, including the development, commercialization and innovation of propositions, according to an announcement on Wednesday.

    Narain joins the bank from Google, where he was instrumental in the build-out and commercialization of revenue-generating ecosystems, including the launch of Google Pay in Singapore and the design of the GooglePlex account in the U.S.. He previously led digital and marketing transformation for Schroders and held various leadership positions at Standard Chartered.

    Based in Singapore, Narain will report to Stuart Tait, regional head of commercial banking, Asia Pacific.

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  • Italian brand Frette opens doors in Singapore

    Italian brand Frette opens doors in Singapore

    Italian home accessories and lifestyle brand, Frette, has expanded its footprint in Singapore with its first boutique in Marina Bay Sands.

    The store also marks the brand’s first mono-brand boutique in the territory. Designed by Milan-based architecture studio Archibrando, the new Frette store features elements used in the brand’s global flagship boutique on Milan’s Via Manzoni and custom furnishings crafted from natural Afara wood, “encapsulating the luxurious ambience and timeless elegance and essence of the brand”.

    Frette Singapore occupies a 65sqm area of the shopping centre, offering crafted linens and decorative home accessories, ranging from embroidery bedding, bath towels, to men’s and women’s loungewear. The Marina Bay Sands boutique also offers custom embroidery and personalisation, bedroom styling as well as installation.

    The 160-year-old brand is known for its “chic, original designs and inimitable finish and feel”. Frette operates nine retail locations in the US and 25 in Asia. The brand has flagship stores in China, South Korea, Taiwan, Vietnam and Cambodia.

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  • Fintech Startup Aspire Sets Sights on Southeast Asia’s Digital Economy

    Fintech Startup Aspire Sets Sights on Southeast Asia’s Digital Economy

    The Singapore-based neobank has raised a $158 million led by renown VCs and fintech founders.

    Aspire is looking to double down on existing markets, while building the foundations to serve growing business clients across the whole South East Asia region, the firm said in an announcement on Monday.

    The oversubscribed funding round consisted of $58 million in equity and $100 million in debt. It was led by an undisclosed global growth equity firm, together with DST Global Partners, CE Innovation Fund, B Capital Partners and global hedge fund Fasanara Capital. Existing investors including Hummingbird Ventures, Mass Mutual Ventures, Picus Capital, and AFG, as well as a number of individual investors also participated.

    The company also operates in in Indonesia and Vietnam and is laying the groundwork for expansion into other Southeast Asian markets.

    Founded in 2018, Aspire provides an all-in-one finance operating system, which incorporates accounting, payroll, invoice management, FX, credit solutions, and banking. It serves more than 10,000 business accounts, which transact a total of around $2 billion annually, doubling in five months from May.

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  • Singapore and Malaysia to Link Real-Time Payment Systems

    Singapore and Malaysia to Link Real-Time Payment Systems

    The link will enable more seamless payments for the high volume of remittances between the two neighbors, which reached S$1.3 billion ($960 million) in 2020.

    Singapore and Malaysia’s central banks will be embarking on a phased linkage of PayNow and DuitNow, their national real-time payment systems, the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) said in an announcement.

    In the first phase, to be launched in the fourth quarter of 2022, customers of participating financial institutions will be able to make real-time transfers using a mobile phone number and make retail payments by scanning a PayNow/DuitNow QR code.

    The linkage will subsequently incorporate a wider range of features and participants. Both regulators will also explore the feasibility of integrating innovative features such as distributed ledger technology-based solutions to catalyse greater efficiencies in payments clearing and settlement between participating banks, the announcement said.

    Singapore’s remittance corridor with Malaysia is the city-state’s largest remittance corridor. The two countries also saw 12 million travelers crossing the border pre-pandemic.

    The PayNow-DuitNow linkage will be an important infrastructure to support cross-border payment needs of individuals and businesses, as well as the growing digital economic activity between both countries, Sponendu Mohanty, MAS chief fintech officer, said.

    The linkage also allows MAS and counterpart Bank Negara Malaysia (BNM) to incorporate the use of distributed ledger and smart contract technologies in the wholesale cross-border payments space, he added.

    Earlier this month, MAS also announced that it is working to connect PayNow to India’s Unified Payments Interface (UPI) by mid-2022.

    Singapore and Thailand have also connected their payments infrastructures to enable cross-border peer-to-peer transactions.

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  • Binance Halts Crypto Trading for Singapore Users

    Binance Halts Crypto Trading for Singapore Users

    Binance announced a new round of curbs for its Singapore business, restricting crypto trading for users in the city-state.

    Users in Singapore will no longer be able to deposit fiat money, trade or purchase crypto via Binance.com from October 26, according to a statement.

    Advisers were also told to cease all related trades, withdraw fiat assets and redeem tokens by the deadline.

    We will be restricting Singapore users in respect of the regulated payments services in line with our commitment to compliance, said Binance. Our aim is to create a sustainable ecosystem around blockchain technology and digital assets, and we hope that such efforts will help the industry grow in the local market in the long-run.

    While the Monetary Authority of Singapore has issued warnings about potential breaches of the Payment Services Act at Binance.com, which is operated by Binance, it is currently reviewing a license application from Binance.sg, which is operated by Binance Asia Services (BAS).

    Binance.sg is viewed by some users as the lighter version of Binance.com with a smaller offering and significantly less liquidity.

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  • Singapore-Based Fintech Thunes Makes Strategic Appointments

    Singapore-Based Fintech Thunes Makes Strategic Appointments

    The fintech startup has made a pair of executive hires to support its global growth strategy. Thunes has appointed Irina Chuchkina as chief marketing officer and Babul Balakrishnan as head of customer care, who will both be based in Singapore, the global cross-border payments firm said on Tuesday.

    Fintech marketing leader Chuchkina, who is also an Executive Committee Member in the Singapore Fintech Association, brings over 15 years of experience in the payments and technology space in Europe and Asia, including at Rapyd, Grab and Visa. She will lead Thunes’ global marketing strategy.

    Balakrishnan has over two decades of experience across various industries with a focus on customer service and customer experience. He joins from telco StarHub, where he was AVP of customer experience operations. He will work with the various business units to elevate customer care into customer experience across Thunes’ partner network.

    The appointments follow the announcement of Thunes’ acquisition of Europe payments platform Limonetik, to complement its cross-border payments solutions. The company has also made several other strategic hires the last 12 months to support its expansion plans.

    Launched in 2016, Thunes is headquartered in Singapore and operates regional offices in London, Shanghai, New York, Dubai, and Nairobi. In September 2020, it raised $60 million in a Series B funding round led by Africa-focused Helios Investment Partners.

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  • Singapore’s Yacht 21 rebrands with a new label and purpose

    Singapore’s Yacht 21 rebrands with a new label and purpose

    Singapore fashion label Yacht 21 has been renamed Y21, changing its logo and purpose in response to the change in fashion after the pandemic.

    Founded in 2009, Yacht 21 was known for its travel-friendly and resort collection inspired by Scandinavian designs. As international travel has been put on hold and will not be possible for a while since Covid-19, Yacht 21 has decided to shift its focus to functional, fuss-free and seasonless pieces for women to adapt to the new normal.

    “We believe it is for the better as we learn to embrace the importance of versatility, comfort and quality in our designs to align with the new lifestyles women are leading,” said Jarenis Ho, founder of Y21.

    “Where women used to have different pieces for work, parties and vacations, we now have a more blended existence and need outfits that can be worn anywhere while maintaining a strong sense of purposeful style.”

    Y21 brand colour palette features three colours – grey, beige and orange. The tagline has also been changed from ‘Everyday’s A Holiday’ to ‘Wear Anywhere’.

    Y21 will feature its new image on its website this Thursday.

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