Thursday, 25 April 2024
Razer Fintech leads consortium bid for digital full bank licence in Singapore
Razer Fintech has submitted its application for the digital full bank licence to be issued by the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS). The company will be focusing on the underserved youth and millennials segment for the bid.
Should Razer Fintech and its consortium be awarded the licence, it is planning to extend its current fintech offerings to digital banking services by building the world’s first global youth bank, Razer Youth Bank, to be headquartered in Singapore, leveraging on the strength of Razer as a lifestyle brand synonymous with the youth and millennials, its global presence and the innovative digital payments platform Razer Fintech has built.
The company believes that its application achieves the objectives as laid out by MAS in the released framework through a differentiated strategy and value proposition, targeting the needs of the underserved youth and millennials segment of Singapore through innovative use of technology.
Razer Youth Bank aims to deliver a highly differentiated value proposition, as follows:
- Global youth brand: Leveraging on Razer’s strong brand authenticity with the global youth and millennial population to drive adoption
- Deep understanding of the youth: Deep understanding of the lifestyle needs of the youths and millennials and be able to customise relevant products and services
- Extensive technology and fintech expertise: Tapping on Razer Fintech’s innovative and deep fintech expertise and data-driven technology stack to deliver exceptional user experiences
- Ecosystem approach: Collaborating with best-in-class industry leaders and lifestyle partners to create and deliver highly innovative and bespoke banking solutions to a large underserved demographic
- For Singaporeans by Singaporeans: Contributing to Singapore’s continued growth as a global financial centre while embarking on global ambitions, headquartered out of Singapore
Led by Razer Fintech, who will take up a 60% majority stake, it has assembled a consortium of strategic partners who will take up the remaining equity interest at Razer Youth Bank. Such strategic equity partners include: Sheng Siong Holdings, FWD, LinkSure Global, Insignia Ventures Partners and Carro.
Razer Youth Bank will redefine banking for the youth by integrating lifestyle experiences to its digital banking platform. As such, in addition to the strategic equity consortium partners, Razer Fintech has also gathered some the of world’s best-in-class service providers, product and technology platform partners to create services and products for Razer Youth Bank, including: Confidential Airline Partner, JustCo, Quantifeed, Real Vision, Saxo Markets, SkyScanner, SoCash, Turnkey Lender, V-Key and Visa.
Razer Youth Bank plans to create the financial well-being companion for the youth that empowers financial literacy, provides fair and transparent product offerings, creates a hyper-personalised banking experience that is fun and engaging and embraces the digital economy in transition to a cashless society.
As part of its offerings, Razer Youth Bank intends to also serve the needs of budding entrepreneurs and small and micro enterprises that have had challenges to gain access to capital to fund growth and digital transformation strategies through innovative structures and credit scoring methodologies.
“Addressing the unmet financial needs of the large, yet underserved, segment of the population through an innovative digital-first banking platform is a natural extension of our payments business. In preparation for this, we have, over the past year, already set in motion our plans with the appointment of esteemed board of advisors, partnerships with global financial services companies such as Visa and assembling a strong bench of best-in-class strategic and ecosystem partners for the digital bank licence application,” said Lee Li Meng, chief strategy officer of Razer Inc. and chief operating officer of Razer Fintech.
“As a truly Singapore homegrown and global tech unicorn, we hope to be able to contribute to the growth of Singapore as a global financial centre to deliver a new age and clearly differentiated digital banking proposition for Singaporeans and youth and millennials globally,” Lee added.
Razer Youth Bank is envisaged to be headquartered in Singapore with ambitions to build a global banking network regionally and globally, progressively. According to the guidelines issued by MAS, the announcement of the award of the digital banking licences is expected to be in mid-2020.
Razer’s legal and financial obligations, in relation to Razer Youth Bank, are subject to, inter alia, the award of the licence by MAS and compliance with the terms of such licence, finalisation of the consortium arrangements and compliance with the requirements of applicable laws and regulations, including the Listing Rules on The Stock Exchange of Hong Kong Limited.
Re-disseminated by The Asian Banker
