Asia Banking Research
Tyme Group raises US$250 million in Series D funding round
Tyme Group, which operates digital banks in South Africa and the Philippines, has raised US$250 million in its Series D funding round, valuing it at US$1.5 billion. The new capital injection will support Tyme’s expansion into new markets, including Vietnam and Indonesia. In Vietnam, where it only has merchant lending operations, Tyme plans to roll out core transaction banking products later in 2025. In Indonesia, meanwhile, the digital bank also plans to launch merchant cash advance and is looking for a banking license, according to Reuters.
This is the second blog in our series on Digital Asset Custody, in partnership with Ripple. The first blog in the series highlighted the rise of digital assets in Asia Pacific, exploring the opportunities and challenges for custodian banks in this growing space.
The Philippines is leaning towards allowing more digital banks
In early December, BSP Deputy Governor Chuchi Fonacier told reporters that there is a “possibility” the Philippine central bank would allow four new digital banks in 2025. The regulator highlighted key factors that would be considered in determining the winners, which were mostly boilerplate – a unique value proposition, an innovative business model not yet offered by existing market players, and so on. The capitalization requirements, meanwhile, are modest, at 1 billion Philippine pesos (US$17,300,000).
Why is Viva Republica leaning towards an IPO in the U.S.?
It was not long ago that Viva Republica CEO Lee Seung-gun praised South Korea’s fintech market and financial regulators. “Korea is a market where fintech companies can build their foundational strength for overseas expansion,” he said in September at Korea Investment Week in Seoul. “There is no country where the government leads financial innovation as much as Korea,” he added. And yet Viva Republica seems to have decided against an IPO on the Korea Stock Exchange (KRX). Instead, it is likely to go public in the United States, according to several Korean media reports.
Siam Commercial Bank accelerates digital finance push
Thailand’s Siam Commercial Bank (SCB) is among the most proactive lenders in Southeast Asia when it comes to digital finance. It recently has started on work on a Thai baht stablecoin project and is setting up a digital bank in Thailand together with South Korea’s Kakao Bank.
Assessing the K Bank-Upbit relationship
South Korea’s K Bank had a strong third quarter during which its net income surged almost 181% annually to 37 billion won (US$26.3 million). Through September, the online lender had accrued profits of 122.4 billion won, up 220% from the first nine months of 2023. K Bank’s customer numbers are rising steadily as well, reaching 12 million by the end of September, thanks to strong demand for high-interest rate deposits, cashback programs and mortgage loans. There was really no bad news in K Bank’s earnings report, but the lender still faces significant challenges due to its close ties with the cryptocurrency exchange Upbit and its general high reliance on digital assets to fuel growth.
Why Custodian Banks Should Embrace Digital Asset Custody: Key Challenges and Opportunities
This is the first blog in our series on Digital Asset Custody, in partnership with Ripple.
Will the Philippines be removed from the FATF gray list soon?
For nearly 3 ½ years, the Philippines has been on the gray list of The Financial Action Task Force (FATF), which assessed the Southeast Asian country to have inadequate money-laundering and counterterrorism financing controls. Since then, the Philippines has been working to improve those controls so that it can be removed from the list, which is detrimental to the country’s business environment. Its next opportunity to be removed from the list will be in February 2025.
Why did K Bank postpone its IPO again?
South Korea’s No. 2 digital bank K Bank has postponed its IPO plans yet again, after seemingly having committed to a listing in the near future. This development comes as something of a surprise. K Bank posted a net profit of 85.4 billion won (US$64 million) in the first half of this year, the highest since its establishment and more than thrice as much as during the same period a year ago. It seemed that the company had adequate momentum to finally go public. However, looking at a few aspects of K Bank’s business model, we can see why it is delaying the IPO again.
Hong Kong digital banks need more than a name change
More than five years after Hong Kong regulators first announced they would allow digital banks, the online lenders are performing modestly at best – and in some cases, not well at all. The argument that introducing digital banks would somehow alter the competitive landscape of banking in the city and put heavy pressure on incumbent lenders seems increasingly unrealistic. After all, incumbent heavyweights like HSBC and Standard Chartered have long been investing heavily in digitization. Yet both the banks and regulators have been reluctant to acknowledge underlying problems.
More...
Is Toss Bank ready for an IPO?
Viva Republica’s Toss Bank has been visibly contemplating an initial public offering (IPO) since earlier this year. It is aiming to achieve a valuation of 15 to 20 trillion won (US$11 billion-US$15 billion). Toss is feeling increasingly good about going public because of what it sees as strong fundamentals. It has amassed more than 19.1 million monthly active users, while its loan brokerage, payments, advertising and tax services are performing well, as is its subsidiary Toss Securities.
Indonesia’s P2P lending industry has fallen on hard times. After several years of relatively unchecked P2P lending expansion, regulators have decided to crack down on problematic industry players with an eye on heading off catastrophic failures. No doubt China’s experience in the 2010s is instructive for Indonesia, which does not want to see its own retail investors be robbed of their life savings in pyramid or Ponzi schemes.
Singapore rolls out new anti-money laundering recommendations
On October 4, Singapore’s Inter-Ministerial Committee announced new anti-money laundering (AML) recommendations. They include data sharing between agencies, flagging and striking off inactive companies, and programs to educate businesses about suspicious activity and increase the likelihood that they report such activity.
Taiwan grapples with growing investment scams
Taiwan is grappling with an increasingly serious scam problem, according to a new report that surveyed 25,000 people across the region has found. Conducted jointly by the Global Anti-Scam Alliance, Gogolook and ScamAdviser, a Web site legitimacy checker, the report found that Taiwanese may have lost up to US$7.5 billion over the past 12 months. On average, Taiwanese each lost US$1,940 to scammers, equivalent to 1% of GDP in 2023.