19 March 2020
MatchMove confirms Digital Full Bank License bid, together with strategic partners Singapura Finance, Lightnet & OpenPayd
Singapore, 19 March 2020 - MatchMove, one of the pioneer Singapore headquartered fintech companies offering a ‘Banking-as-a-Service’ platform, today confirmed that it has submitted an application for a Digital Full Bank License (“DFBL”) to the Monetary Authority of Singapore (“MAS”). In many ways, MatchMove is already acting like a digital bank. With the innovative Wallet-as-a-Service platform and the full Spend.Send.Lend™ suite, MatchMove today manages the end to end process for millions of customer transactions across multiple countries in Asia. Providing full digital banking is a natural evolution of MatchMove’s current capabilities towards a holistic and integrated banking proposition.
Shailesh Naik, Founder and Group CEO of MatchMove commented “At its core, MatchMove aims to improve the quality of people’s digital life by extending essential and safe banking services to them anytime anywhere. Our proposed digital banking-as-a-service will accelerate this objective by leveraging our existing and already available capabilities to address current pent up demand and reach digitally underserved segments like SMEs and gig workers, amongst others. As a pure play fintech, we believe we are well positioned to graduate to a become the digital bank of choice for enterprises, employees and consumers of the future, in Singapore and the region” he added.
The MatchMove led application brings together a world class consortium comprising Singapura Finance Ltd, Lightnet Pte Ltd and OpenPayd Holdings Ltd, all premier regulated financial institutions in their respective markets, with deep capabilities and experience across the spectrum of digital financial services. These partners bring along regional and global connectivity to enhance the proposed Digital Bank’s value proposition. For Singapura Finance, participating in the DFBL application comes on the back of their close strategic relationship with MatchMove. Singapura Finance is leveraging the MatchMove Banking-as-a-service platform to power its Vivid Card solution and is also a strategic investor in MatchMove. “This strategy complements our existing business and steps up our digitization efforts as well as enables us to diversify into new digital native segments and products” said Jamie Teo, CEO of Singapura Finance.
Lightnet is a next generation clearing and settlement network across the Asia Pacific region with the goal to provide remittance infrastructure services by leveraging blockchain and connecting existing financial systems with its network of cash agents and wallets. Lightnet is targeting the unbanked migrant workers and SME trade finance in South East Asia as its initial customers. Lightnet was co-founded by Chatchaval Jiaravanon, whose family runs the Charoen Pokphand Group, one of Thailand's largest companies; and former investment banker Tridbodi Arunanondchai. Commenting on the partnership, Tridbodi Arunanondchai, said, “We are excited to partner with MatchMove which is aligned to our regional banking aspirations. Furthermore, there are many synergies between our organisations beyond Singapore which we intend to explore and I believe we can develop a compelling proposition for the under-banked segment across the region.” Speaking on behalf of OpenPayd, Iana Dimitrova, Chief Executive said “We’re delighted to partner with MatchMove and expand our global footprint into Asia. This partnership cornered around next-generation digital banking complements perfectly our enterprise Banking-as-a- Service strategy”.
Commenting on the viability of a pure-play digital banking-as-a-service, Shailesh said” “Additionally, as a key element of the proposed Digital Bank’s go-to-market strategy, MatchMove has assembled an ecosystem of fintechs and businesses with ready access to large networks of retail customers and SMEs. The proposed Digital Bank will provide tailored and relevant banking products and services to these organisations and their employees, to SME clients and to the partners own retail customers. These confirmed ecosystem partners include a leading transport operator in Singapore, SE Asia’ leading insurance company, a regional payments acquirer, two leading tech startups focused on SME services, and Asia’s leading B2B enabler of online stores, amongst others Advanced discussions are underway with several other potential partners. MatchMove is differentiated by this ability to continue to expand its go-to-market partner base and thus reach more underserved segments quickly“ “This capability will provide the Digital Bank with access to tens of thousands of SME’s and millions of Singaporean consumers with minimal additional customer acquisitions costs, making the MatchMove banking-as-a-service proposition more readily available and at a lower cost than traditional banking, and so provides a clear path to sustainable growth within the first few years of operation.”
“Furthermore, MatchMove’s unique business model and strategy enables it to be deployed across borders, and this is evidenced by strong interest coming in from consortia in other regional countries preparing for banking license application in their own countries. As such, the MatchMove approach will ensure a path to regional growth while further cementing Singapore’s position as a world-class fintech hub.“
About MatchMove
MatchMove is one of the world’s fastest growing and most disruptive fintech companies in digital payments and next-generation banking. MatchMove’s proprietary Banking Wallet OS™ enables 'Banking-As-A-Service' and the capabilities of Spend.Send.Lend™ within any app. The platform empowers businesses and their customers to Spend both online and offline easily and safely, via instantly issued prepaid cards on major card networks. Its Send capabilities include P2P domestic transfers, crossborder remittances, P2M and mass disbursements to global recipients. MatchMove’s platform further extends to Lend, where credit scores are assigned based on customers’ spending and sending patterns to offer customised lending solutions.
Envisioning a financially inclusive world as it wages war on cash, MatchMove’s solutions help enterprise clients digitise payments and give the financially underserved segments the empowerment to move their money anytime and anywhere.
MatchMove is licensed by the Monetary Authority of Singapore and authorised by leading card networks to issue virtual and physical cards directly to users in approved jurisdictions, or anywhere else in the world with partner banks.
The company has been recognised with international awards for being a promising and an innovative organisation, as well as for being a preferred employer. MatchMove is headquartered in Singapore with offices in India, Indonesia, Vietnam and the Philippines. For more information, please visit www.matchmove.com.
About SFL
Singapura Finance Ltd started as Singapura Building Society Ltd in 1969 as a public company to take over the undertakings and operations of Malaya Borneo Building Society, the oldest finance company in Singapore, established in 1950. Singapura Building Society Ltd changed its name to Singapura Finance on 12 June 2002. Today, the Company provides loans to individuals and corporates enabling them to own their own homes and business assets. Singapura Finance also provides deposit services such as savings and fixed deposits including the only one of its kind in the Singapore market, the Vivid Savings accounts, an innovative product that leverages on MatchMove’s Banking-as-a-service platform. The Company is a finance company licensed under the Monetary Authority of Singapore’s Finance Company Act Cap 108. It has seven branches located in populous areas to serve its large client base spread throughout Singapore.
For more information, please visit www.sfl.com.sg
About Lightnet
Lightnet is a next generation clearing and settlement network across the Asia Pacific region with the goal to provide remittance infrastructure services by leveraging blockchain and connecting existing financial systems with its network of cash agents and wallets. Lightnet is targeting the unbanked migrant workers and SME trade finance in South East Asia as its initial customers. Lightnet was co-founded by Chatchaval Jiaravanon, whose family runs the Charoen Pokphand Group, one of Thailand's largest companies; and former investment banker Tridbodi Arunanondchai. Chatchaval Jiaravanon is the owner of Fortune magazine. Lightnet’s other investors include UOB Venture Management, Hanwha Investment and Securities, Seven Bank, Hopeshine Ventures, Signum Capital, Du Capital, Uni-President Asset Holdings and HashKey Capital.
About OpenPayd
OpenPayd is a digital Banking-as-a-Service platform, dedicated to improving and simplifying access to payments and banking. Its services can be integrated through a single API and are supported by a network of licenses across UK, Europe, USA and others. The platform enables businesses such as marketplaces, PSPs, fintechs and FX brokers looking to deploy digital banking capabilities to benefit from IBANs in multiple currencies, access local and international payment networks, FX conversion, and card processing capabilities. The services can be integrated seamlessly into businesses’ technology as a white-label offering.
For media enquiries, please contact:
Jacalyn Chua
Senior Associate
Asia PR Werkz
Email: weisin@asiaprwerkz.com
Ian Lloyd
Marketing Director
MatchMove
Email: marketing@matchmove.com
