Sign up for the Daily Newsletter, sent exclusively to our premium subscribers. We break down the big and messy topics of Asia’s tech and startup community. Get the newsletter in your inbox everyday with a premium subscription.
Hi readers,
Many tech companies have been built on the premise of bypassing the middleman.
Selling your home directly through an online marketplace without the need for a property agent? Designers marketing their products directly to consumers online without going through a third-party distributor?
That time has come for banks it seems.
For a long time, legacy systems made it challenging for banks to work with ecosystem players.
This meant that ecommerce platforms, ride-hailing firms, and other consumer-facing firms looking to offer financial services, whether credit products or a simple debit card, had to go through intermediaries – banking-as-a-service (BaaS) offering developers – and bank-facing APIs to connect with banks more easily.
Tech providers like Audax, however, now claim their solution can help traditional banks work with these ecosystem firms directly.
Its solution is already helping Standard Chartered – Audax’s majority shareholder – to offer its own BaaS solution, which in turn has enabled firms like Bukalapak to make digital banking services available on the ecommerce platform.
If Audax CEO Kelvin Tan’s thesis is true, that shareholder pressure will in turn drive more banks to offer BaaS solutions themselves as they play catch-up, intermediary firms should be very worried indeed.
— Melissa Goh, journalist at Tech in Asia
Top stories this week
Image credit: Timmy Loen
1️. Out with the middlemen: More firms tap banks, BaaS providers for embedded finance
Using banking as a service, digital banks can lower the cost of acquiring a new customer from US$100 to US$20, tech provider Audax claims.
2. SEA startups need more cheerleaders, less gossiping: 500 Global partner
The region’s startup scene is also maturing, transitioning from its “teenage years” of following trends and wanting to be cool, investor Khailee Ng says.
Stay updated on the go with our mobile app.
Get latest insights with smoother, more personalized experience through TIA mobile app.
