Standard Chartered Bank Taiwan Ltd (渣打台灣銀行) yesterday entered into a partnership with peer-to-peer lending operator Robo Web Technology Co (瑞保網路科技) to expand its retail banking clientele from high-net-worth individuals to the general public.
The alliance enables borrowers to open accounts and apply for loans without visiting brick-and-mortar branches and came as competition from non-traditional players gains force.
“We aim to reach out to the general public through the strategic cooperation, a departure from the past focus on high-net-worth individuals,” Standard Chartered retail banking head Kate Lin (林素真) told a news conference.
Standard Chartered would continue to pursue affluent clients, but also aims to take advantage of the fast-growing digital banking business, which was valued at US$64 billion in 2015 and could hit US$1 trillion in 2025, Lin said.
Robo Web develops and operates the nation’s largest online peer-to-peer lending platform, LnB (信用市集), which has amassed 37,000 clients and processed loan requests totaling NT$5.1 billion (US$170.61 million) since its launch in March 2016.
The fintech company thrives on commission charges for matching lenders and borrowers at lower borrowing costs than traditional lenders, Robo Web founder and CEO Joanna Yang (楊瑞芬) said.
It has developed a set of criteria to grade the credit profile of borrowers, who are mostly aged between 20 and 50, Yang said, adding that lenders — referred to as investors on the platform — are usually a few years older.
The purpose of LnB is simple: allow people with funding needs to find lenders with ease and convenience over the Internet, which is the basic and core function of a bank, she said.
Standard Chartered has set interest rates at 0.88 percent for the first two months and between 2.99 percent and 16.99 percent from the third month, Lin said, adding that it would charge an extra NT$2,988 in one-off account maintenance fees.
“The offer demonstrates the bank’s seriousness about growing its retail banking business in Taiwan, which ranks third in profitability worldwide only after Hong Kong and Singapore,” Lin said.
Standard Chartered would consider extending low interest rates depending on customer feedback, she said.
In practice, LnB would pass details of interested borrowers to Standard Chartered, which could settle loan requests within 24 hours, she added.
The lending platform says it can approve loan applications within at least three-and-a-half minutes.
Standard Chartered is to spend US$2 million to establish its third iWealth center in Taoyuan by the end of this year to meet the growing demand for digital services, Lin said.
Its iWealth centers target affluent Taiwanese with net worths of at least NT$3 million who can sip expensive tea, read magazines and use iPads at the facilities for financial consultations.
UNWANTED ATTENTION: In the past two months, the automaker has made headlines, with a Chinese military ban of its vehicles and a protest at an expo Electric vehicle maker Tesla Inc, facing scrutiny in China over safety and customer service complaints, is boosting its engagement with regulators and beefing up its government relations team, industry sources said. Tesla’s change of strategy leading to more behind-the-scenes interaction with policymakers in Beijing compared with relatively little previously shows the seriousness with which the US automaker views the setbacks in its second-biggest market. TALKING SHOP It also comes at a time when China is trying to regulate large and powerful private companies, especially in the technology sector, on concerns about their market dominance. As they do elsewhere, regulators in China, the world’s biggest
Dell Technologies Inc has agreed to sell its Boomi cloud business to private equity firms Francisco Partners and TPG in a cash deal valued at US$4 billion, as part of efforts by chief executive officer Michael Dell to trim down the PC maker. The deal is expected to close by the end of this year, the companies said in a statement on Sunday without providing additional details of the terms. Dow Jones had earlier reported that the companies were near a deal. Boomi specializes in integrating different cloud platforms for companies and has more than 15,000 customers. Dell agreed to acquire the company for
Chinese electric vehicle (EV) start-up Nio Inc (蔚來) reported a narrower first-quarter loss, while warning that a global chip shortage would keep a lid on deliveries. The Shanghai-based company posted a net loss of 451 million yuan (US$68.8 million) in the three months ended March 31, compared with 1.69 billion yuan a year earlier, it said in a statement. It also marked an improvement on the 1.39 billion yuan net loss it posted in the fourth quarter of last year. Revenue rose to 7.98 billion yuan, beating estimates of 7.16 billion yuan. Nio delivered 20,060 vehicles in the quarter, a 423 percent increase from
Intel Corp wants 8 billion euros (US$9.7 billion) in public subsidies toward building a semiconductor factory in Europe, chief executive officer Pat Gelsinger was cited as saying on Friday, as the region seeks to reduce its reliance on imports amid a shortage of supplies. The pitch is the first time that Gelsinger has publicly put a figure on how much state aid he would want, as Intel campaigns to take on Asian rivals in contract manufacturing. “What we’re asking from both the US and the European governments is to make it competitive for us to do it here, compared to in Asia,”
RSS