Singapore is committed to empower its small and medium enterprises (SMEs) to make better financial decisions and avail of seamless trade and financial transactions across the larger global economy. In June, the Digital Economic Partnership Agreement (DEPA) was signed between New Zealand, Singapore and Chile. The initiative includes facilitating end-to-end digital trade – by creating digital identities, allowing paperless trade and developing Fintech solutions – and ensuring a trusted cross-border data flow. To learn more about the DEPA agreement, register for the “Re-image the Digital Economy” webinar on the 29th July at 10am SGT.

This follows the announcement that was made last year by the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) and Infocomm Media Development Authority (IMDA); of the successful completion of phase 1 of the proof-of-concept (POC) for its Business sans Borders (BSB). BSB is meant to be a “meta-hub” connecting several SME-centric platforms (starting within the Philippines, India and Singapore) giving SMEs seamless access to a larger ecosystem of buyers, sellers, logistics service providers, financing, and digital solution providers; and allowing them to be part of the larger global marketplace. The PoC involved a collaboration with private sector partners such as GlobalLinker, Mastercard, PwC, SAP and Yellow Pages.

AMTD Aligns with the BSB Objective

Hongkong-based investment banking firm AMTD Group leads a consortium that includes Xiaomi Finance, Singapore’s SP Group, and Funding Societies, that is a contender for one of Singapore’s digital wholesale banking licenses. While announcing their bid, they had clearly stated that they aimed to focus on SMEs in the region and globally. They continue to focus on SMEs by strengthening their partner ecosystem.

Last week AMTD announced a partnership with GlobalLinker making them the preferred financial services partner on the GlobalLinker’s SME-focused platform. AMTD intends to make available their entire ecosystem to SMEs including their virtual bank in Hong Kong, Airstar and their potential digital wholesale bank consortium in Singapore (which is to be called Singa Bank). In line with Singapore’s BSB objective, the partnership will see GlobalLinker join AMTD’s network which includes Fintech companies, regional banks and enterprises – SpiderNet. SpiderNet is a cross-sector ecosystem which is continuously expanding to connect and collaborate with shareholders, government bodies, industry associations, and clients. GlobalLinker’s AI-powered SME networking platform fosters SME digitalisation and helps members and customers connect with each other and use digital solutions. AMTD will be part of this network and bring the breadth of their partner ecosystem onto GlobalLinker’s platform.

Ecosystm Principal Advisor, Dheeraj Chowdhry says, “This marks the deepening of the trend of convergence between the established industry players and the Fintechs. The inefficiency of the obsession to ‘build’ and the associated resource and cost effort has perhaps been recognised on both sides and hence the path of coexistence and synergy seems more pragmatic. Fintechs are not competing but, in fact, complementing industry players by accelerating customer adoption of new digital formats for the entire landscape.”

AMTD Continues to Strengthen Partner Ecosystem

Last week also saw AMTD announce a collaboration with Singapore’s CIMB Bank and Funding Societies, to explore opportunities to create a wide range of banking and capital market services to aid SMEs with a one-stop solution for cross-regional and financial products.

Such partnerships by AMTD provides a glimpse of the group’s strong focus on Singapore. In April this year, AFIN and AMTD partnered to establish the USD 36 million AMTD ASEAN-Solidarity Fund. In May, AMTD, MAS, and Singapore FinTech Association (SFA) announced the launch of a USD 4.3 million MAS-SFA-AMTD FinTech Solidarity Grant to support Singapore-based FinTech firms.

AMTD remains committed to evolving their capabilities and ecosystem to empower the SME market in Singapore and the region. AMTD Digital announced their intention of acquiring a controlling stake in PolicyPal, Singapore’s InsureTech pioneer, and CapBridge Financial, a leading private capital platform for investing in growth companies globally.  They have also expressed their intentions to acquire a controlling stake in FOMO Pay, a Singapore-based QR code and digital payment solution provider.

“AMTD’s early cognizance of the need for a strong ecosystem has led the organisation to their foray into partnerships and stakes in PolicyPal, FOMO Pay and now GlobalLinker. This strengthens AMTD’s commitment to the Fintech space including stakes in AirStar Digital Bank in Hong Kong and the Digital Bank application in Singapore,” says Chowdhry. “The Fintechs in AMTD’s stable will be part of the ‘AMTD web’ associated companies cutting across geographies and accelerate the ‘Business sans Borders’ objective of MAS and IMDA.”