Kelvin Teo, a Harvard Business School student building a Web-based peer-to-peer lending startup as part of his curriculum, pitched the project to a potential partner: DBS Group Holdings, Southeast Asia’s biggest bank. Omitting his student status, he sent the proposal last October to Chief Executive Officer Piyush Gupta on a guess of his e-mail address.
At DBS’s Singapore headquarters, the CEO received the message. Gupta had been seeking ways to harness the Internet to improve banking services and Teo’s venture, Funding Societies, might work. Three hours later, the executive sent his reply: interested.
Today, Teo, 29, and his classmate and Funding Societies co-founder, Reynold Wijaya, 27, are seven weeks from graduation at Harvard in Boston. They also have deals signed or pending with DBS and other Southeast Asia banks to collaborate with their startup, which connects investors with borrowers from small and medium-size businesses.
Their success as entrepreneurs, while still enrolled in the top US MBA program, shows how banks in Asia are eager to join with financial technology firms rather than get beat by them. In a global survey of financial services executives by PricewaterhouseCoopers, 95% of bankers said part of their business might be lost to fintech companies.
Grim Warning
"The disruption of the financial sector is clearly underway," the New York-based consulting firm said last month in a report. "Given the speed of technology development, incumbents cannot afford to ignore fintech." Forming partnerships with innovators is the leading response by banks, the firm said.
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At DBS’s Singapore headquarters, the CEO received the message. Gupta had been seeking ways to harness the Internet to improve banking services and Teo’s venture, Funding Societies, might work. Three hours later, the executive sent his reply: interested.
Today, Teo, 29, and his classmate and Funding Societies co-founder, Reynold Wijaya, 27, are seven weeks from graduation at Harvard in Boston. They also have deals signed or pending with DBS and other Southeast Asia banks to collaborate with their startup, which connects investors with borrowers from small and medium-size businesses.
Their success as entrepreneurs, while still enrolled in the top US MBA program, shows how banks in Asia are eager to join with financial technology firms rather than get beat by them. In a global survey of financial services executives by PricewaterhouseCoopers, 95% of bankers said part of their business might be lost to fintech companies.
Grim Warning
"The disruption of the financial sector is clearly underway," the New York-based consulting firm said last month in a report. "Given the speed of technology development, incumbents cannot afford to ignore fintech." Forming partnerships with innovators is the leading response by banks, the firm said.
Click Here To Register For Free Trial Services OR Give A Missed Call : +6531581402 Follow Us On Twitter : www.twitter.com/epicresearchsg Like Us On Facebook : www.facebook.com/EpicResearchSingapore Need Any Assistance Feel Free To Mail Us at : info@epicresearch.sg
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