Gerald Eder, CompareAsiaGroup: More and better payment methods for consumers are always beneficial for B2C businesses

Could you elaborate on CompareAsiaGroup’s chief goal, or mission, in the ASEAN region, like Indonesia and The Philippines?

We want to be the preferred and trusted source of information for consumers while being a cost-efficient distribution channel for providers. We combine the best local management talents with people who have previously built financial aggregators in other markets. To win Asia we are building a great mobile platform (“click-to-call”), a trustworthy brand as well as in-house (phone-) conversion processes.

SEA has a fragmented banking and insurance market where providers fight for the customer but struggle in distribution. Hence we are establishing end-to-end distribution capabilities to drive consumers to our contact centres in order to help them choose the right product and facilitate the purchasing or application process. This enables us to build a closer relationship with our customers, cross and up-sell as well as to improve the economics by optimizing the entire sales process on a daily basis.

Among the 8 key ASEAN markets, China is not on the map of CompareAsiaGroup’s agenda. Are you planning to expand into the booming local market in the near future? If so, what industry are you going to tap into first and why?

China is actually one of the most compettitive internet markets in the world while we see huge upside potential and limited competition across Asia Pacific. In fact Philippines and Indonesia are the world’s fastest growing internet population over the last 5 years. We provide financial education, market transparency and access to all financial products available in a country. This means there is a huge growth potential for online financial services service is by consumers given almost 60% of these countries’ population have no direct banking relationship yet (McKinsey Study).

Is payments regulation a bottleneck or jumpstart for fintech developments in your key markets?

More and better payment methods for consumers are always beneificial for B2C businesses like the CompareAsiaGroup. Tight regulation provides a layer of security and comfort to consumers and merchants. Limited regulations can also give some headwind to the development of an industry as we have seen with the digital currency Bitcoin for example.

What are the main impediments in retail banking that you are endeavored to address?

According to a MasterCard study, consumers in Asia are typically much less educated about personal finance than other regions in the world. We address this by providing lots of educational material on our websites to explain the basics about banking and insurance products.

Additionally, consumers struggle to find the best deal in the market. Not everybody is a financial expert and it`s very hard to compare the market offerings. Price comparison websites are not new in Asia, though these are mostly in the travel and lifestyle sector. Financial comparison websites are just taking off though, and we foresee this trend growing in the next few years, thanks largely to the growth of the internet population and Asia’s economy.

As part of the disruptive technology sphere, we are in this unique position to bridge the gap between the traditional financial institutions and the new breed of consumers – the time-poor but highly mobile population. We offer the banks a new channel of reaching out to this group of people and make them relevant to the changing times. Our latest round of funding from well-known companies such as Goldman Sachs has also helped boost our credibility and reputation as a financial comparison site.

Is AEC the solution to ASEAN’s banking network harmonisation? Do you see other directions to approach for further cross-border payments-related regional expansion?

In order for AEC to be successful, banks must first embrace the digital age and offer mobile-friendly solutions that appeal to a growing number of Internet-savvy customers. This is where CompareAsiaGroup can help. As a fintech start-up, we can assist banks in staying relevant in the digital age.

In terms of consumer interest for financial services, how are the Asian customers different from consumers in US or EU, for example? How would you advise a fintech startup to succeed in the ASEAN region?

The Asian financial sector is dominated by short-term bank lending, which is the complete opposite of the US or EU. In terms of financial comparison websites, Asia is relatively young compared with the others. Whereas the industry has been around for more than a decade in Europe, we are only seeing these sites in Asia in the past five years. CompareAsiaGroup, for example, is the first financial comparison website in the international finance centre in Hong Kong. To succeed in Asia requires a strong mobile experience and human interaction. Our websites are mobile-optimised for those on the go, and we offer call centre support in the markets we are present in.

In terms of intra-ASEAN cross-border payments, what are the next trends and developments in order to accelerate uniformity in the region, besides the ASEAN Economic Community (AEC) intergovernmental efforts?

Asia’s growing economy, and rising internet penetration will pave the way for cross-border ecommerce, and will create the need for an intra-ASEAN cross border payment system. Customers are already embracing the digital lifestyle, using the internet to shop and research products. The same is true for personal finance.  We’ve anticipated this trend by targeting markets within the ASEAN. To date, we have websites in Hong Kong, Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, Taiwan, Singapore and The Philippines. As the fintech industry powers forward, we’ll expand our offering to other products that meet our customers’ needs.

About Gerald Eder

Gerald is the CEO and founder of the CompareAsiaGroup, the leading financial comparison business in Southeast Asia. The Group is partnering up with banks, insurers and telco across SEA and support them in their marketing and distribution strategies. Before that, Gerald built with Rocket Internet large-scale ecommerce companies in Southeast Asia. Prior to that, Gerald gathered a strong background in Investment Banking with Morgan Stanley in London and Rothschild in Frankfurt. Gerald Eder was speaking at WIRED Money in London, UK on 8 July, 2015.

About CompareAsiaGroup 

The CompareAsiaGroup is the leading online comparison platform for banking and insurance products in the Asia Pacific region. The Group helps people across Asia save money and make better choices about personal finance with comprehensive, free and independent online comparison tools for insurance, credit cards, personal loans and other financial products. In addition, financial institutions are able to lower customer acquisition costs and efficiently reach consumers through the internet. The Group was founded in 2014 in Hong Kong and currently employs over 150 financial experts and technologists. It has a presence in Singapore, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines and Thailand.