"Top 11 Profitable Challenger Banks In Asia - Fintech Singapore"

A lot of digital banks are not making money. They have problems with getting new customers because it costs too much. The rules made by the government are also difficult. They don't have many ways to make money.

Only 5% of more than 450 digital challenger banks worldwide made a profit in 2022, according to BCG. Out of those 20 profitable banks, 11 are based in APAC, eight in Europe, and one in Latin America.

BCG Fintech Control Tower found digital challenger banks are making profits globally in May 2023.

APAC digital challenger banks have done better than Europe or America's. People say this is because the region has many unbanked people, a strong mobile culture, and a growing middle class.

In countries like India, China, and Southeast Asia, a lot of people don't have access to banks. This is a big chance for digital banks to make things easier by offering mobile services that are easy to use.

There are a lot of adults in the world that don't use banks. BCG says there are about 2.8 billion underbanked adults. Half of these people live in developing countries. 1.5 billion people are completely unbanked. Most of these people also live in developing countries.

Many APAC countries are seeing a fast growth of the middle class. This leads to a higher need for banking services that are easy to use. These services should be designed for this growing group of people.

Digital challenger banks are getting a lot of help from supportive governments and laws in APAC. Singapore, Hong Kong, and the Philippines have financial regulators who are doing their part to promote innovation and competition in the banking sector. This includes encouraging partnerships with fintech companies, open banking initiatives, and making it easier for customers to sign up digitally.

Many people are using digital banking more and more in the APAC region. We want to talk about the 11 neobanks that are making money. These banks are becoming popular places to do business digitally. China has four of these banks. Japan also has four. Three other countries, Korea, Indonesia, and India, each have one bank.

In 2014, Tencent, Baiyeyuan, Liye Group, and other companies created WeBank, a private Chinese neobank. This bank aims to offer improved and more comprehensive financial services to everyday people and SMEs.

WeBank operates solely over the internet and provides loans utilizing facial recognition technology and credit scores generated via big data analysis.

WeBank is the biggest digital bank worldwide. It has over 340 million personal customers. Almost 2.8 million small businesses use its digital platform.

MYbank was established back in 2015, with a mission to cater to small and medium enterprises (SMEs) and farmers. It is a private online commercial bank based in China and affiliated with Ant Group.

MYBank works like WeBank - it has no physical branches. It uses a mobile app and cloud-based systems to provide SMEs with a loan that doesn't require collateral. The process is quick. SME owners can apply for a loan on their phone with a few clicks. It takes three minutes to complete the application, and the loan is approved in just one second. There's no need to interact with a human.

In 2021, MYBank helped over 45 million SME clients.

A company called AiBank is a bank in China. It belongs to Citic and Baidu. AiBank helps people and small businesses. It's a digital bank, meaning it only operates online.

The bank wants to use AI and advanced tech to provide handy and individualized financial services. These services include loans, savings, investment management, and payments.

By the end of 2020, AiBank had more than 51 million customers. They gave out online loans for RMB 300 billion (which is around US$43 billion), according to their figures.

XW Bank began in 2016 as an online bank in China. The bank is owned by two companies, New Hope Holding and Xiaomi. They offer banking services through the internet, such as deposits, loans and corporate banking.

At the end of 2019, XW Bank had assets worth RMB 44 billion (US$6.8 billion). They mentioned that they had helped almost 24 million customers by June 2019. All loans issued by the bank amounted to RMB 240 billion (US$34.3 billion) by that time.

The Rakuten Bank is a digital bank from Japan. It's part of the Rakuten Group. The group is a well-known e-commerce and Internet services company. In 2020, the bank started. It has lots of online services. You can use it for bank accounts, credit cards, and more. There is even stock trading and cryptocurrency.

In 2022, Rakuten Bank became Japan's biggest digital bank with over 13 million accounts. Then, in April 2023, it made its debut on the Tokyo Stock Exchange.

PayPay Bank is a bank in Japan that started in 2000. They are regulated and provide settlement, savings, and loan services for individuals, corporations, and sole proprietorships. Their goal is to make their services easy to use.

PayPay Bank used to be called Japan Net Bank until April 2021. It is owned by Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation and Z Holdings.

Statista reported that PayPay Bank had 6.02 million bank accounts by March 2022.

Jibun Bank is a Japanese online bank. It mostly works using mobile banking. Mizuho Bank and KDDI Corporation began it in 2008. The goal is making banking easy for customers.

At Jibun Bank, you can get financial services. These include savings accounts, current accounts, time deposits, loans, credit cards, and investment products.

In 2001, Sony Bank began as an online bank for people in Japan. Sony Bank is part of Sony Financial Group. Sony Bank wants to give customers good financial products and services.

Sony Bank has various products and services which include online banking and foreign currency deposits. They also offer investment trusts and home loans. The report from Fintech Futures claims that Sony Bank had more than 500,000 customers earlier this year.

In 2016, Korea Investment Holdings and Kakao created Kakao Bank. This mobile-only bank and fintech company operates in South Korea. Kakao Bank has mobile apps that use simple identification methods. They offer savings accounts, loans, credit cards, investment products, and insurance services. Their mobile apps aim to deliver an easy-to-use interface and user experience.

Kakao Bank has 20 million users in November 2022. They went public in August 2021, the first entirely digital lender in Asia to do so.

Bank Jago was established in 1992 and is located in Indonesia. They offer digital banking services, aimed at satisfying individuals, SMEs and micro-businesses. The bank provides different types of services including savings accounts, current accounts, debit and loans. They also have digital payment options available for their clients.

Bank Jago has 2.3 million customers in March 2023. This is a 71% increase from 1.4 million in 2021.

Paytm Payments Bank started in 2017, in India. It's located in Noida and is connected to the mobile payment company Paytm. This bank offers savings and current accounts, debit cards, fixed deposits with partner banks, and payment instruments like wallets. They also offer real-time payments through India’s Unified Payments Interface and FASTag.

Paytm Payments Bank is a famous online bank in India. They have 330 million digital wallets and 65 million current and savings accounts.

The picture is from Freepik but we edited it ourselves.