Digital & Technology

Grab to introduce low-cost wealth management

Grab has been revealed to be planning to roll out low-cost investment products to the Southeast Asian market.

Grab is said to be intent on starting with cash products, according to Reuben Lai, Senior Managing Director, Grab Financial Group, offering a yield above the small interest derived from cash sitting in banks.

Lai added, in a statement to then Business Times, that “What we don't want to do is what typical financial institutions do where they charge 3 percent to 5 percent upfront - it's a huge put-off. We are going to do away with all these upfront fees and have a pay-as-you-go model in a very transparent way.”

The firm will partner with an array of private banks and asset management companies to offer these cash products, and hopes to introduce more complex products in 2020.

Grab has also been stated to be intent on working with an platform, either via partnership or investment, hoping to increase the amount of ETF engagement by local banks in the region.

Grab has also recently hired Philip Chew, who has been appointed Head of Investment and New Businesses, Grab Financial Group. Chew was previously affiliated with BlackRock, where he was a Managing Director, and Lombard Odier, where he was an Executive Vice President based across Geneva, New York & London, according to his LinkedIn.

Leslie Teo has also been appointed as Head of Data Science, Policy and Data Initiatives at Grab. He was previously Managing Director, Director of Economics and investment strategy and Chief Economist for GIC.

Grab currently commands the largest total payment value in three of the counties in which it operates, boating e-money licenses in six countries in total.

Lai commented that “Many people will say: 'Are you trying to do an Ant Financial?' And my answer is: 'China is one country, we are 10 countries'. It's very, very different. With the one time the partners plug into us, they get access to our 170 million subscriber base in South-east Asia... and the licences that we've acquired.”