Banking on Singapore: CEO (SEA) of OneConnect shares strategies on rapid expansion in SEA

When Ping An Group, one of the world’s largest insurance groups, picked Singapore as the regional headquarters of its fintech subsidiary, OneConnect Financial Technology (“OneConnect”), one of its top priorities was to find a visionary leader that could rise to the challenge of driving the finance, insurance and banking conglomerate’s growth in Southeast Asia (SEA).

Although Tan Bin Ru had never worked in a Chinese company prior, she jumped at the chance when offered the position. She had been impressed by the speed of innovation and speed-to-market of Chinese tech firms in the areas of emerging technologies. As a born-and-bred Singaporean, Bin Ru was also attracted to OneConnect’s values of embracing local talent, diversity and innovation, which were inherited from Ping An Group.

As CEO (SEA) of OneConnect, Bin Ru brings over 20 years of sales and operations leadership experience at multinational tech companies and startups.

Since taking the helm in 2018, Bin Ru has been recognised as one of the “Top 5 Women in FinTech” for her exceptional contribution to the Singapore fintech industry, and has been featured in the “Top 50 Asia FinTech Leaders” for building a sustainable international company amidst rapid expansion across SEA. She was also named an exemplary female role model in the tech sector at the inaugural Singapore 100 Women in Tech List, 2020.

How does spearheading regional growth from Singapore for a leading tech company look like on the ground? Here are her insights.

Investing in a regional team for long-term growth

A key business priority for Bin Ru is to build up core local teams. On the topic of staffing, she recognises that Chinese companies venturing onto the global stage often face a dilemma: running overseas operations with staff from their Chinese headquarters, or hiring local.

On top of this pressure, regional hires may not immediately have the same skill levels or mindsets as Chinese employees given that SEA is diverse and less developed as a region compared to China.

“Fintech is an exciting and fast-paced space with a lot of learning, and people do get burnt out. In China, the folks show more grit,” Bin Ru admits.

In spite of this, investing in a local talent pool is worth it, assures Bin Ru. “We hire people who know the market to do the work,” she says, revealing that over 75 per cent of OneConnect Singapore’s team are citizens and permanent residents. Local talents, according to her, stay for a longer period with the company, growing OneConnect’s long-term capabilities.

Bin Ru lists regional networks, needs awareness, and the ability to communicate value to customers as strengths of her international team. For instance, OneConnect Singapore’s local workforce boasts domain knowledge and product managers who understand the needs of multiple SEA markets.

Openness to diversity is a key quality of OneConnect, as it creates dynamic teams with a range of strengths. “If my product management team were in just one of the emerging markets, I wouldn’t be able to create a product that can be used across six countries,” she says.

Understanding specific needs of Southeast Asian clients

With large banks in SEA managing assets equivalent to those of mid-sized banks in China, market requirements in this region are different from the get-go. While OneConnect’s fintech solutions have been deployed across state-owned, joint-stock and commercial banks across China, its solutions needed customisation for SEA’s banking institutions and clients.

When OneConnect expanded to SEA, its team, armed with local knowledge, actively redeveloped ‘over-engineered’ products for market relevance.

“Our lending solution in China has three systems, each with different functionalities for small and mid-sized enterprises (SMEs), micro-SMEs, and retail businesses. Digital banks in SEA however require an all-in-one solution. This is why our team transformed our lending solution by combining the three systems into one,” she explains.

Empathy for the needs of regional clients helps OneConnect deliver customised services that systematically tackle clients’ business challenges. “We propose specific solutions to customers and tell them how exactly our products can solve their problems,” says Bin Ru.

Innovating in Singapore for regional markets

Apart from delivering market-ready solutions, OneConnect capitalises on emerging trends through innovation. Ranked top in innovation in Asia Pacific, Singapore’s quality research capabilities, market sophistication and innovation partners support OneConnect’s development of regional solutions.

“The longer-term needs of SEA are broadly the immediate needs of Singapore. It’s just a matter of time that the solutions we build here gain regional traction,” shares Bin Ru.

To create cutting-edge fintech innovations, OneConnect partners with Singapore Management University to jointly research and develop a proof of concept on quantum computing augmenting blockchain technology. This aims to uncover potential uses for distributed ledgers that can improve financing and serving the under-banked in the region.

Another example of a recent innovation is OneConnect’s collaboration with Singapore Exchange (SGX) to build an environmental, social and governance (ESG) platform. This platform will simplify ESG disclosure, reporting and processing, creating of frameworks that help SGX-listed companies across the region seamlessly integrate and measure ESG criteria in their businesses.

Aiding OneConnect’s push for innovation is Singapore’s robust intellectual property protection regime, which was ranked second in the world and first in Asia in 2019 by the World Economic Forum. OneConnect files patents for new technologies developed in Singapore, reveals Bin Ru. While this process takes time and can be expensive, she finds it worth the trouble because of how comprehensively Singapore’s patent protection covers OneConnect’s assets across the region.

Partnering key players within the ecosystem

Apart from growing OneConnect’s talent pool, partnering local financial players is another growth strategy. While banks and fintech are commonly seen as rivals, this is fortunately not true in SEA where they share a symbiotic relationship, notes Bin Ru.

This is because emerging financial ecosystems here have fewer legacy infrastructures and processes, which means that banks proactively adopt emerging startup solutions to create market advantages, while startups tap on the wide customer touch points banks can offer.

OneSME—a platform that allows Singapore SMEs to connect to a buyer base of four million Chinese SMEs—is an example of OneConnect’s thriving partnerships with local banks, including financial services partner UOB. Through this platform, merchants can approach banks for trade financing, foreign exchange, and working capital and a range of digital solutions.

As a fast-growing fintech player, OneConnect is also in good company. With over 1,000 regional and global fintech businesses in Singapore, OneConnect actively works with cybersecurity and fintech firms to integrate mobile wallet and security solutions. “We are in the process of building close-knitted relationships with very good partners here in Singapore,” shares Bin Ru.

Shaping the exciting future of SEA’s fintech industry

Growth prospects are bright for OneConnect. For much of SEA’s unbanked population, digital banking is the solution of choice, making adoption rapid and helping fintech companies leap ahead.

This is especially meaningful for Bin Ru who hopes to create a lasting impact on the tech community in Singapore and SEA: “I’m motivated to help OneConnect be successful and provide not only jobs for Singaporeans, but also create sustainable regional growth. That’s what drives me.”