FISERV LOOKS TO SUPPORT NEW PAYMENT FLOWS WITH MAJOR PAYMENT INSTITUTION LICENSE FROM MONETARY AUTHORITY OF SINGAPORE

Company’s local operating entity granted license to provide merchant acquisition and domestic and cross-border money transfer services under the Payment Services Act

SINGAPORE, Jan 31 (Bernama-BUSINESS WIRE) -- A Fiserv, Inc. (NASDAQ: FISV) operating entity that provides payment solutions for merchants in Singapore, First Data Merchant Solutions Private Limited, has been granted a Major Payment Institution (MPI) license by the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS), effective January 1, 2023.

The license allows the company to provide merchant acquisition services and domestic and cross-border money transfer services under the Payment Services Act (PS Act) 2019.

Fiserv, a leading global provider of payments and financial services technology solutions that has its regional headquarters in Singapore, has been providing solutions to some of the largest banks, fintechs, and merchants in Singapore and across the Asia Pacific region for over two decades.

Fiserv provides end-to-end payment acceptance solutions for small businesses in Singapore as well as solutions for large enterprise clients, facilitating integrated payment acceptance across physical and digital channels and offering a wide range of payment methods locally and at global scale.

The MPI license permits the continued offering of merchant acquiring services in Singapore and will allow Fiserv to support new payment flows for its clients including cross-border funds transfer services and real-time account transfers.

Fiserv has a well-established Global Risk and Controls Framework and Global Cybersecurity Services to help ensure adherence to the regulations established under the PS Act in Singapore, as well as the regulatory bodies in markets around the world in which the company operates. 

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QED INVESTORS HIRES MELISSA HO AS FIRST EMPLOYEE IN SINGAPORE

Melissa will focus on investing in early stage fintechs across Southeast Asia


ALEXANDRIA, Va., Feb 3 (Bernama-BUSINESS WIRE) -- QED Investors, a leading global venture capital firm focused on investing in disruptive financial services companies, today announced the hire of Melissa Ho.

Melissa joins QED as a principal focusing on fintech investments across multiple stages in Southeast Asia, with an emphasis on early stage companies.

“Mel is passionate about working closely with the companies she invests in and has a sense of humility and realism which takes her a long way there,” said QED Investors Partner and Head of Asia, Sandeep Patil. “She is a driven and energetic investor and a determined and intentional partner. Her diverse breadth of experiences and depth with the Singapore and Southeast Asia ecosystem will be brilliant additions to QED as we advance to help founders at the earliest stage of their journeys and build our on-ground presence in Asia.”

Previously, Melissa led the investment team at Wavemaker Partners, one of Southeast Asia's leading seed VC funds investing in enterprise, deep tech and sustainability companies. She was responsible for the Singapore, Indonesia, Malaysia and Bangladesh markets, plus the primary verticals of SaaS, B2B marketplaces, proptech, edtech, commerce and consumer internet.

Melissa started her career at Singapore Airlines where she gained operational experience across product innovation and management, corporate strategy, as well as fuel procurement and hedging. Before transitioning to VC, she founded and led the regional marketing, partnerships team at Shopee, Southeast Asia's largest e-commerce firm.

Melissa graduated Summa Cum Laude with a B.A. in international relations and economics from New York University.

Founded in 2007, QED Investors has invested in more than 200 companies, including 28 unicorns, and has $4.3 billion under management.

About QED Investors

QED Investors is a global leading venture capital firm based in Alexandria, Va. Founded by Nigel Morris and Frank Rotman in 2007, QED Investors is focused on investing in disruptive financial services companies worldwide. QED Investors is dedicated to building great businesses and uses a unique, hands-on approach that leverages its partners’ decades of entrepreneurial and operational experience, helping companies achieve breakthrough growth. Notable investments include AvidXchange, Betterfly, Bitso, Caribou, ClearScore, Current, Creditas, Credit Karma, Flywire, Kavak, Klarna, Konfio, Loft, Mission Lane, Nubank, QuintoAndar, Remitly, SoFi, Wagestream and Wayflyer.

View source version on businesswire.com: 
https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20230202005204/en/

Contact

Ashley Marshall
Director, PR and Communications
QED Investors
ashley@qedinvestors.com
(518) 577-9984

Source : QED Investors

SECURE CITIZENSHIP IN ST KITTS AND NEVIS WHILE BEING A RESIDENT IN THAILAND

Basseterre, Feb 2 (Bernama-GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- As the number of high-net-worth individuals grows across the world, the effects of wealth acceleration are felt in Thailand as well.

As a country in Southeast Asia, Thailand is known for its tropical beaches and rich history. Bangkok, its capital, is a very popular city for the ultra-wealthy, as it offers modern amenities and tropical weather not far from nature’s escapes.

According to Knight Frank’s latest edition of The Wealth Report, Asia-Pacific is host to the world’s leading wealth hub. The affluent continue to be bullish on the region’s trajectory, which can be witnessed by the forecasted growth in the UHNWI and HNWI population between 2021 and 2026, which will be the fastest across all regions.

As the wealth boom shifts east, the billionaire population of APAC will also rise quicker than the global average (33.7%), at 36.7% during the next half a decade. By 2026, more than a third of the world’s billionaires will be from the region, a proportion that has continued to rise. This reinforces that Asia-Pacific will be the engine of wealth creation in the 2020s. While gateway markets continue their path of stable and resilient growth and developing markets play catch-up at a very rapid rate.

According to reports, a new class of super-wealthy is emerging and is known as the centimillionaires. These investors consider establishing residency and citizenship in multiple countries, and the multinational living that accompanies it, as key to their wealth management strategies. As Forbes advises, “the super-rich increasingly pursue domicile diversification to broaden investment opportunities and business operations—and to have location fluidity that safeguards against risks ranging from geopolitical conflict to climate change to a viral outbreak.” 

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ZOOM TO UNVEIL FOURTH QUARTER FINANCIAL RESULTS, FULL FISCAL YEAR 2023

KUALA LUMPUR, Feb 2 (Bernama) -- Zoom Video Communications Inc has announced it would release its financial results for the fourth quarter and full fiscal year 2023 on Feb 27, after the market closes.

In a statement, the cloud-based video conferencing platform said a live Zoom Video Webinar of the event could be accessed via the company’s investor relations website.

“A replay will be available approximately two hours after the conclusion of the live event,” it said.

Founded in 2011 and headquartered in San Jose, California, Zoom is an intuitive, scalable, and secure choice for large enterprises, small businesses and individuals alike.

-- BERNAMA

AXA PARTNERS WITH FIRE FIGHTER INDUSTRY TO OFFER HOME CONTENT PROTECTION

KUALA LUMPUR, Jan 31 (Bernama) -- AXA Affin General Insurance Berhad (AXA) and Fire Fighter Industry Sdn Bhd (FFI), Malaysia’s leading fire safety company, have entered into a strategic partnership to provide home content insurance exclusively to FFI customers in Malaysia.

With home being the single largest asset of most Malaysians, AXA has always been committed towards empowering local homeowners with the right coverage they need to protect not just their home, but also their valuable belongings.

Jeremy Yeap, Chief Retail Officer of AXA, stated that this partnership with FFI marks yet another milestone towards empowering more Malaysians with better home contents protection through omni-channel partnerships.

“Many homeowners in Malaysia merely insure their home against fire and other perils under the mandatory requirement of their housing loan, without knowing that it only covers their building and not their home contents. With this meaningful partnership with FFI, we can drive greater awareness on the importance of home content insurance and encourage more customers to get covered,” Jeremy said.

Bringing together AXA’s insurance expertise and FFI’s wide customer network, the tie-up will provide an efficient ecosystem that benefits customers with affordable yet comprehensive home content protection, otherwise known as SmartHome Optimum Enhanced Home Contents All Risks plan.

• Covers loss or damage of home contents due to all types of perils including riot, strike and malicious damage, accidental damage, theft without signs of forcible entry
• Flexible plans based on customer’s needs and budget
• Affordable premium
• Complimentary benefits such as loss of money due to theft, cost of replacing locks/keys, cost of replacing legal documents and more

Brian Soo, Chief Innovation Officer at Fire Fighter Industry Sdn. Bhd. said, “Our customers that we’ve built over the years are people who are more safety conscious and we believe this partnership will give value to our customers, and potential customers.”

Established in 1974, FFI is a manufacturer of fire extinguishers and a one stop fire safety service provider. It is the only Malaysian fire extinguisher manufacturer with both ISO 9001 and ISO 14001 accreditation and strives towards the mission of fireproofing Malaysia through comprehensive fire safety products and services. Since 2019, FFI has focused on being more consumer-centric by having a direct-to-consumer model for products and services related to safety. FFI is the first fire safety company to be available online and has since seen themselves as being #1 on all major ecommerce platforms.
 

For more information, please visit https://www.firefighter.com.my/pages/smart-home-insurance

Source: AXA Affin General Insurance Berhad 

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MINISTER OF HEALTH ENGAGES WITH MALAYSIAN RESEARCHERS AND MEDICAL EXPERTS IN THE UK FOR CLINICAL RESEARCH COLLABORATION

LONDON, Jan 31 (Bernama) -- The UK-Malaysia Clinical Research Partnership forum organised by Clinical Research Malaysia, was successfully wrapped up on Sunday. The event took place at Malaysia Hall, London and had over 80 attendees in the field of clinical research participating. Most of the attendees were part of prestigious universities, industry and hospitals who came from areas of Oxford, Cambridge, Manchester, Plymouth as well as Sheffield. The forum was also graced by both Malaysia’s Minister of Health, Dr Zaliha Mustafa and Director General of Health, Tan Sri Dato Seri Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah.

With the theme ‘Making It Happen’, the forum’s objective was to bring Malaysian clinical researchers in the UK together to discuss about the areas of research interest that can be explored together with Ministry of Health Malaysia. “We hope to leverage on the Malaysian diaspora in the UK to form collaborative research with our local researchers and clinicians back home. With more than 1000 active and experienced clinical trialists in Malaysia delivering quality research in their respective institution, I believe that with the right partnerships we could leverage on common research interests and areas between both countries and make these projects happen”, said Dr Zaliha in her opening address.

The forum was moderated by Professor Eric Lim, Consultant Thoracic Surgeon from the Royal Brompton Hospital and panellists include Associate Professor Dr Masliza from University of Oxford, Dr Joseph Cheriyan from University of Cambridge, Dr Azlisham Mohd Nor from University Hospital Plymouth, Dr Nubli Mustafa from AstraZeneca Cambridge and Dr Ezanul Wahab from MAC Clinical Research. The panel members shared their research experiences and insights on the current and future collaboration in their field of expertise.

In closing the forum, Tan Sri Dato’ Seri Dr Noor Hisham, Director-General of Health also shared his aspiration in hoping these partnerships would enable knowledge transfer between researchers in both nations in addition to further building the research expertise in Malaysia through training and development programs.

About Clinical Research Malaysia (CRM)

Established by Malaysian Ministry of Health in 2012, Clinical Research Malaysia exists to advance global health solutions for a brighter, more hopeful future for the people by providing speedy and reliable end-to-end clinical research support for quality studies. CRM’s innate understanding of the local clinical research landscape with the international standards of operations coupled with fundamental backing of the government ministries provides the organisation an incomparable advantage to work with partners from the nascent stages of development to materialisation of the end product, in order to deliver better treatment and high-skilled job opportunities.

SOURCE: Clinical Research Malaysia (CRM) 

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Nikkiso CE&IG to expand Middle East, Northern Africa facilities

KUALA LUMPUR, Jan 31 (Bernama) -- Nikkiso Clean Energy & Industrial Gases Group (Nikkiso CE&IG), a part of the Nikkiso Co Ltd (Japan) group of companies, will be expanding its manufacturing and service capabilities for the Middle East and Northern Africa markets.

According to a statement, with this expansion, Nikkiso CE&IG will be providing pump and turboexpander aftermarket repairs of their full line, including J.C. Carter pumps in the new state-of-the-art service centre which allow repairs to be made locally rather than the need to ship elsewhere.

The new facility, based in the Sharjah Free Zone, was established to provide expanded support for the Middle East and Northern Africa markets, such as added field service support and shop technicians specifically trained to support Marine, J.C. Carter, Nikkiso Cryogenic Pumps (ACD and Nikkiso Cryo) and Turboexpanders.

“With this facility, we will be able to respond more quickly to our customer’s needs, providing individual support and solutions expansion.

“Nikkiso CE&IG will now be able to provide greater service and support to our customers with our local presence,” said Nikkiso Cryogenic Services President, Jim Estes.

This expansion represents the group commitment to and support of the growth of the Middle Eastern and North African markets.

-- BERNAMA