Maybank helps SME customers go digital with cloud-based accounting, PayNow

Source: Maybank. Leong.

In November 2017, Maybank Singapore partnered with Asian Business Software Solutions (ABSS) to empower startups and micro businesses in Singapore with Financio, an affordable cloud-based accounting solution which does not require any accounting knowledge to operate.

Almost a year on, Maybank's Marc Leong, Executive VP and Head SME Banking, Community Financial Services, shares that one in every five small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) which open an account with the bank is also signing up to use Financio.

"Despite being in Singapore, adoption of the cloud is far from satisfactory," he said at the recent Accounting & Finance Show Asia 2018 in Singapore. He estimated that some 60% to 70% of small businesses are still working with offline software, or even doing their book-keeping manually.

"The bank has a deep role to push the go-digital (trend)," he said. Another digital initiative from Maybank, executed together with Financio, is PayNow-ready invoicing. In September, Maybank Singapore and Financio launched unique PayNow QR codes with embedded payment details, enabling funds received via PayNow to be easily tracked in Maybank’s Business Internet Banking and updated directly in the ledger.

PayNow is a peer-to-peer payment service that has been available to retail customers of nine participating banks in Singapore since July 2017. The generic PayNow QR codes had lacked enough payment details to identify what was being paid for.

More announcements are planned for later in the year, Leong said, around the Singapore government-driven SMEs Go Digital programme, and also a new branch along main tourist belt Orchard Road which will incorporate a digital bank in a cafe.

"We're taking this role seriously," Leong said. "It is an ecosystem play, leading from the SME to the bank to fintechs...This will be the trend. If you don't want to join it you will lose out."

Since PayNow Corporate was launched on 13 August 2018, close to 2,000 Maybank customers have signed up for the banking service to receive or send payments between businesses and individuals instantly with just a Unique Entity Number (UEN) or a PayNow QR Code.

Maybank and Financio shared the same booth space.

The Maybank reception counter.

Explore:

Maybank is offering the first 12 months free for Financio. The premium plan usually costs S$9.95/month.

Maybank Singapore is waiving all transaction fees on PayNow until December 2019.

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The trend towards cloud-based accounting

Xero's success with cloud-based accounting

Fintech company Xriba's Asia expansion strategy

View pictures of the show on Facebook