6 minute read
In Focus Interview: Raymond Ng, CEO, Revolut
― By Lucy Haydon, Editor
Your background, prior to Revolut, is in the technology sector and more recently payment services. What advice would you give to young professionals or graduates looking to make their mark in these industries?
In my career I’ve always been involved in fintech, firstly in large enterprises and latterly in the startup space, both early and late-stage companies. The industry is innovative by nature, identifying gaps in the user experience in traditional finance and making improvements. I’ve been based in Hong Kong, China and Singapore, holding both national and regional roles, providing a background which has helped me to grow and learn quickly – what works in one market may not work in another. For example, Europe is a predominantly debit card market, whereas in Singapore the norm is to use credit cards and being credit worthy is a status symbol.
For young professionals, I would recommend three things for this industry. Firstly, you need to be curious and hungry to create change and value for customers, otherwise you will not be creating something new or improving their existing experience through small iterations. Secondly, start young where you can learn new skills rapidly. Through apps like Revolut, you can learn how to manage finances through budgeting and analytics and even the basics of investing through our Learn features and even through investing with as little as US$1.
Lastly, read! Change happens constantly and you must constantly be building on your existing knowledge and be aware of the latest trends around the world to make better decisions and create innovative products. Think global, act local.
You’ve recently launched Revolut’s Instant Card Transfer service, striving towards making money simple for your customers. What’s coming up next in the company’s plans for Singapore and/or the region in the short and medium term?
Revolut is highly customer-centric and focuses on value, developing products and services to provide a platform customers can use throughout the day to help manage their money. We listen to our customers on product development in each market, for instance teaching children the basics of financial literacy through the Revolut <18 account, or continually looking to add to our existing 33 foreign currency wallets to meet the demands of our frequently travelling customers or remittances for those working outside of their home country.
By staying true to this approach, we have seen a very encouraging response from customers. Since our launch in 2019, we have seen our sign-ups increase by approximately 2X year-on-year. We are also seeing an increase in the usage of our app. The number of transactions on Revolut Singapore has doubled in October 2023 compared to a year ago. The payments that Revolut Singapore facilitates on a monthly basis has also grown by over 50% in October 2023 compared to a year ago.
We are data-driven, and ceaselessly looking to innovate and enhance the user experience. With the release of many recent products, we now look in depth at how they are used and can make incremental changes to optimise the experience for our customer’s needs and preferences. For example, in Singapore, we are integrated with Singpass so that we can provide a quick and seamless account opening experience for our customers. Today, a new customer can complete the sign-up process in less than two minutes. Across our markets, it takes just 24 clicks or less to create a Revolut account.
In the medium to long-term we are reviewing business products to support SMEs, listening to our customers who need support in multiple markets. This is our way of helping organisations be successful in this part of the world.
What are some key challenges you anticipate as you strive to make Revolut a superapp in Singapore?
In the UK and Europe, we are already considered a superapp, but not yet in Singapore. In order to reach this status we need to develop a focused suite of more products and services, working with the financial regulators to obtain the relevant licenses and working with partners to develop the services. We have established partners in the UK and hope to extend the reach of these relationships here in Singapore, supporting the British community in Singapore.
What are your views on the competition you face here, and how does Revolut stand out?
This is a competitive market for fintech, with Singapore being a priority for APAC expansion. Our competitors include not only those in the fintech sector but also the digital banks in Singapore. Interestingly, these banks are not only competitors but also collaborators, who we can both work with, and learn from.
Not many players in this market have the same aspiration to be a financial super app, choosing to focus on one or two key services which they deliver well. This is how we are differentiating ourselves. We are building the world’s first global financial superapp - an easy-to-use and safe one-stop shop for all things money that will help our customers save time and get more from their money every day. We have the necessary licenses to offer a wider variety of services and will double-down on this in the coming years.
Competition will always be there. To stand out you must move faster, innovate better, listen to your customers, remain relevant and create value.
Additionally, it is important to create a personalised product. Thishelps to humanise technology products such as ours and enables us to differentiate from our competitors. Through our recently launched version, Revolut 10, users can change their app’s theme, customise their homepage with widgets for the features they use the most, and choose custom backgrounds and wallpapers - they can switch up their account’s style to fit their mood and personality.
We also release unique products such as our recent Diversity card in recognition of diversity and inclusion and are continuously stepping up our local community efforts as an organisation.
As a leader, what keeps you up at night in the current business climate?
Firstly, how to stay relevant to the market. There is no one-size-fits-all approach when you are servicing multiple markets. Secondly, how to create value for our customers.
Finally, how to protect our customers’ money. Especially amidst the landscape of increased fraud and scams, which is particularly prevalent in Singapore but is also a global problem. We have implemented robust security controls and have been delivering a lot of education to our customers on being vigilant to scammers and fraudsters. For example, educating them on using our single-use disposable virtual cards . Revolut’s single-use virtual disposable cards can be used at physical stores as well as to shop online - once paid, the card details are deleted so that they can’t be skimmed or re-used by criminals. This allows users to use their card for one-off transactions as well as protects them from online sites they aren’t quite sure of. Users can generate up to 5 cards a day.
