- Corporates, plus VC firm Nexea reveal methods to expand across ASEAN
- Established financial institutions tackle regulatory hurdles with tech & partnerships
Six years ago, CIMB Bank ignored the conventional playbook when it entered the Philippines. Instead of targeting corporate clients through traditional wholesale banking, it launched a digital-first approach, teaming up with the country’s top e-wallet, GCash. This approach helped the bank gain nearly 10 million customers and redefined what regional expansion in Southeast Asia can look like.
ASEAN presents a labyrinth of regulatory frameworks, varying market maturity levels, and distinct consumer behaviours that defy one-size-fits-all strategies. At the recent Myfintech Week 2025 in Kuala Lumpur, leaders from CIMB Bank, Ant International, Visa Inc, Nexea Ventures, and the Fintech Association of Malaysia (FAOM), during a press conference, outlined three distinct yet complementary models that financial institutions are using to scale across Southeast Asia’s complex regulatory landscape.
Rethinking regional growth through digital-first banking
CIMB took a hybrid approach to regional growth. “We are very much an ASEAN-based bank,” said Gurdip Singh Sidhu, CIMB’s Country Head Malaysia and Group Head of Digital Business. “Regionalisation for us means having both physical presence in multiple markets and cross-border digital operations.”
Today, CIMB serves over 50 million ASEAN customers, offering competitive payments, deposits, and personal loans—all without relying on the traditional bank branch.
Gurdip described CIMB’s regional thinking as two-pronged: “One is expanding physically into different countries. The other is operating cross-border through digital means.” In the Philippines, CIMB exemplified this by identifying a low-banking-penetration market with high mobile wallet usage—an opportunity to leapfrog traditional banking models.
“The big picture was clear—go where the customers already are, and integrate banking into their daily financial habits,” said Gurdip. “That meant leveraging the local e-wallet ecosystem before building our own tech stack.”
The platform advantage: How Ant International and Visa Inc use Malaysia to scale ASEAN
Global players like Ant International and Visa Inc are betting on Malaysia as their ASEAN operations hub. Jake Xue, Ant International’s General Manager of Global Business Services, said, “Malaysia is our regional innovation and operations centre. From here, we deliver cross-border payments, digital finance, and AI-powered services for SMEs.”
Ant International has built a significant footprint in Malaysia, employing 800 staff—with over 90% being local talent—dedicated to technology development and innovation. According to Xue, the company plans to grow this to 1,000 as it deepens its regional role. Collaborations with CIMB, PayNet, and AirAsia Move highlight a deliberate strategy to embed Ant International within Malaysia’s fintech ecosystem. This positions the country not just as a regional operations centre, but as a springboard for scaling innovative financial services across ASEAN.
Visa Inc takes a similar platform approach, positioning itself as an enabler of digital finance across underserved segments. “Visa as a Service” is their answer to bridging financial access gaps, especially in markets where traditional banking services fall short. “Our goal is to drive digital payments where traditional finance has left gaps,” said Kim Hak, Head of Products and Solutions for Regional Southeast Asia.
Visa said it works with fintechs, banks, and government stakeholders to integrate Visa’s payment infrastructure into new digital ecosystems—from mobile wallets to embedded finance solutions. By leveraging Malaysia as a strategic base, Visa is expanding its footprint in ASEAN through tailored innovations, including SME payment tools and cross-border transaction capabilities.
The start-up multiplier: How Nexea scales innovation through corporate alliances
VC firm Nexea illustrates a third strategy: enabling startups to scale through corporate partnerships. Ben Lim, co-founder and CEO explained, “Startups grow exponentially when they partner with giants. These alliances provide credibility, due diligence, and early revenue.”
For example, Lapasar—a B2B e-commerce platform that acts as a digital “supermarket” for small retailers—achieved 1,600% growth in a single year after partnering with a major Malaysian corporate client. “Corporate partnerships mean a lot—they provide credibility, due diligence validation, and huge revenue boosts in early stages,” said Ben.
ParkIt, a digital platform and app that connects drivers looking for parking with people or businesses who have unused parking spaces, partnered with Alliance Bank to integrate insurance into its services—enabling users to purchase coverage seamlessly alongside parking bookings. This collaboration not only enhanced customer value but also expanded ParkIt’s revenue streams through embedded financial services, said Ben.
Compliance in motion: Navigating ASEAN’s regulatory maze
As Malaysian financial institutions pursue regional growth, navigating ASEAN’s patchwork of financial regulations remains a central challenge. For large players like CIMB, internal agility has become a strategic advantage. “Our Octo platform is a good example,” said Gurdip, referring to CIMB’s in-house digital banking system. “We use agile squads—compliance, tech, and design experts working together—to solve problems quickly and stay ahead of regulatory changes.”
Yet for many fintechs, other hurdles like availability of capital and costly compliance processes remain. “The limited pools of capital in Malaysia are not going to push our fintechs to that next step,” noted Anil Singh Gill, President of FAOM. “From an association point of view, what we do have is a regional network and alliances across countries like Sri Lanka and India, where we can actually push our fintechs through and make it easier for them to scale regionally.”
Anil, who is also the chief sustainability officer at Silverlake Axis Ltd, a Kuala Lumpur founded, Singapore-listed solutions provider for the banking, retail, insurance and logistics sectors, said the FAOM is trying its best to help. “We see our regional network as a bridge for Malaysian fintechs. By tapping into partnerships across 15 countries, we can help them enter new markets at almost zero cost and with much less risk.”
He also highlighted recent technological advances that ease regulatory burdens. “Today, fintechs can use tools that make compliance much easier across countries—almost like copy-pasting it,” he said. “This wasn’t possible just a few years ago.”
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by PostX News and is published from a syndicated feed.)
