In South East Asia, the financial technology industry has evolved to become more modern and responsive to the needs of consumers. A shift from physical cash payment to making payment through the net has been popularized through the emergence of apps, mobile wallets and other digitized payments. A right understanding of the booming industry will help organizations build long-lasting relationships with customers and grow their businesses beyond borders. With a passion for innovation, eGHL has set out to become a leader in internet payment solutions across the South East Asia region. Headquartered in Kuala Lumpur with key operaions in Thailand, Philippines and Indonesia, eGHL was founded in March 2013 and officially launched on 15th April 2014, as a subsidiary of eGHL Group of Companies.
eGHL has gained recognition in the market by working with various companies in different industries, allowing them reap the benefits of digital transactions. eGHL understands that consumers want the payment process to be effortless and secure thus, a seamless payment system can help drive e-commerce businesses to success. To-date, the company has built various solutions to ensure that e-commerce businesses can collect millions of transactions, from any channel their customers choose and prefer.
In the beginning, eGHL’s biggest challenge was to connect and cater to the payment preference of each country. Every country’s economic growth and technology development or trend differs, for example, in the Philippines the majority of the population prefers to pay with cash. Contrarily, online banking is popular in Malaysia and Thailand, while Indonesians prefer ATM payments and Singaporeans use credit cards extensively. Today, eGHL has evolved as a dynamic payment solutions provider and has the trust of both financial institutions and businesses across ASEAN countries. Tee Kean Kang, Group Head of eGHL said, “As of now, the regulations and the industry across South East Asia have not come to a matured stage. We have to deal with the ever-changing environment and go to the micro level of each country”.
The growth of e-commerce and online payments shall impose a great impact on the ecosystem across ASEAN landscape. In the wake of financial technology advancement in this region, a large number of businesses are already moving toward the digital model because for them, internet payment solutions open up mobiles, tablets, desktops or laptops. Businesses can set up recurring payment plans and installments as well as other features that they can select and customize their payment set-up according to their operational procedures. eGHL also offers e-mail payment link opion, where merchants can disburse automated invoices simultaneously to a group of customers and collect multiple payments. The company can process up to 48 currencies, completing the last puzzle for internet businesses to sell across borders.
“As the intermediary that stands between the banks and the merchants, eGHL’s only intention is to offer as many possible payment opions for internet businesses,” says Kean Kang. In an effort to bring more merchants into the digital fold, eGHL has become a catalyst to advance online payments platforms for non-PCI compliant merchants and allows them to host their own payment page through its feature called Optimize by eGHL. Best still, the transactions are sill processed through the PCI environment. eGHL is one of the few in the market to release this and it has been a game changer.
It is not just the solutions that motivate retailers and financial services firms to adopt digital payments, but also the human factor which responds directly to their needs. Kean Kang elaborates, “As a Fintech company, we can always deal with technology advancement and the R&D. All of these are achievable. But, we approach these by going back to the fundamentals, harmonizing human touch and technology, as the obvious gap in this market is the service level”. eGHL’s current portfolio includes airlines, cinema chain, government agencies, SMEs and startups. In 2018, it has achieved four-fold compared to Q1 in 2017 and looking to achieve another 4 fold by Q4 in 2020. “In the next 24 months we will build our own R&D centre that will not only focus on enhancements but also the development of new tools and technology,” says, Kean Kang, Group Head of eGHL. Kean Kang adds, “With the mass inlow of foreign investors into ASEAN regions, we aim to become the ASEAN payment processor – One API, all ASEAN payments channels”.
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“eGHL’s current portfolio includes airlines, cinema chain, government agencies, SMEs and startups”
“eGHL has taken steps to help consumers reduce wait-times and increase efficiency in payment operations”