Annual Financial Report 2016

whitePaper | November 15, 2022

Carrying cards in digital form, rather than tucked away in a purse or wallet, is now commonplace. When issued with a new card, the first thing that many of us will do is upload it to our digital wallet. The physical version goes straight into a drawer. In fact we can now skip the plastic completely, and order direct an instantly useable digital card. Digitising plastic cards is fast going out of fashion.

whitePaper | September 20, 2022

Banking has historically been one of the business sectors most resistant to disruption by technology. Since the first mortgage was issued in England in the 11th century, banks have built robust businesses with multiple moats: ubiquitous distribution through branches; unique expertise such as credit underwriting underpinned by both data and judgment; even the special status of being regulated institutions that supply credit, the lifeblood of economic growth, and have sovereign insurance for their liabilities (deposits). Moreover, consumer inertia in financial services is high. Consumers have generally been slow to change financial-services providers. Particularly in developed markets, consumers have historically gravitated toward the established and enduring brands in banking and insurance that were seen as bulwarks of stability even in times of turbulence.

whitePaper | January 20, 2020

Over the past year we have seen a number of groundbreaking announcements from central banks around the world exploring the issuance of central bank digital currencies (CBDC). In this paper we provide an overview of the potential and risks of CBDC, as well as an example of how a CBDC could be designed and built on the Ethereum blockchain. The intention is to give the reader not just a good background to this important topic, but also – by means of a concrete proposal – a practical look at what the implementation of a CBDC might entail.

whitePaper | June 21, 2022

Data from various providers and academics analysing private equity returns show, that PE outperforms public markets throughout the business cycle, and Internal Rates of Return (IRR) pick up following recessions, as most recently observed following the 2000-1 Dotcom Bust and the 2007-8 Global Financial Crisis (GFC).

whitePaper | March 30, 2022

Sustainability has, in recent years, become more intrinsically linked to the financial performance of a business as consumers have steadily changed their purchasing decisions based more on environmental and social factors. Four out of five Singaporeans said they cared about the environment while half of those polled said carbon emissions and climate change were their top concerns. Importantly, 41 per cent said they were largely motivated by sustainability features when making purchasing decisions. This can have a significant impact on the bottom line for organizations that fail to keep pace with the evolving market and invest in more sustainable and environmentally friendly practices.

whitePaper | January 23, 2023

Accounts payable (AP) leaders know that paying suppliers with paper checks is costly. But transaction costs tell only part of the story. The costs associated with manually executing payments can significantly change the equation. Whether it’s time spent processing checks and ACH transactions, reconciling payments, or fielding inquiries from suppliers, these manual, repetitive tasks can have a major impact on AP business outcomes.