SC Ventures, the innovation, fintech investment and ventures arm of Standard Chartered, has launched a new digital banking technology solution provider called audax. The solution is designed to help banks and financial institutions accelerate their digital transformation, deliver new business models, serve new customer segments and derive new revenue streams.
What is audax and how does it work?
audax is an end-to-end digital banking platform with modularised capabilities that are designed to efficiently handle millions of customer data concurrently. Its plug-and-play solution serves the entire client lifecycle, from client and staff interfaces, to deposits and lending products, to client servicing and data reporting.
Built to complement incumbent banks’ core systems, audax’s infrastructure-agnostic technology also enables banks to pursue modern digital transformation without the need for costly and time-consuming in-house development or migration.
audax is powered by advanced automation, artificial intelligence, biometric facial recognition and other security technologies that enable fast and seamless customer verification and onboarding.
What are the use cases of audax?
audax can help incumbent banks in two distinct use cases: Digital Banking and Banking-as-a-Service (BaaS).
Digital Banking refers to the provision of banking services through digital channels, such as mobile apps, web portals or chatbots. audax can help banks create and launch their own digital banking offerings, or enhance their existing ones, with minimal disruption to their core systems.
BaaS refers to the provision of banking services through third-party platforms, such as e-commerce sites, social media platforms or fintech apps. audax can help banks partner with large ecosystem players and offer their banking products and services to their customers, without requiring them to open a separate bank account.
What are the benefits of audax?
audax can help banks and financial institutions achieve the following benefits:
- Compete in the digital age: audax can help banks keep up with the changing customer expectations and preferences, as well as the rising competition from fintechs and neobanks. By offering a modern, convenient and personalised digital banking experience, audax can help banks attract and retain customers, increase loyalty and satisfaction, and reduce churn.
- Pursue new digital business models: audax can help banks explore new opportunities and revenue streams in the digital economy, by enabling them to offer BaaS to large ecosystem players. By leveraging the existing customer base, brand recognition and trust of these platforms, audax can help banks acquire new-to-bank customers at a fraction of traditional customer acquisition costs.
- Complement existing core systems: audax can help banks modernise their legacy systems without risking their existing estate. By integrating with the core systems through APIs, audax can provide a layer of digital capabilities that can enhance the functionality, performance and scalability of the core systems.
What are some examples of audax’s success stories?
audax has already proven its capabilities and value proposition by powering Standard Chartered nexus (SC nexus), a white-label plug-and-play BaaS offering for large ecosystem players. Through SC nexus, Standard Chartered Bank was the first global bank to provide BaaS in Asia.
One of the successful partnerships that SC nexus has established is with Bukalapak, an Indonesian all-commerce platform. Using audax’s technology, SC nexus enabled BukaTabungan, a digital savings account that allows Bukalapak’s customers to open an account in as fast as two minutes, without visiting a physical branch or speaking to a banker.
Another partnership that SC nexus has forged is with Mox Bank, a virtual bank in Hong Kong that is backed by Standard Chartered Bank. Using audax’s technology, SC nexus enabled Mox Bank to offer its customers a fully digital banking experience, with features such as instant account opening, card activation and spending insights.
What are the future plans of audax?
audax is focused on accelerating the technology ecosystem starting with the APAC region. Its current mission is to empower banks and financial institutions to scale and modernise at speed with audax’s digital banking capabilities.
Kelvin Tan, the former Managing Director and Global Head of SC nexus, will lead audax as its CEO, together with most of his incumbent team. He said: “The meaning of audax is ‘courage’ – and that is exactly the defining characteristic of the team we’ve built and needed for what we are about to achieve. We are excited to push the frontiers of what is considered possible.”
He added: “audax has showcased the potential of BaaS and how it has scaled the digital business for Standard Chartered, enabling them to acquire new-to-bank customers at a fraction of traditional customer acquisition costs. We are now ready to scale it for other banks and financial institutions globally, helping everyone create better value for their business without risking their existing estate.”
