Tue, July 23, 2013: iMoney, a Malaysia-based financial comparison company today announced the launch of its sites for Hong Kong (www.bestmoney.hk) and Thailand (www.imoneythailand.com). With the expansion, iMoney expects to generate more than USD1 billion in business for banks and insurance companies in South East Asia within 2013.
Currently, iMoney offers free comparisons of financial product such as mortgages, loans and credit cards in six countries such as Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, Philippines, Hong Kong and Thailand.
At the same time, the company also announced the appointment of co-founder Kai Kux as its Group COO. Kai has an extensive background in investment banking, having most recently worked in the M&A division of JP Morgan. With his analytical background and experience in project management, Kai will play a pivotal role in managing the Group’s regional expansion.
“We have reasons to be optimistic because conditions remain favourable for our niche sector,” said Ching Wei Lee, co-founder of iMoney. “In Thailand, for example, it is our understanding that there are now over 20 million Internet users in a market where loan growth is expected to top 13% this year, which bodes well for a business like iMoney that is reliant on the growth in Internet adoption as well as growth of the financial sector.”
“Meantime, Hong Kong has more than 5 million Internet users and had just experienced growths of 9.6% for loans and 9.3% for deposits within 2012,” Ching added. “The high internet penetration rate and the resiliency of the local banking sector are important factors that will power iMoney’s operations within the territory.”
Furthermore, iMoney sees the emergence of financial comparison websites as natural progression in consumer behaviors stemming from the availability of the Internet.
“With consumers becoming more net-savvy and sophisticated in Asia, we believe more people are going to rely on impartial financial sites like iMoney, which empower them to make better-informed decisions with their money based on updated, unbiased data,” Ching said.
“In Europe, financial comparison sites such as Money Supermarket are already a mainstay on the Internet, and to a certain extent, we’re already seeing the same trend in Malaysia and Singapore,” he added. “We believe it’s only a matter of time before this becomes a fully-embraced concept throughout Asia.”
