Having disrupted the aviation industry in Southeast Asia, AirAsia's chief executive believes that their mobile wallet is well-positioned to be the next challenger bank.
AirAsia's chief Tony Fernandes is confident of growing the adoption of its mobile wallet – BigPay – within Southeast Asia, given its dominant role in intra-regional travel.
«BigPay is our version of challenger bank, bringing low cost, transparency, and value to those who are banked and unbanked,» said Fernandes, who was speaking on Tuesday at Money 20/20 event held in Singapore.
Reducing FX Conversion Costs
As part of the AirAsia's ecosystem, BigPay aims to reduce the cost of travel for everyone, including the cost of changing foreign currencies while traveling. Hence, it has waived markups on foreign exchange, and other transactional fees charged by traditional debit and credit cards.
«It’s no different from AirAsia... we see so much similarity in fintech and low-cost carrier,» Fernandes added.
Big Funding Not Necessary
BigPay may not have the billion-dollar funding rounds enjoyed by some of its regional competitors, but the airline group chief believes that they can succeed by using the same approach and lessons used to tackle the aviation industry.
«I don’t believe it's (all) about cash... it's the product, marketing, and user acceptability,» said Fernandes, well-known for bringing the first low-cost carrier into the region.
Gaining Altitude
Currently, BigPay has 300,000 users and ranks as the fifth highest downloaded app in Malaysia. «90 percent of the spend is non-aviation related. That is a test of how successful it can be,» he added.
To expand its value proposition and gain more users, the company will tap into artificial intelligence for lending solutions, and invest in technologies that increase interoperability. Last year, AirAsia Group carried some 44 million passengers.
