The chairman of the recently merged Singapore insurer Aviva Singlife joins another firm in the city-state, this time a homegrown fintech startup.
Ray Ferguson joins capital markets-focused fintech Hashtacs (STACS) as its chairman, according to a statement, in addition to his existing role as Aviva Singlife chairman.
Ferguson also has extensive experience in the banking sector, particularly with Standard Chartered where he spent 17 years including his last role there as its Singapore chief executive.
Expansion Drive
Plans under Ferguson’s leadership include fundraising to scale the business, onboarding more strategic investors and adding industry partners to grow the ecosystem.
It has ongoing collaborations with entities like foreign stock exchange Bursa Malaysia, where it finished a blockchain-based trial for bonds, or Deutsche Bank, where it ran a strategic initiative on digital assets.
Just last week, it announced that was a portfolio company of PwC Singapore’s Venture Hub – the global professional services provider’s one-stop shop to link entrepreneurs and investors.
Green Fintech
The startup underlined commitment to sustainability, citing alignment with Singaporean policymakers, and a focus on green fintech and ESG (environmental, social, governance factors).
To this end, it will look to provide to the financial sector capabilities in smart contracts, usage of proceeds, real-time tracking and impact reporting of green assets on the distributed ledger technology (DLT) via its GreenSTACS technology.
«We are delighted to welcome Ray to the STACS team as chairman,» said Benjamin Soh, co-founder and managing director of STACS. «The market opportunity that lies before us is colossal, global, and with big sophisticated financial institutions that only accept the very best when it comes to technology and standards.»
