Singapore-based Oversea-Chinese Banking Corp (OCBC) has teamed up with the Australia & New Zealand Banking Group (ANZ) to launch an Internet bank targeting the region's rich.
The partners plan to invest US$100 million over three years to set up the yet-to-be-named Internet bank, and will bring in as a service provider Hong Kong financial portal and online broker, Boom.com.
OCBC vice-chairman and chief executive Alex Au said the venture would 'bring together a full suite of products and services which will meet the needs of increasingly sophisticated wired customers'. The joint-venture Internet bank will operate as a standalone business, based in Singapore. The bank - expected to be profitable within two years of its launch - is targeting the 40 million affluent Internet users expected in Asia by 2005.
Its launch is at the end of the year. The partners are planning ongoing equity investment to bring the service to the market.
'The joint venture will make selective strategic equity investments in a range of partner companies involved in e-financial services, online content provision, and other Internet-based services,' they said.
Boom Securities, in which ANZ last month took a 10 per cent stake for US$8 million, was the first of these alliances.
Salomon Smith Barney banking analyst Raymond Lee yesterday said the move meant OCBC - which earlier this year said it planned to spend S$1 billion (about HK4.47 billion) on e-commerce initiatives - had now opened three fronts on the Internet.