TESS International uses Asean expansion as launch pad for growth
Liew and Ong founded TESS in 2000, leveraging decades of experience in investment banking and financial technology
TESS International foresees rapid growth over the next few years as local banks harmonise their know-your-customer compliance processes, automated regulatory reporting and communications monitoring with global standards. It is expanding aggressively in the Asean region, and is taking steps to extend its reach and capture the markets of North Asia and the Middle East.
“The world is our market now,” says Liew Boon Yen, CEO and co-founder of the financial crime solutions provider.
TESS has a strong presence in Asean, where it is renowned for fast deployment of anti-money-laundering (AML) and anti-fraud solutions that keep banks in step with regulatory protocols for fraud detection.
“Our platform is developed for speedy implementation,” says Peter Ong, chief technology officer and co-founder.
Liew and Ong founded TESS in 2000, leveraging decades of experience in investment banking and financial technology. The firm carved out a niche in AML compliance by providing flexibility to customers in configuring software to meet specific needs.
“We don’t mind taking the extra mile to help solve our customers’ pain points. All customers also enjoy the benefit of new features built into the solutions,” Liew says.
Earlier this year, TESS opened offices in Hong Kong and Singapore. It will have two research and development teams – one based at the Hong Kong Science Park and another in Malaysia – in order to tune into the market needs of mainland China, Hong Kong, Taiwan and Southeast Asia. The firm’s Hong Kong office also covers Dubai and the rest of the Middle Eastern market.
TESS is also actively seeking a local partner in Indonesia that is hungry for growth and can aggressively deploy the firm’s solutions to local banks’ compliance challenges.
“We understand the banking language. That’s why when we talk to banks, we can gauge which area needs to be addressed, and this is the value-add we have compared to our competitors,” Liew says.
