Wing Specialised Bank is trying to stay ahead of the game in the money transfer and mobile payment sector by forging new partnerships. The Post’s Ayanna Runcie sat down with Wing’s recently appointed CEO Jojo Malolos to discuss his plan for the company’s future.

What are your plans to expand Wing?

Right now, Wing is helping facilitate almost half of Cambodia’s GDP. We hope that if more people have Wing in their hands, it will be easier for the rest of the country’s industries like microfinance for example, to collect payments. In five years time we are looking to equip not only consumers, but also to cooperate with SMEs to set up a more efficient payment system. We are also in the process of making people aware of what services we offer.

With more companies entering the market, does that show room for growth?

In the last few years we’ve grown from a thousand to 4,000 agents facilitating all of our transfers. We now have competitors around like E-money, TrueMoney, and AMK. I think this is very good because the more access people have the better. There will always be value in being able to move money faster and quicker and maybe at a lower price.

What makes Wing different from the competition?

We’ve been here for some time and we think the qualities of services provided to Wing customers are uniquely different. Despite the numbers of competitors that have come in, we continue to grow as an organisation and our customer base is loyal to us. The uniqueness is that we have a footprint that is probably difficult to replicate. This isn’t just about having a large number of agents but it’s also about having agents that are active and always open. We are also taking a look at other partnerships outside of Cambodia. While we compete with local microfinance companies, a lot of them have already partnered with us. Wing has done a very good job in creating a footprint that is globally recognised as one of the most successful mobile money companies in the world. We are also looking to partner with international banks and companies. They say there are about 277 international companies here, so partnering with them to facilitate payments across borders would make sense.

How is Wing’s tax collection platform doing?

The relationship with the government here, particularly tax payment, is that we want to make tax collections more efficient. We have identified a 25-per-cent increase in tax payments as we have slowly integrated the collection system. It allows people who have tax liabilities to pay near their residence, instead of having to go to a nearby government tax office to pay their bill. So that’s the first phase. The second phase is that we are now taking a look at effectively integrating other types of tax payments besides corporate tax, such as value added tax (VAT). This has been an ongoing discussion with the government and we’re happy to be able to share our payment footprint with them.

What other new products is Wing considering offering?

Online payments using your Wing card and enhancing our payroll products and services. Eventually our objective is to have a few hundred businesses that accept the Wing card like KFC, Chatime and Major Cineplex. We also want to set up a service where customers can get a 10-per-cent discount by using their card. But our main target market is still the unbanked population, and therefore maybe they can use the account for smaller stores.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity