Swiss fintech provider for structured investments and pension products, Leonteq has partnered with Singapore's Economic Development Board (EDB) to launch its Teqlabs innovation lab facility in the city's central business district. Leonteq's Teqlabs will promote its fintech research and development for the benefit of the financial services sector.
The new partnership intends to foster and grow by drawing talent from Singapore's fintech university ecosystem with the support of EDB. Under the agreement Leonteq will be able to add graduates of Singapore's universities such as the National University of Singapore (NUS) or Nanyang Technology University (NTU), two globally recognized universities, to its Singapore-based team and to further add the brightest IT developers locally.
"Teqlabs is a next step in our digital fintech roadmap for us as a firm and our clients," said Frank Troise (pictured), head of digital distribution for Leonteq Asia, in a statement. "The exceptional efforts made by the EDB and The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) have made it clear that Singapore will drive fintech innovation regionally and worldwide."
Kiren Kumar, executive director, infocomms and media, Singapore Economic Development Board pointed that Leonteq's growth and the establishment of Teqlabs in the country "is a testament to our efforts in building frontier digital skillsets, such as software development, data analytics and user experience design".
"These skillsets are crucial for positioning Singapore as a Smart Financial centre", said Kumar in a statement. "This move is aligned with Singapore's push to build capabilities in creating digital products, services and experiences which will improve the competitiveness of key sectors and at the same time, provide exciting frontier digital job opportunities for Singaporeans."
Leonteq's Teqlabs will focus on driving innovation for its clients through pension solutions, risk management, big data analytics, API integrations, artificial intelligence, and portfolio management solutions. In addition, any proprietary technology developed by Leonteq will be available for the firm's clients globally.
"As a global fintech firm, we are investing in Asia, and in particular in Singapore, to foster our fintech research and development capabilities for future innovations. The partnership with EDB is allowing us to implement this strategy with the best human capital resources from Singapore's top universities," said Jan Schoch, CEO of Leonteq, in a statement.
The launch follows a number of recent Leonteq hires in the Asia Pacific region where the Swiss firm has been pushing digital distribution. In early April, Leonteq hired Frank Troise as managing director and head of digital distribution for Asia, in a newly created role aimed at pushing the firm's digital and fintech offering in the region "via new product and service offerings to clients and prospects alike". Troise reports to Jeremy Ng who became new chief executive of Leonteq Securities (Singapore) replacing David Schmid, who was appointed head of sales in February charged with leading the firm's sales force globally and relocated to Switzerland.
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