<article>Malaysia&#8217;s Axiata and Singapore&#8217;s SingTel have inked a partnership to drive cross border payments while UOB and OctoRocket have partnered to cater to SME financing needs.</article>

Malaysia&#8217;s Axiata and Singapore&#8217;s SingTel have inked a partnership to drive cross border payments while UOB and OctoRocket have partnered to cater to SME financing needs.
<h3>Axiata,  SingTel partner to drive cross border payments</h3>
Malaysia&#8217;s Axiata Digital and Singapore&#8217;s SingTel Group are joining hands to drive cross border payments between their networks. Axiata Digital is the digital arm of Malaysian telco giant Axiata Group.
The two companies are looking to grow their user bases and merchant networks and will also pursue rewards and loyalty programmes together. Axiata Digital will also join VIA alliance, which SingTel launched with Thai telco AIS and Kasikornbank to promote regional e-payments.
The partnership will add Boost Malaysia&#8217;s 3.7 million customers and over 66,000 merchant points to the alliance. Boost Malaysia is Axiata&#8217;s mobile wallet.
According to a Business Times report, SingTel has previously said that it plans to roll out VIA across regional associates in Thailand, India, the Philippines and Indonesia. It had also named the e-wallet from China&#8217;s Ping An Insurance Group as a potential non-telco partner.
<h3>UOB, OctoRocket partner for SME financing</h3>
Singapore&#8217;s United Overseas Bank (UOB) is partnering B2B e-commerce platform OctoRocket to cater to SME financing needs.
The partnership promises to cut down loan approval time from 2.5 days to 15 minutes for clients. SMEs typically also need to submit two years&#8217; worth of financial statements and six months&#8217; worth of bank statements for approvals. The partnership promises to cut this down by tapping on AI technology which will analyse and assess the creditworthiness of these companies more efficiently.
Lawrence Loh, Head of Group Business Banking, UOB said: “Small businesses, which comprise nearly 99 per cent of total enterprises in ASEAN, form the backbone of the region’s economy. Given the important role they play in the economy, we want to help them drive efficiencies to grow their business effectively. Helping them save time for optimal use is one way.&#8221;
OctoRocket is a joint venture by Singapore Press Holdings and Y3 Technologies. It focuses on driving cross-border trade between suppliers and buyers in ASEAN. OctoRocket currently supports 30 packaged food suppliers from Singapore, Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand and Vietnam.
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Malaysia's Axiata and Singapore's Singtel ink partnership to drive cross border payments, while UOB and OctoRocket partner on SME financing.

Singapore Digest: SingTel, Axiata Digital team up; UOB, OctoRocket in pact

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Singapore Digest: SingTel, Axiata Digital team up; UOB, OctoRocket in pact

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