THIS year, market participants all over the world witnessed a fascinating phenomenon in the South Korean banking sector.
Kakao Bank, the first purely digital bank with assets that reached US$25bil (RM104bil) in as little as four years, conducted a successful initial public offering (IPO) in early August. Kakao Bank’s capitalisation value now sits at US$28bil (RM116bil) to overtake KB Financial Group Inc, a conventional financial group with a capitalisation value of US$19bil (RM79bil).
The same phenomenon was also found on the Indonesia Stock Exchange (IDX). Imagine, amid the IDX’s stagnant growth of almost 0% in 2021, several issuers instead saw their share prices skyrocket from two- to three-figure percentages in just a few short months. These issuers were generally tech companies and conventional BUKU II banks that went digital.
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