HERO — The Future of Banking in Southeast Asia

harley.kitty (25)in #banking • 7 years ago

Mission and Vision

Hero’s mission is to revolutionize the banking industry to make credit more readily available and affordable for the unbanked or underbanked starting in Southeast Asia.

Since 2015, we’ve helped thousands of Filipinos access short-term credit and that number is growing fast. As a pioneer in online lending in Southeast Asia, we have become one of the most distinguished Fintech startups to disrupt the highly entrenched, multi-billion dollar lending industry. Through our platform, we are already providing a revolutionary solution to a significant problem among the unbanked and underbanked across emerging markets. Headquartered in Singapore, we fully operate online with no branch infrastructure, allowing us to keep operating costs low and to stay focused on our customers. We are transforming lending into a frictionless, transparent, and highly efficient digital experience for Southeast Asia.

Our vision is to disrupt the current financial system that excludes 2 billion people from the banking system by leveraging technology to create a more inclusive system that allows people access to credit.

Market Overview

Southeast Asia is the world’s fastest growing Internet region. With 260 million Internet users out of a population of more than 600 million people, it is the 4th largest Internet market in the world. By 2020 Internet users in the region are expected to reach up to more than 480 million users, led by Indonesia, the world’s fastest growing Internet market. Unsurprisingly, the growth is anchored by the region’s thriving young population, with 70% of the (against China’s 57%) population comprised of those under 40.

A study made by Google and Temasek predicts that by 2025 the South East Asian Internet economy is expected to reach 200 Billion USD, strengthening its already strong and growing GDP of 2.5 Trillion USD.[3] With its mobile connection rate higher than the global average, (124% vs. 103%) and its Internet speeds expected to reach the global average of 23.3 mbps soon, the region’s Internet industry is flourishing. Furthermore, as of January 2017, social media penetration of its member countries is high. In the Philippines it stands at 58%, higher than the global average of 37% and the regional average of 47%.

Yet only 27% of the South East Asian population has a bank account. In poor countries like Cambodia the numbers fall to about 5%. That’s about 438 million people in the region unbanked.[5] The Philippines has one of the lowest banking penetration rates in Asia, with over 70% of adults (aged 15+ years) unbanked. Central bank data suggest that outside Metro Manila, the unbanked comprise more than 80% of the population, and only 3 million households have a credit card. As a result, 72% of the its more than 100 million population depend on more than 18,000 pawnshops for their cash needs.[6] With 90% of pawnshop customers in the country belonging to this unbanked population, pawnshops serve as their banks. Unlike the US, this is common for emerging markets like the Philippine.

However there’s a problem with the traditional pawnshops that the unbanked population rely upon. It is their unreasonable interest rates that can reach over 100% per year, making it impossible for people to redeem their collateral and improve their already grave financial situations. These places mainly accept jewelery as collateral, something most young people don’t have. And while there are a lot of pawnshops, most of the unbanked Filipinos spend hours on the road, “shopping around” for the best deal. Being subject to one of the worst traffic situations in the world, it can make the whole experience very expensive and inconvenient.

The lack of access to basic financial services has created major barriers for the people to overcome poverty by making it almost impossible for them to borrow or save money. This serves to deny them the most basic services and opportunities. That’s why some of them choose to work abroad, leaving their families behind as they work for the opportunities and financial liberation that developed countries offer. This is neither right nor smart, and the problem needs to be addressed. However, there is hope.

Recent data show that 56 Million Filipinos in the country are using some kind of mobile device, and 99% of these people are on the social media platform Facebook. This demonstrates that although most Filipinos might be unbanked, they are technology savvy digital natives who are ready to utilize innovative solutions that improve their lives.

Solution
“Banking is necessary, banks are not.” — Bill Gate

Uber has nothing to do with cars, but it created an entirely new transportation experience. The value of having a physical network is diminishing — especially a traditional branch network. Branch overhead and associated staff costs make up 60–65% of a total cost base for a brick-and-mortar lending company with an extensive branch network. Moreover, roughly 60–70% of employees are doing manual process-driven jobs and these inefficient processes add to the cost of running a physical network. It is more error prone and there is a

long process of human decisions involved. We believe banks tomorrow will look fundamentally different from banks today. But by the time they get there new entrants have a window of opportunity to innovate better value at lower cost, and create a better customer experience and Hero wants to be the one that leads that change.

Introducing Hero, the future of banking that provides collateralized loans to the unbanked and underbanked consumer across Southeast Asia. With the success of this token sale, Hero intends to expand into blockchain-based uncollateralized loans. Backed by venture capitalists such as Softbank and Alibaba, the organization started operating in the Philippines in 2015 and

has since helped thousands of Filipinos to obtain access to affordable credit.

Our first product was launched in 2015 and is the first fully licensed online pawnshop in Southeast Asia. PawnHero essentially turns mobile phones into pawnshops. Because we don’t maintain a physical pawnshop and leverage technology, we are able to reduce interest rates by more than one half, providing access to cheaper credit that improves livelihoods. We do not limit ourselves to jewelry but also accept among other collateral electronics, watches and handbags. Filipinos no longer need to leave the comfort of their homes in order to get a loan. In the past two years, we’ve provided loans to individuals that would have been turned away by the traditional pawnshops due to the type of collateral they pawned as well as by banks because they have no credit history. We’ve improved access to credit by using the internet and we want to scale our impact using Blockchain.

Hero Token Details
What is a Hero Origen token ?
The Hero Origen Token is built as an ERC20 token on the Ethereum blockchain and is identified through the ticker symbol HERO. A Hero Origen Token provides membership and access to the Hero Capital Market Platform. The Hero Capital Market Platform, once developed and launched, will be a Blockchain based collaborative platform to enable securitization of financial products as token issues from borrowers in Southeast Asian markets to investors globally.

Value to contributors
Holders of Hero Origen Tokens will be provided with the following perpetual benefits which will not be made available to future participants in the Hero Capital Market Platform:

Preferential access to opportunities to provide credit and equity financing to individuals and businesses in emerging markets to earn risk adjusted market returns
Pro-rata right of first offering on funding opportunities on the Hero Capital Market Platform
Up to a 20% discount from the price offered by service providers on the Hero Capital Market Platform
A premium/discount on debt/equity funded through the Hero Capital Market Platform of up to 200 basis points above the interest rate (or discount to price per share) made available to other Hero Capital Market Platform participants
After this token sale, no more Hero Origen Tokens will be issued.

Sysmbol
HERO

Total supply
250,000 Ethereum (ETH) worth of Hero Tokens (equivalent to 50,000,000 Hero Tokens). The final number of Hero tokens is defined after the end of the token sale based on amounts contributed.

Hero Token Price
1 HERO token is equal to 0.005 ETH (1 ETH will buy 200 Hero token)

Accepted cryptocurrencies
Ethereum (ETH), Bitcoin (BTC) and BitcoinCash (BCC), ETH Classic (ETC), Ripple (XRP), Litecoin (LTC), Waves (WAVES)

Presale
Monday, November 20, at 8pm (GMT+8)