As e-commerce platforms elsewhere are also merging financial innovations, Standard Chartered’s move will enable digital players that lack financial capabilities to enhance their offering and potentially boost revenue. Standard Chartered is targeting a launch in 2021 in Indonesia, subject to regulatory approvals, before further rolling out the service to other markets in Asia, Africa and the Middle East.

nexus fits into a broader Banking as a Service solution which was incubated at SC Ventures, the lender’s innovation, fintech investment and ventures arm. Its origins trace to a business plan from a single employee who now heads a team of over 100 developers, engineers, and business development professionals across three markets.

The global e-commerce market has an estimated value of $29 trillion and Indonesia boasts the highest adoption rate (88 percent) in the world alongside a sizeable unbanked population. nexus will look to collaborate with digital platforms like social media or ride haling companies and has already found a partner with a major unnamed e-commerce platform for its Indonesia launch next year.

We will actively partner with leading consumer platforms in our markets to enable convenient access to financial services to millions of new, tech-savvy customers, said Bill Winters, group chief executive of Standard Chartered. We are starting with Indonesia, as part of our strategy to grow digitally and expand our business in this important, fast-growing market.