KUALA LUMPUR: Aeon Credit Service (M) Bhd has signed a collaboration agreement with online gold platform HelloGold Sdn Bhd to market and offer its customers an asset-backed personal financing product.

“With HelloGold, Aoen Credit will have the opportunity to develop and be part of Malaysia’s first digital asset-backed lending product,” Aeon Credit managing director Kenji Fujita said at the signing ceremony yesterday.

“In addition, this move will increase the company’s existing product base for a new generation of consumers.”

Asset-backed financing typically provides collateralised credit facilities to borrowers with high financial leverage and marginal cash flows.

According to its 2016 annual report, Aeon Credit has more than four million card members. Its services include credit card issuance, easy payment schemes, personal finance schemes, and insurance.

Under the agreement, Fujita said, the non-bank lender will provide financing to interested customers at a competitive rate, adding they will be eligible for personal financing up to gold collateral value with a minimum of RM1,500 purchase in gold on the platform.

HelloGold CEO Robin Lee said the partnership would provide consumers access to better savings products through investment-grade gold and to more affordable financing by using their investment-grade product as collateral for loan applications.

“Our product is designed so that everyone can buy gold in a safe, accessible and affordable way. Our customers can buy and sell their gold anytime, through our mobile apps on their smartphones.

“And they don’t pay up to 20% premiums to buy gold as they would if they buy physical gold from a shop. All this in a syariah-compliant way too,” he added, noting the platform focuses on consumers from the middle income bracket.

Lee said after the company completes its product rollout in Malaysia, it plans to enter other key Asian markets such as China, Indonesia, the Philippines and Thailand.

Founded in 2015, home-based HelloGold is the first syariah-compliant mobile-based digital platform where users can purchase investment grade gold at current market price from as low as RM1.

The HelloGold app, which was launched in Malaysia three months ago, can be downloaded for free on Google Play and Apple App Store. The app currently has over 1,000 downloads.