iFAST Corp, a regular winner in the Billion Dollar Club (BDC), is back again, stronger, with a clean sweep of all four awards in the technology category. The company was founded in 2000 and was known for distributing unit trusts via its online platform in its earlier years.

As it grew to a certain scale over the years, iFAST was listed in 2014, marking its 25th anniversary and as it describes, “with a renewed commitment to transforming global banking and wealth management.”

In his message as chairman in the company’s FY2024 ended Dec 31, 2024, annual report, Lim Chung Chun calls 2024 “on the whole a good year” for iFAST. In FY2024, total revenue rose 49.3% $383 million, while earnings jumped by a bigger 135.7% y-o-y to $66.6 million.

According to Lim, the increase in revenue and profit was driven by a full-year contribution from the ePension division, continuing growth in the group’s core wealth management platform business, as well as lower losses for iFAST Global Bank, its digital bank. 

For the full year, iFAST Global Bank’s losses dropped by 49.3% to $4.36 million. In a further sign of a turnaround, it was able to book a net profit of $3 million in the most recent 4QFY2024, a sharp swing from a loss of $2.57 million in the previous year. The improved showing was attributed to an increase in customer deposits, which crossed $1 billion at the end of 2024, an increase of 182.6% for the year. Its gross revenue increased 163.7% to $17.2 million in 4QFY2024.

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Lim calls iFAST Global Bank’s ability to achieve profitability less than three years after it was acquired a “major achievement”. It is a testimony to the fact that the innovative “truly global business model” that the company has been talking about is working well.  It also demonstrates the company’s ability to deploy new technology solutions rapidly, in a secure manner, and at far lower costs than most banks around the world.

iFAST is making significant gains in its core wealth management business as well. At the end of last year, its assets under administration (AUA) increased 26.2% y-o-y to a new record of $25 billion, driven by net inflows of $3.3 billion. “The scalability of our platform will be further strengthened with a profitable global digital bank at the core of our fintech ecosystem, and with ‘our truly global business model’,” says Lim.

Evidently, iFAST has much bigger ambitions. It wants iFAST Global Bank to build upon its profitable 4QFY2024 and achieve a full year of profitability in the current FY2025. Its digital banking services will continue to be enhanced to support its growth this year and beyond.

Over in Hong Kong, where iFAST is involved in running the government’s ePension Services, it will ramp up its capability and resources in this segment, as the onboarding of the ePension services continues.

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iFAST plans to offer more innovative fintech services that can complement its digital banking and wealth management platforms. These include payment-related services and a bond marketplace targeting individual investors from around the world. “We believe that businesses with a truly global business model will thrive, and will be among the most scalable and competitive,” the company adds.

And of course, it aims to be a much bigger company down the road, with a goal of achieving $100 billion in AUA by 2028–2030.