A growing demand for its services in Asia has prompted Belgian
payments technology developer Clear2Pay to establish a new
South-East Asia regional headquarters in Kuala Lumpur,
Malaysia.

“Until now we serviced clients and delivered projects in the
South-East Asian region from our existing offices in Singapore and
Australia,” said Warren Gardiner, Clear2Pay general manager,
Asia-Pacific. “However, the scope and number of projects we execute
in South-East Asia have drawn us into the region.”

Expanding on the establishment of the Kuala Lumpur headquarters,
Clear2Pay’s chairman and CEO, Michel Akkermans said that while
globally the number of payments transactions is expected to record
a CAGR of 12 percent between 2004 and 2007, a CAGR of about 20
percent was expected in the Asia-Pacific region. “The vast regional
growth will involve many more payments projects at national and
regional banks,” said Akkermans.

Eleven countries are currently members of regional economic
co-operation body the Association of South-East Asian Nations. They
are Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar,
Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, East Timor and Vietnam.

Clear2Pay’s South-East Asian growth ambitions are paralleled in
China, where this year it established an office in Shenzhen with a
staff of 35, almost 15 percent of its total staff complement. It
early successes in China include the connection of French bank BNP
Paribas’s Chinese unit to the national China Advanced Payment
System for high-value payments and bulk payments
processing.