Welcome to iFAST Corporation's Fourth Quarter 2025 and Full Year 2025 Results Presentation. My name is JP from the Corporate Communications team, and together with us, we have, Chung Chun, our Group CEO, Terence, our Group CFO, as well as members from our iFAST Finance and, Corporate Communications teams. I'll start with a key summary. So in FY 2025, the group saw some major milestones as total revenue crossed SGD 500 million for the first time. So that's up 34.4% year-on-year to SGD 514.72 million, and our net profit hit SGD 100.01 million, which is a 50.1% year-on-year increase.
In fourth quarter of 2025, total revenue for the group grew 45.7% year-on-year to SGD 151.74 million, and net profit for the group grew 70.4% year-on-year to SGD 32.86 million. The increase in 2025 profitability was driven by growth in the Hong Kong ePension business, continuing growth in our core wealth management platform business, as well as the achievement of a first full year of profitability for the iFAST Global Bank. For the group's core wealth management platform business, our group assets under administration or AUA increased 27.9% year-on-year to a new record high of SGD 31.98 billion. Growth was seen in all the various markets that we operate in, with Singapore continuing to be the main contributor.
Our group net inflows was at a record SGD 4.72 billion in FY 2025. The group's return on equity in 2025 was a robust 28.3%. A healthy ROE allows the group to be able to pursue robust long-term growth strategies while being able to raise dividend payouts. The board of directors is proposing a dividend of SGD 0.025 per ordinary share, which is 56.3% higher for the fourth quarter and final dividend of FY 2025. With that, total dividends for FY 2025 amounted to SGD 0.084 per ordinary share, which is 42.4% higher compared to FY 2024. Looking forward and barring unforeseen circumstances, the group expects 2026 to see healthy growth rates in revenues and profitability.
As a global digital banking and wealth management platform, the group is increasingly looking to make progress with a truly global business model, which means attracting customers from around the world while operating only from a few key markets. Of critical significance will be the group's ability to leverage on our presence in Singapore, London and Hong Kong, which are three of the top financial centers in the world. Our B2C division, which is called FSM One in Singapore and Hong Kong, will be repositioned as FSM Global as part of this truly global business model. The group is targeting to achieve an AUA of SGD 100 billion by 2030. This implies a compound annual growth rate or CAGR of about 25.6% or higher over the next five years.
For the overall Hong Kong business, which includes both the wealth management side and the ePension business, the group is targeting double-digit growth in revenues and profitability in 2026. The ORSO pension administration business is expected to start contributing in second half 2026, while the Macau ePension business is expected to show substantial growth. iFAST Global Bank will be building on its milestone of a first full year of profitability in 2025 and targets to continue to see robust growth rates in 2026 and beyond. For FY 2026, the board of directors expects to propose a total dividend of SGD 0.105 per share or higher, which is at least 25% higher compared to FY 2025.
Our group AUA, slide, as you can see, going well, so it increased 27.9% year-on-year to a record high level of SGD 31.98 billion as at 31st December 2025. That's also 4.2% higher Q-on-Q, and it's, comprising about roughly 65% in, the B2B division and the remaining 35% from the B2C division. On the next slide, the AUA breakdown, by markets and products. So Singapore remaining, the largest contributor in terms of, contribution by market at 17.3%, followed by Hong Kong and Malaysia at roughly about 11% each, and others at 7.2%, which is made up of China and the U.K. AUA breakdown by products.
Unit trust still remains the largest contributor at 56.2%, followed by stocks and ETFs, which is at 24.1%, bonds at 11%, and cash account and deposits at 8.6%. I'll move on to the section one, which covers the financial results. Firstly, starting with the fourth quarter numbers. In fourth Q 2025, total revenue was at SGD 151.74 million, which is 45.7% higher year-on-year. Net revenue was at SGD 102.35 million, which is 57.7% higher year-on-year. Operating expenses was at SGD 64.69 million in fourth Q 2025, which is 58.2% higher year-on-year.
Net profit at SGD 32.86 million in Q4 2025, which is up 17.4% year-on-year. For the full year results, FY 2025 versus FY 2024. So, total revenue at SGD 514.72 million, which is 34.4% higher year-on-year. Net revenue was at SGD 339.65 million in FY 2025, which is 36.7% higher year-on-year. OpEx was at SGD 220.7 million, which is 33.2% higher compared to FY 2024. Net profit for FY 2025 was at SGD 100.01 million, which is 50.1% higher year-on-year. The results overview for the group on the next slide for the last five financial years.
Looking at the PBT margin for the group, the profit before tax margin based on total net revenue, so for 2025, it was at 34.8%. Return on equity is at a record high based on the annualized return on equity rate since listing at 28.3% for 2025. Looking at the P&L based on the different markets. So, firstly, for 4Q 2025, Singapore was up 40.5% year-on-year in the quarter at SGD 14.22 million. Hong Kong, 53% up year-on-year to SGD 20.11 million. And also the other trend which has continued is the U.K. banking operation, which registered its fifth consecutive quarter of profits at SGD 1.1 million for 4Q 2025.
China's losses have been narrowing, and in fourth Q 2025, that's actually narrowed by 19% to SGD 88 million. I won't go through the FY 2025 comparison on the P&L basis. On the next slide, you can see the P&L breakdown for the last five financial years. The next couple of slides shows you the gross revenue, firstly, at the geographical breakdown level for the last five financial years, and the net revenue level on the next slide. Again, for the various markets for the last five financial years. I'll wrap up with the dividend information.
So as mentioned just now, the board of directors is proposing a dividend of SGD 0.025 per ordinary share, for the last quarter or the final dividend of FY 2025. That will be subject to approval by shareholders at the company's annual general meeting, which will be held on 24th of April, 2026. So the proposed final dividend, if approved, brings the total dividend for FY 2025 to SGD 0.084 per ordinary share, which is higher than the SGD 0.059 in 2024. The next slide shows you graphically how the trend had been going on for the dividends.
The key point here is also for FY 2026, the board of directors expects to propose a total dividend of SGD 0.105 per share or higher, which is at least 25% higher compared to FY 2025. I'll now invite Chung Chun to carry on for the business update. Chung Chun?
Hey, everyone. Yeah, I'll give some update on some achievement for the year, as well as some forward plans for the group. Yeah, the first part really is just to highlight a few of the key achievement that we've made for the year. Firstly, of course, AUA hit a total record high. We, in 2025, we actually have a growth being seen in AUA, in all the markets that we're actually in. Singapore continues to be a strong performer. It is the business division that we-- the country that we started with, but it continues to be in a position where we are able to continue to see a lot of growth.
And in fact, we see that, going forward, there are a lot more opportunity that we can actually capture. Yeah, some of the numbers I won't run through in detail. I think you can see, the numbers and charts are self-explanatory. Looks like, we saw net inflow trend. You can see, the overall trend has been growing over the years. Net inflow number on a quarterly basis may also some, but overall, you can see that, trend has been positive. This one will be the gross unit trust subscription that we actually have. Unit trusts continue to be our core product as a investment platform. So for the Hong Kong business, we previously gave some guidance about, what's expected for Hong Kong, and, the last time we, updated our guidance was in April 2025.
Back then, we guided that gross revenue would be, you know, HKD 2 billion or more, and PBT would be HKD 380 million or more. So the actual results, the gross revenue is about there. The PBT is slightly higher than our targeted guidance. So we ended 2025 with HKD 402 million in terms of a PBT for Hong Kong business as a whole. 2026, we continue to, yeah, expect some growth, and we are targeting double-digit growth.
So in the last couple of years, we have tended to give more detailed guidance for different part, and the reason for that was because of the fact that the Hong Kong ePension divisions is new and is a substantial project, so we wanted to give investors a better feel of roughly what to expect. Now the project is the onboarding has substantially been being completed towards the end. So going forward, expect that, you know, it'll be further growth, but we are not giving exact guidance here, but just at this point in time to in a sense indicate that we expect the growth to continue. Next page. iFAST Global Bank, that's a bank that we acquired in March 2022.
So, we had three years of losses initially as we build out the services, as we work through the changes following the acquisition and so on. In the meantime, it's been progressing well. 2025 is a year where we see the first full year of profitability. In SGD, it's about SGD 3.1 million in pre-tax profit for the bank. So we want to build on this achievement that we have made and, we're aiming for something far more interesting in the years ahead. Thanks. So, at the beginning of each fiscal year, in the last few years, we have been giving our three-year plan.
So right now, at the beginning of 2026, we're giving an updated three-year plan for the group. Right? So the, basically, we're summarizing the five main point here. The first point really is that, yeah, we are a digital, a global digital banking and wealth management platform, and what we'd like to be able to do is to be able to make more substantial progress with what we call a truly global business model. I think this is a term that we have actually been using the last couple of years. Each time I try to explain a bit more what we are, you know, basically, you know, envisioning. Yeah, just so that investors can understand our strategy better.
I'll elaborate a bit more on, on this, later on. Second point would be the group target AUA. We are targeting SGD 100 billion by 2030. So we're looking at it, at, at, if the group achieve SGD 100 billion by 2030, then, there's a CAGR of 25.6%. Given the, opportunity and effort that, we've been putting in, we believe that, that is something that, yeah, is achievable with good execution. The AUA numbers for us, include the, wealth management platform number, that's the core business that we have. It'll include the deposit numbers for iFAST Global Bank.
And the new part that, you know, is coming on board, the Hong Kong business also, which is the other part of the retirement scheme, the older part of the retirement scheme that's actually there, that we expect to start contributing second half 2026. That will add on to the AUA. The eMPF, of course, doesn't add on to AUA. Also part of the business, as well as our Macau pension services, those will add on to the AUA as well. Macau has actually started contributing, you know, a couple of months at the end of last year. These are some small initial number, but we expect that that will grow significantly more for instance.
Third point, regarding the ePension, and here I'm referring more to the eMPF. As I mentioned, the onboarding is substantially already completed, so we are at the tail end of the onboarding. And lots of work continue to be needed. But I would say that probably we have seen probably the tougher, toughest part of this project, which is really 2026, as we ramp up the resources required to do all the onboarding, as all the onboarding happened from different trustees, each with its own unique kind of initial operational considerations and so on. That has been a busy year and hectic year. Of course, lots of work remains.
We still need to ensure that the overall quality of the services and operational efficiency can continue to improve. But probably the most uncertain part of what to expect on a day-to-day probably has been seen. Now it's looking for the improvement in efficiency. Point number four. So we started as a wealth management platform, and then along the way, we bought a bank, we add a global digital bank to the overall ecosystem. So we are a global digital banking and wealth management platform. And increasingly we have been you know looking at what we call a truly global business model. And for that to work very well.
We actually find that there are certain additional services that we need to steadily try to develop. One of these areas is in fact in the area of payment. I think you'll be aware that we already have some payment services within the group, debit card, for instance, in FSM, Singapore, as well as the iFAST Global Bank. We have a debit card services. The iFAST Global Bank have a division called EzRemit, which is in the remittance business, mainly in the Middle East. That helps with you know the yeah movement of money across borders, and that's important in helping us to be able to you know provide a full fuller range of payment services efficiently and smoothly.
So as we move forward, we expect that there will be more work to be done in terms of some of these payment services. Several months ago, we announced that we have received an in-principle approval for e-money license in Malaysia. We are in a process of also applying for license in you know, a couple of the markets that we're in, including Singapore. So we, yeah, we expect that you know, as the quarters ahead progress, in the years ahead, we'll continue to be yeah, introducing more and more services that will actually make it make us a lot more complete and a lot more attractive as a global digital banking and wealth management.
Point five really is to continue to broaden the fintech ecosystem that we have, that's something that, you know, ongoing thing. The next chart, okay, the... Yeah, the fintech ecosystem, I think in the subsequent pages is a chart. Maybe you go a few pages forward on the fintech ecosystem. Yeah, so this is a chart that we can quickly show, we show how we have been broadening the fintech ecosystem that we have, and that's an ongoing progress for us. I'll go back to, yeah, to this, yes, slide. Just to elaborate a bit more about this truly global business model that we're actually talking about.
Traditionally, when we think of businesses, and those are expanding to different places, different country, we think in terms of going there physically, set up the operations locally, and then try to grow from there. We were doing quite a bit of that in the past because being from Singapore, we're in Hong Kong, Malaysia, India at the time, and China. I'll say that, yeah, as we did that, it is something that is, you know, takes a lot of effort. A new market, instead of new business operation, you know, from scratch, it will take quite a number of years before we're able to make money. But we are, we have been living in an internet world. The world has been living through internet world in the last 25-30 years.
Business models have been changing globally. I always like to use the example of Netflix, Spotify. They operate on one or few country, but you have customers from around the world. In their case, hundreds of millions of paying customer through subscription from around the world. We have believed, you know, more and more in the last few years that when it comes to the financial sector, there's no reason why a truly global business model cannot happen. Banking, wealth management, essentially services that doesn't require physical movement of goods, so no reason why things cannot be on the basis of a truly global business model.
So this is something that we started talking about last few years, and as we did so, I think a lot of the planning revolve around iFAST Global Bank, and to some extent, in the Singapore business and so on. But we're at a phase where we feel that there actually is still quite a bit more things for us to do in terms of being able to make this truly global business model a bigger part of the overall business. So with that, we are basically now articulating it a bit more clearly to say that, yeah, for this truly global business model, we feel that the three key centers that will make a bigger difference to this effort will be Singapore, London, Hong Kong.
These are three key centers where we have substantial presence in, where we continue to improve on the services that we have developed. London, of course, is iFAST Global Bank, and that, today we already have a situation where money can be transmitted from iFAST, Singapore, Hong Kong, London, you know, to and fro, instantly at no cost for customer. And, yeah, we will continue to build on some of this work that were done, introduce more services, and that will make the full ability for us to build our global business progress faster. As a group, we started 25, 26 years ago with our B2C business, FSM. At that time we called it Fundsupermart, but now we call it FSM.
And along the way we sort of realized that as we try to grow our business, as we grow all the services that we, with all of our communication, while we have been thinking in terms of a global customer as a potential, but in terms of the manner by which we position ourself, which we put out all the different materials and article and communication, we probably were talking more to the Singapore resident, if I take FSM Singapore. So we're talking more to the 6 million people that are in Singapore. I think it's time that we try to more effectively communicate to not just 6 million people, but maybe 1 billion people that are actually out there somewhere in the world that potentially can use Singapore as a philosophy.
So, we have Singapore, iFAST Global Bank in London, Hong Kong. I think, we feel that we can accelerate this truly global business model better, and that is a very important part of our aim for the next few weeks. So in line with that, we will be repositioning FSMOne Singapore and FSMOne Hong Kong to basically FSM Global, to communicate that message more clearly, that for global customer, they are our target client. That's how we started the iFAST Global Bank, instead of calling it iFAST Bank. We started by calling it iFAST Global Bank, and with that then we basically have a majority of our customers being more resident for iFAST Global Bank.
For us in Singapore and Hong Kong, we've been quite well entrenched in terms of our services for our customers here. And that part will continue to grow, but we also want to target the bigger addressable market, essentially of course. Next. Yeah, so this is a chart that I showed earlier through our Fintech ecosystem. Yeah, so that really is the part that I want to run through. The next sections are on some performance trends, and I think those are self-explanatory, so we need to look through. At this point we'll open the session up to questions and answers.
Yeah, thank you, Chung Chun. Then, we'll move to the Q&A segment, and, we have, investors and analysts both present physically in the boardroom as well as on Zoom. So maybe we'll just open the floor to those who are here in the boardroom first, before we take on some of the questions that we have in Zoom. Yeah, any questions? Yeah.
Yeah, thank you, Chung Chun, for the results and taking my question. I have a few segments of questions that I want to split it up, but maybe I'll just ask, firstly on Singapore. I've just noticed that actually the quarter-on-quarter performance in Singapore has actually been quite well. I think profit before tax was up 27% quarter-on-quarter. So what are some of the drivers that you have observed in the last quarter? And when you talk about the opportunities to grow, continuing to grow in Singapore, are you bringing more to the B2B or the B2C segment? Yeah, so that's for Singapore side.
Singapore overall have had a strong year, strong growth momentum throughout the year. And by Singapore has been, if I take the wealth management part of business, then Singapore had actually the best performer for everything. So the growth is actually coming from both B2Bs. Both segments have actually continued to be strong. And which is why I, as well, I've been saying that, despite the fact that the biggest part of business is technically the most mature, but we continue to see a lot more opportunity to come. So the overall momentum is that up growth is there.
In terms of profitability, it also sometimes it also depends on at, in that quarter, to what extent is some additional costs, otherwise that, that makes some difference, but overall, the growth momentum is...
Maybe just the second part, want to understand on the Hong Kong side of the business. I mean, yes, there's a kind of like a rough guidance for double-digit growth across revenue to profit before tax. I'm just wondering if we can see some form of operating leverage throughout the year that will hopefully flow to a stronger profitability growth. Yeah, and because we just looking back at the fourth quarter in terms of quarter-on-quarter trend as well, the contribution from Hong Kong kind of quite flat, although the revenue has grown quarter-on-quarter. So yeah, just wondering where do we see profitability today? And the second part of Hong Kong business is just on top of the pension scheme is on Macau.
Just wondering, what is the AUA we have seen so far and how far we think it can grow to for the Hong Kong, Macau side of things? Yeah, thank you.
Yeah. On Hong Kong, if I take yeah, the ePension, all the business, yeah, revenue have been increasing because as onboarding increases, then the revenue goes up accordingly as well. But this project is such a critical project because of the mentioned scale of that entire Hong Kong. And a big part of the effort along the way has been to ensure that there are sufficient resources that's put in to ensure that things the delivery of services are as smooth as possible. So along the way, the headcount have been ramped up quite substantially as well, and I'll say that the headcount will probably be hitting the peak in the next couple of months.
So, all that additions in headcount lead to the increases in the operating expenses. Yeah, after ensuring that, you know, things are smooth, the delivery services are smooth and up to par and continue to improve on the processes, then, I think, as we get into the second half, there's some room for us to work on having better operational efficiency. Yeah, so we mentioned double-digit growth, but I don't want to be, you know, guiding for or shooting for a very huge number simply because our priority is to ensure that things are as efficient as possible. But I think you've seen the healthy sector from... in terms of Macau. Macau is something that just started.
I think, yeah, the initial number is something like SGD 70 million, and we should see other numbers over the next six.
Thanks for the questions we got. We have quite a few in the Q&A on Zoom, so maybe we'll just go, go to those questions. I think maybe I'll continue a bit on some of the things that I think Chung Chun has covered already. So I think on the ePension, any guidance on timing of operational optimization, and when can we see the fruits of that effort? I think you, Chung Chun has covered a bit of that. The other related question was, how much of the contract has already been recognized for with regard to the ePension?
Yeah, I think the communications that we have made on the ePension project... Yeah, I think we've mentioned it's a seven-year contract, right? So we do know the full extent of revenue, and we have been phasing out the revenue aligned with, I guess, the work being done, right? And I think a lot of that work has actually, you know, we are sort of increasing the efforts on that business as, I think you heard from Chung Chun earlier, where we have onboarded the largest trustees, and we're now at the tail end of the onboarding.
I think we've also mentioned that, even after the trustees are onboarded, right, there's still a lot of operational work to be done, because that's where, I think, we'll get to a point where 100% of the, the MTF scheme is actually, administered on the platform and, and work done by us. So those are the things we've communicated. In terms of the exact percentage of how much of the contract has been rec-, you know, we have recognized so far, I don't think we are able to then communicate because, that would have some implications in terms of how you see the, the, you know, our, our, I guess, the next couple of years of revenue. So we'd like to, you know, not, have to say anything about that.
I think in terms of the revenue profile, then, we can say that it's sort of aligned, right, with the level of work being done, which, as you know, is at a pretty high level, at this point in time. Yeah.
Yeah. We also have a few questions from Kelvin Sam. So Kelvin wrote, "Congrats on the great results," so thanks for that, and he has three questions. So I think first, why was there a big Q-on-Q jump in U.K. earnings despite flat revenue? Was it because the bank cut back on social media marketing?
Yeah, I think for the U.K., the increase in profit, yeah, despite relatively flat revenue, partly also because of the cost, I think, earlier part of the year, we over-recognize, over provided to the cost. Yeah, when we get to the fourth quarter, then we actually release some of these numbers. So that sort of lead to, yeah, some of these cheering profitability numbers.
Kelvin's other question: Can you elaborate on the new services mentioned on slide 48, which is for the U.K. commentary, which will help U.K. deposits accelerate in first Q 2026? I think we wrote, yeah, from first Q 2026. So, that's one question. The other one was, why was net inflow lower Q-on-Q in fourth Q? Was it mainly because of lower bank deposits?
Yeah. So, regarding the net inflow... Oh, sorry, we're talking about there's a net inflow for the group.
That's right.
Yeah. Net inflow for the group was lower. I would say the bank deposit side is not the big part of the change, because the group number is actually much bigger than that. But on a net basis, the net inflow was lower, I would say mainly because there's probably a bit more redemption by customer. Gross inflow was actually very strong, but when the markets are high, are rising, sometimes you also see a tendency for some investors to take some profit. Would that lead to some, you know, increases in redemption? But on an overall net inflow basis, you know, it continues to be very healthy, you know, almost SGD 1 billion. And of course, overall, AUM actually grew quite a bit as well.
The first part of the question was on new services for the U.K. market. New services for U.K. market, in January, we rolled out this services called BACS, B-A-C-S. BACS is basically a service that allow the customers the bank customers in U.K. to basically be able to make their monthly bill payments, et cetera, for utility, et cetera, a lot more easily. I think in Singapore, like GIRO in Singapore, yeah, a bit like GIRO, but I think something that's-
Something bill payment.
Yeah, it's a bit more in a batch way, where once you sign up for that service, then the whole chunk of your monthly payment can actually come on to that. So there's a service that before this wasn't in place, but that's actually now in place. That includes, I think, some of your monthly salary that you're actually getting, so you can actually start to directly credit the salary onto the iGB. More convenient. And so we have that, it's like GIRO in Singapore, you know, happening, or that service has been introduced, and more U.K. customers, you know, who actually use us and use us as a primary bank account as well.
As that happened, then we expected the inflow from the U.K. investors will actually start to improve. We are also in the midst of preparing to launch some additional service that will help us to with the global payment services. As you are aware, the majority of customers are actually non-residents of U.K. So for them, they leave their money in iGB account. But as of today, not all of them are able to enjoy the convenience of payment in the other countries that they're actually in.
I think important part of the vision that we have as a group, or that we have for iFAST Global Bank, has been that with one bank account in iGB you leave your money there, but you can actually spend around the world. That's been an important part of the vision that which we have. Today, that can happen only to some extent. The full service is really not really roll out yet, but we are in the process of rolling out this additional service that will allow customers to leave their money in iGB but make payments in various countries around the world. Yeah, we will give further detail in the next two months as we roll out service.
But that's expected to be one of the additional service that we have as a driver for the overall business of iGB as well. The other comment I would like to make as well regarding the last six months as well is that, yeah, along the way, as your interest rate environment changes, as interest rate environment changes, we actually find that, yeah, there's some money that actually move in or out, you know, as some of those changes happen. And, and also in the past one year, there's been some gradual reduction in global interest rate environment for U.S., for U.K. And our deposit rate over the last one year as well, there's been, you know, some gradual downward shift.
So as some of these things happen, there's some of the older deposit that, you know, wasn't renewed. So in the short term, that may lead to some additional outflow. But of course, we are watching the situation all the time, and then we respond with some tweaks in whatever interest rates accordingly. So tweak the interest rate as well as additional services are some of the things that we do on an ongoing basis. So that will help ensure that we can continue to grow. But on an immediate basis, on a quarterly basis, then sometimes, yeah, there's some of this loss of momentum in the overall deposit group. So that's basically some of the effect that we have actually seen.
We have a couple of analysts in the Zoom who have raised hands as well. So we'll start with Jayden of Macquarie. Jayden?
... Yeah, hi. Thank you very much for taking my questions and the opportunity, and, you know, well done on a good fourth quarter result. I just wanted to ask a little bit about the guidance. I think you mentioned that you're looking at sort of a CAGR of 25%, you know, in the AUA to hit the SGD 100 billion, and then we've said that we think that the dividends will grow by at least 25%, you know, in 2026. So is there any sort of view on the payout ratio? Because that would suggest that, you know, earnings, AUA, sort of grow at the same rate. How are you sort of thinking about that, and if there's any further operating leverage?
Because you also highlighted that the ROE has been expanding because, you know, the top line's been growing strong. I just wanna sort of understand, you know, this view on the guidance a little bit better as a starting point.
Yeah. Yeah, so the AUA guidance. Yeah, we have mentioned about SGD 100 billion, so we're basically working out, you know, mathematically to show what the percentage is in order for us to achieve SGD 100 billion by 2030, and that number is actually 25.6% to hit that. So we feel that with good execution, we should be able to achieve that. So that's our plans. And then for 2026, yes, the dividend, there's a guidance on the expected dividend payout, so we said SGD 0.105 or better. In a sense that also reflect our expectation on further increases in profitability for the group.
The payout ratio for us, I think, yeah, in recent time, I've been talking about a number of 25%-30% I'm comfortable with. I think over time, as our balance sheet gets bigger, you know, we think that we can go higher on that number. But at this point in time, the ambition that we have for the bank, in terms of the group, we want to see... We're still at the stage where we want to be a lot more group. So as far as dividend payout is concerned, we're basically just balancing, yeah, some of this thinking. One part is we do want to increase the dividend payout.
The other part is, we have big ambitions, so we want to have enough retained earnings within the group. So on a, you know, shorter-term basis, payout ratio of 25%-30% is something we're comfortable with, right? As we go forward in years ahead, then we can look at increasing it. But on an interim basis, we're not assuming too big an increase in payout ratio.
Yeah, thanks for that. I guess what it means is that if you're looking at 25% growth in dividends and the same payout ratio, you're sort of telling us that earnings are gonna grow at 25%, right? Is... Am I reading that correctly?
We are, technically, we're not exactly saying that, but I suppose internally we are, yeah, shooting for, yeah, those kind of a quantum in terms of, yeah, potential growth.
Yeah. Thanks. And if I could just ask, maybe a couple more questions, just two more. The first is, so if we say that, you know, we're gonna have this growth in the AUA, we go from SGD 32 billion to SGD 40 billion, let's say it's 25%. How much would come from ORSO? How much would come from the organic business? And, you know, is Macau sort of recognized as AUA, or is it like the MPF in Hong Kong?
We expect that the ORSO, assuming it does happen by second half, that can potentially add 6%-7% to the growth rate. All right? For AUA. So that will actually help the overall growth number for 2026. It'll make 2026 growth in AUA quite a robust number. Of course, having said that, I just want to also mention that this is our current target in terms of having that being rolled out in second half. In terms of timing, you know, sometimes there is some dependence on the need to ensure the overall efficiency of the whole ePension business as well.
Yeah, but at this point is a current target.
Thanks. Thank you. And just my final question, which is related to this: If we do get this ORSO contract and we add, you know, 6%-7%, is that gonna be sort of supported by the existing cost base, or would we see an additional step up in the OpEx, sort of similar to what we had with ePension?
There'll be some increase in cost, but it won't be too big an increase. I think we already have some existing costs that is actually supporting this. So in terms of overall increase in cost, it should not be too much.
Okay, thank you very much. I really appreciate it.
Thank you. Thanks, Jayden. And now we'll move to Aakash, who also raised hand, from UBS. Aakash?
Great. Thank you very much for taking my questions. Congratulations on a strong year. So I think the first question is just, if you go back to the early days when you started talking about ePension, I think you had said that, you know, after the ramp-up phase is complete, the revenue for the business should largely remain flat for the remaining years of the project, or it should probably increase by inflation, is what you had said, right? And irrespective of any other factors, like AUA or other things. Just wanted to check if that expectation is still, you know, in place. That's the first question.
Yeah, so for... I think that statement is true when we go into 2027 and subsequent few years. Yeah, but or 2026, because, you know, if you look at it on a quarterly basis, it has been that significant ramp up in the revenue and so on. So on a overall year basis, then, yeah, it probably it should go beyond a single digit. It should go into double digits. But once you get to 2027, then, yeah, that statement of a single digit then will be true for ePension business, but excluding the ORSO part of the business, right? So if you take ORSO and Macau, then that will add on to ePension part of the business.
So we hope that that can then add on the overall growth in revenue of WPP in 2027.
Great, that's very clear. That's very helpful. Thank you, Chung Chun. Secondly, on the... So more specifically on 2026, I understand that, you know, the growth rate would be higher for this business.
Mm-hmm.
Is it simply because... Sorry, let me reword. So the Q4 revenue that we saw for ePension, is it fair to assume that it would be the run rate for 2026? And then we can try and calculate what sort of increase, you know, gets, you know, double-digit growth we see. Is that a fair expectation for 2026?
I think, yeah, on a revenue side, I think probably that can be taken as, yeah, a bit of, probably a logical way of looking at it. I think so, if you think in terms of the output, the work done, and we have already onboarded, the largest trustees going to the first quarter of 2026, right? So I think in terms of, trying to justify, you know, the, a much higher level of work done from that point, I think will be quite difficult from a revenue recognition perspective. But, I think that, that being said, I think we also talked a bit about the optimization of, expenses and so on.
So I think we've already heard earlier Chung Chun mention that that's not a priority at least for the first half of 2026, right? Where we are focused on getting the job done well, right? And then probably the second half, I think that's what we said earlier, right? That's where we can potentially look at some optimization, and probably the benefits will then be seen yeah further out over the next yeah I guess 2027 and so on.
Okay, understood. That's very clear. Sorry, just on this one, do you have any updated thoughts on what is the likelihood of this project getting extended after, you know, the seven- or 10-year term expires?
Yeah, I think it's too soon for us to be commenting on this at this stage.
Okay, very clear. One more question, sorry. So just from the net inflows that, you know, seems to have obviously stepped up quite significantly in 2025. Now, if you just look at the broader landscape, the banks have obviously been seeing billions and billions of dollars in wealth management inflows. I'm just wondering if that segment, which is the family offices, is that also benefiting you? Or, if yes, then, you know, what is the portion of this inflow coming from that family office segment? Or is it still, you know, very much your traditional customer base, which is largely individuals, right? Whether we look at B2B or B2C.
We're seeing some benefits from the family office segment, but I would say that that isn't really the core segment for us. I think our client base tend to be a lot more spread out.
Makes sense.
Yeah.
Sorry, if I may ask just one last question, a quick one. So on payments, you talked about, you know, starting to offer more services. Now, I'm just trying to think if is this mainly to facilitate your customers in your core geographies, or is it going to be, you know, a bigger, fuller service like, you know, Revolut or Wise? And do you see any increase in expenses, you know, because of this investment?
Yeah, so the thinking about payment is that yeah, two areas. One, we want to be able to help the customer move money cross-border easily. That's important for this global digital banking and wealth management model that we're actually talking about. So moving money cross-border, that's one part. The other part is, we want them to retain their money with us, whether with the bank or with the wealth management platform. As they do so, we want to be able to allow them to use that money to spend, right? In the various country that they're in. So that is the other part of actually the thinking for us. As we roll out the payment business further, there'll be some increases in revenue for us.
At the same time, there'll be some increases in cost. I would say that the payment business on its own, on its own, meaning, yeah, if, if we just try to look at it as a payment business on its own, then I'll say it's not exactly a easy business because it, it is an area that many players have been, competing in. So if we look at the payment on its own, payment business on its own, then trying to really make it a highly profitable business is not necessarily so easy.
But in our case, because we see it as part of a complementary service for the digital banking and wealth management platform, then that improve the picture substantially, both in terms of the ability to scale up these services, as well as in terms of the overall business economics of this part of the business. Yeah, so I'll see it as something that will help us increase the revenue overall. It will also help us as an overall group to increase our overall profitability. But if I look at it in terms of the pure payment part of the services, then yeah, it may not be something that will lead to a huge increase on its own.
Okay, that's very clear. Thank you for answering our questions.
Thanks, Aakash, and we'll move to Benjamin.
... wondering, you know, what the vision of Financial Alliance, right? How does it fit into this truly global model?
Mm.
Is there a strategy going forward to buy stakes on these small financial advisory firms to boost this model up?
So say that it's not, it's not so linked to this global business model, especially on Financial Alliance. Perhaps I talk a bit about, yeah, about thinking on the, yeah, this acquisition, proposed acquisition of a 30% stake in Financial Alliance. This part is very much about the B2B business that we have in Singapore. Yeah. Actually, traditionally, we have invested in some other FA firms in Singapore as well. We just, we basically take minority stakes in some. But actually, quite a number of, yeah, different companies are actually there.
So, but increasingly, the thinking now really is, we want to mainly focus on having a stake in a company that will be one of the bigger company, especially one that has a potential to become a listed company. So it is in a vision that ourselves as well as Financial Alliance themselves to potentially become the first listed FA firm in Singapore. From our point of view as a platform, what we want to see is a thriving FA industry. An industry where the financial advisory firms are able to grow well, they're able to thrive and so forth.
So we've gotten to the stage where I think you, you do see some consolidation in the market, because I think you have KKR actually came in to buy Selexis and so on. So there's some consolidation, but at the same time, of course, there are also quite a number of new companies that get created. So as we look ahead in the next few years, we feel that one of the scenario that will actually emerge is that there could be, say, two, two, two big FA firms, right? That actually may, may emerge, one of whom could be could become a listed company, perhaps as supported by Axos.
At the same time, there still be a lot of other FA firm, but we think that there could be, you know, yeah, two, three, big FA company that actually merge. So we basically want to be playing our part to help company like Financial Alliance achieve their dream of, yeah, a much bigger business of becoming a listed FA firm that has a much bigger long-term potential. So that is the broad thinking that we should have. I think at this point in time, the business is still mainly local, I would say, for Financial Alliance. So when I talk about truly global business model, I tend to refer to the various other part of the business, not specifically on the financial side.
Thank you, Benjamin. And now we still have a few questions in the Q&A on Zoom. So I think, Ryan Bischoff, he had three questions. One of it, it's related to the one that Benjamin just asked on FA Corp. So, we, we'll just move to his other questions. What gives you confidence in tripling AUA in just a few years? I think you alluded to a bit of that.
Yeah. So tripling may look scary, but if you just think in terms of the CAGR, it's 25.6%. So I think that, with what we have been planning for the expansion of the ecosystem and so on, we feel that, with good execution, I think we can reach it.
The third question from Ryan Bischoff was on the tax rate. Tax rate was lower than expected in fourth Q and the full year 2025. What caused this? And should we expect the effective tax rate, or what should we expect from that effective tax rate going forward?
Yeah. Yeah, so I'll, I'll answer this one. So in the fourth quarter, yeah, we actually have a deferred tax asset recognized at the bank, right? So I think there's this comment as well inside the, section eight of the financials. So, I mean, for background, the bank, when we acquired it, had, I think in excess of, I believe numbers more than GBP 40 million of losses, right? So these, these are past losses, and, the tax rules, allow us to then, offset this against future profit. So I think the bank has just turned profitable. So, the bank has recognized a, a small, tax asset of that, from that amount.
I think just to be clear, the over GBP 40 million of losses then translates to something like, on 25% tax rate, about GBP 11+ million of, yeah, deferred tax assets that can be recognized.
Okay. On the topic of U.K.,
Just to, yeah, add on to that. So in terms of what is recognized in 4 Q is GBP 1 million.
Yeah, so we recognize about GBP 1.48 million pounds.
Yeah. In 2026, we expect that there'll be some of that benefit that will actually be seen as well. Yeah. The exact amount, we know one year from now, but on the income basis, maybe, yeah, you can think of the similar amount spread over the year 2026. At this point in time, maybe that's some kind of guidance in just how to look at that tax part.
Okay, from Reggie. So we have a question on U.K. So the iGB, the iFAST Global Bank deposits, hardly grew in 4 Q. So why? And also, has the bank been more successful in attracting new customers since the launch of the multicurrency account and the debit card that the bank launched in March of last year?
Yeah. So, in terms of the deposit number, yeah, I explained earlier that in the Q and 4 Q last year, the deposit number slowed. The deposit growth actually slowed for a couple of reasons. One is, I think some movement back on to investment into the work income platform, that's one. Two, would be actually changes in interest rate environment. The changes in interest rate environment, because along the way, there were some sudden changes in interest rate environment, including in Hong Kong dollar hikes. So, some of this lead to some short-term movement in deposit number, in as well as out.
There's also the fact that, yeah, for one whole year, actually, the deposit rates have actually been declining because interest rates generally have been declining. So as that happen, then sometimes in the short term, as some of this original fixed deposits, et cetera, mature, then there are some that doesn't get renewed and so on. So that lead to actually some changes in... Yeah, in the deposit growth number. But of course, as all these things are happening, then we're always reviewing and tweaking what needs to be done in terms of interest rates, et cetera.
And that will, together with the additional services that we're rolling out as well as that we will be rolling out, it will help us to ensure that the growth momentum will come back. But on an immediate basis, in some of the quarterly number that you see, some of this loss of momentum. I think that should be the way to look at this whole thing.
Just take a pause and see if there are further questions from our analysts and investors here.
Also, moving back on to the FA Corp. You spoke about supporting one of the bigger FA firms.
... Will there be any plans to increase that stake from 30% to a bit more moving forward in the next couple of years?
We don't rule out the possibility of some increases in the stake or changes in the stake. The reason is because I think FA Corp themselves are also, they also have ambitious plan. They want to grow further. It is possible that along the way, they will want to make some acquisition of other firms on their own and so on. As they do so, they may invite participation from us, for instance. As we do so, then that's when it's possible that our investment in the entity can increase. So that should be the way to look at it, but the intention is that that will remain a minority stake.
Okay, and going back to the, you know, the Zoom Q&A. So, we can, I had this question, but I think Chung Chun and Terence have kind of answered. So we'll move to the next question from Andrea. So, asking a bit more about Hong Kong also. So she would like to ask if there are any updates to share on contract wins, and how many have been clinched, and how many more in the pipeline, and how can we think about sizing and pricing of each contract?
Yeah, I think there are a number of ongoing discussions and, you know, potential wins in the pipeline, so, but nothing, you know, very chunky that we are ready to announce. But in the meantime, of course, you look at Macau, is something that's additional, that has started and that actually is growing in the current year. Macau itself is also looking to introduce... to make the pension scheme compulsory, I think in probably a couple of years' time. And as that happens, we expect that the opportunity for Macau will be increasing. And yeah, since we have started rolling out services there, I think we're well positioned to be able to ride on more of the group.
The Hong Kong side as well, of course, is a big existing market, and we expect that there'll be more additional contract wins along the way. At the appropriate time, yeah, then we will update accordingly.
We have a question from Suzanne. So, thanks for her comments as well on the results. So could we get some colors on which region is the driver of the high net inflows?
I think Singapore is the biggest contributor.
Last couple of questions, at least from the Q&A, in Zoom. So I think we'll go to Kin Chua. So truly global business model, any consideration of secondary listing in U.K., in Hong Kong or London?
On an immediate basis, yeah, we don't have any consideration for secondary listing for Hong Kong or London. We have all that. We've been making inquiries about the global listing board that SGX has announced, and also whether existing company, you know, can consider or, and things like that. That's pretty much where things are, but nothing firm or concrete. But I think if we do want a secondary listing, we feel that we should go for the biggest and most liquid. Otherwise may not really make sense.
Yeah. And one question from Benjamin Ang. What does putting FSM Singapore and FSM Hong Kong under one umbrella, which is the FSM Global, that Chung Chun talked about, what does that mean in practice?
In one umbrella? You're talking about Hong Kong and Singapore?
Mm, yes, Hong Kong and Singapore.
Okay. It's not exactly one umbrella. It's still two separate jurisdictions. It's just that for both Singapore and Hong Kong, instead of just calling it FSMOne, we want to use the term FSM Global. It's really to... That does send a message that we're targeting global clients. In terms of the legal structure, it doesn't actually change. Yeah, we're renaming that, repositioning that for Hong Kong and Singapore because these are two top financial centers, and it's very suitable for us to use these two centers to other global customers. We are, at this point, not doing so for FSMOne Malaysia, because for Malaysia, I think the focus will still be more on the Malaysian firm. Yeah, so that's the thinking at this point.
So I just, I actually have a really good question. I mean, aside from just changing the name and maybe, I mean, we could talk a bit more about, does that mean that new features will be added?
Yeah.
What's the investment call?
I think the call really is the additional message, additional services, additional marketing to this new group of potential client. So I was actually mentioning that when we launched iFAST Global Bank, we get a lot of a majority actually non- U.K. resident in terms of client, because we are talking to the non-resident one. But I suppose the way we have been conducting our business for these years in Singapore and Hong Kong, we're talking to them essentially at the back of our team's mind of our people, they're assuming they're talking to Singaporeans or Hong Kong.
I think, when you're not talking to the global clients more directly, then the growth from this growth plan is excellent. Yeah, so in practice, what that means is, there'll be more messages, FAQ that directly communicate to the non-resident client in terms of what they need to do with, you know, opening account with us, invest with us, different languages, for instance. I think we do have a Chinese website, but I think it's time for us to upgrade some of those things as well. In fact, it's not just Chinese, it's actually multi languages. U.K., we actually are able to support many different languages, but in Singapore, as of today, we only have Chinese and Singapore, and English.
And even then, I think we haven't done as well as we should be. So languages, the message to the non-resident who are not as familiar with the payment, how to pay in Singapore, but, you know, we have FAQs that are more directed to them, et cetera, and the different marketing activities that reach out to the global customers better. So these are in practice the bigger differences.
May I also ask a follow-up question? I mean, in terms of customer acquisition, is there room to improve or sort of lower the friction in terms of customer sign-up with Global Bank?
Mm.
It seems like it's quite a tedious process.
Mm.
Global Bank got a...
Yeah. For sure, for sure there's room to improve, and it's an ongoing effort. I think we do know that when it comes to signing up customers who are not local customer, the process typically doesn't look as efficient as local customer.
Local as in U.K., is it?
Yeah, for U.K., let's say. So, so typically, it's like in Singapore, right? If a Singapore resident opening an account here, now can use, Singpass, and then it'll be done in five, 10 minutes. So in U.K., there are some of this, you know, it includes that kind of consideration. But if you are flying from other country, then the collection of information and so on, tend to be something that, takes somewhat a longer time. And, but it's a ongoing process, you know, for us to try to keep improving the processes for, for the account opening for different parts of it. I think we, we are making some, yeah, steady progress and so on. Certainly, quite a number of areas still for us to, to work and improve on.
Thanks for your questions, Lin.
Any more questions from anybody? If not, we'll wrap up this quarter's results. Thank you for your attendance, and happy, happy Lunar New Year in advance to everybody, and happy Valentine's Day as well as well.