● LytePay business wallet is designed to help real estate salespersons collect their commissions, issue invoices and manage business expenses
● Rapyd provides white-label card issuing capabilities through its direct licence from Mastercard
Rapyd, a global Fintech-as-a-Service company, and LytePay, a Singapore-based financial solutions provider for the self-employed, have announced their collaboration to launch a first-of-its-kind business wallet and a complementary Mastercard payment card for local-based real estate salespersons (RES) of ERA Singapore, the largest international real estate agency in Singapore.
The new business wallet, also known as LytePay, lets RES access their sales commissions, gain insights into income data, invoice clients, and in the coming months, contribute to retirement funds, purchase health insurance and more. The business wallet also comes with a payment card powered by Rapyd’s Card Issuing capabilities. The card, called Lyte Talent Card, enables RES to use their commissions anywhere Mastercard is accepted, track and pay for their business and marketing expenses such as staging a client’s home for viewing and paying for listing fees on property marketing platforms. This is the first such service for real estate agents in Southeast Asia.
“Our Card Issuing platform helps innovators like LytePay and ERA create opportunities for new user segments in a simple and innovative way. Making income available more quickly is always great, but it is particularly essential now, during the pandemic. We are excited to be a part of speeding up funds to property agents through our partnership with LytePay,” said Joel Yarbrough, Vice President for Asia Pacific, Rapyd.
Rapyd’s Issuing solution offers end-to-end card management, including activation, funding, card replacements, and card reissuing. With flexible authorisation models that provide more control over funds and balances, users can check their real-time balance, transaction history, refunds.
Rapyd’s platform will also enable LytePay to reduce its back-office payments administration by offering a single point of access for reconciliation and settlement.
“Property agents in Singapore range from those who make a decent living to those who are just making ends meet. Neither groups get access to financial services that employees or small businesses enjoy mainly because their income is variable. By using data science and fintech, we want to help all property agents make more money and live more assured lives. We choose Rapyd to be our partner to fulfill this vision with their technology and geographic coverage, and we are proud to be able to impact lives with ERA across the region,” said Dennis Goh, co-founder of LytePay.
“Mastercard is proud to be collaborating with Rapyd in developing this innovative new solution to drive faster commission payments within the real estate market. Through Mastercard’s Fintech Express, Rapyd has been able to leverage Mastercard’s capabilities, expertise and network to strengthen and expand its card issuing capabilities, and today’s announcement demonstrates the power of that partnership. Combining Mastercard’s global payments network with Rapyd’s digital payment solutions for freelancers and SMEs is a model example of how collaborations across the payments ecosystem unlocks new financial possibilities for people and businesses,” said Rama Sridhar, Executive Vice President of Digital and Emerging Partnerships & New Payment Flows for Mastercard Asia Pacific.
According to the Council for Estate Agencies, there are more than 30,000 licensed RES https://www.cea.gov.sg/professionals/key-statisticsin Singapore. They do not enjoy the same benefits and income stability associated with full-time employees and could benefit from services such as LytePay.
This first-of-its-kind business wallet is one of the digitalisation initiatives in Singapore to accelerate financial inclusion across all segments of society. Through initiatives like this, Rapyd and LytePay hope to help the underserved communities gain access to better financial services in Singapore and the wider Southeast Asia region.
