Singapore's Arki Finance Leans Into Mass-Affluent Opportunity - Media

Tom Burroughes

17 June 2026

The challenge of profitably delivering mass-affluent financial services can be difficult, but another Asian firm, ahead of its planned public launch later in 2026, media reports said. The licence allows Arki to provide regulated investment advisory and portfolio management services to individual investors in Singapore.

Arki Finance is targeting the mass affluent segment with a simplifed wealth platform built on a three-part framework: cash, income and growth, the Straits Times (of Singapore) said this week.

Arki chief executive officer and co-founder David Ng was quoted by the ST as saying that options for the mass affluent have fallen short, citing deposit accounts with weak returns, opaque and illiquid insurance-wrapped products, and private banking models geared towards wealthier clients.

The firm is chaired by former UOB Kay Hian senior executive director Esmond Choo, who will oversee Arki’s strategic direction and governance as it prepares for launch and regional expansion, the report said. Arki's CEO is David Ng; its chief investment officer is Kim Hyungdo; the chief operations officer is Zhuang Yuhang, and the chief client officer is Neo Fu Qiang.

Cracking the code of mass-affluent clientele business, a sector that is sometimes defined as for people with $250,000 to $1 million in investable wealth, can be challenging. One central feature of this space is achieving mass-customisation. A report in October 2023 from Citi Ventures, the venture capital arm of Citigroup - said that even the lower reaches of the high net worth market (“millionaires next door”) are underserved, given that rising cost pressures have prompted banks to raise their minimums. (View the original report here.)

Asia appears to be home to a significant amount of this business model, unsurprisingly given the rising middle class. UBS launched wealth management services in October 2022 for affluent wealth band clients in China via its WE.UBS digital platform, for example. In Singapore, WRISE Group has a business unit targeting the mass-affluent market. Standard Chartered gives high priority to its affluent business, targeting $200 billion in net new money and double-digit growth in its Wealth Solutions income over the next five years. It has committed to invest $1.5 billion in this area.

HSBC’s Wealth and Personal Banking has its Premier offering, aimed at affluent and internationally mobile customers. Other firms that operate in the mass-affluent sector include Endowus and Saxo.