Rakuten Trade Forms New Division To Focus on Digital Trading Insights For Retail Investors

Appoints Licensed Holder Vincent Lau as Head of Equity Sales

KUALA LUMPUR, 17 March 2021: Rakuten Trade Sdn Bhd (“Rakuten Trade”) has introduced a marketplace where licensed and experienced analysts provide trading ideas, insights, and intelligence to support the growing number of digital retail investors. Leveraging on social media sites, the new division Equity Sales (ES) – exclusively generates thematic stock ideas and independent insights as a means to provide expert information that can cater to diverse retail investors, many of whom are made up of millennials with different levels of trading experience.

In tandem with this, Rakuten Trade announced the appointment of Mr Vincent Lau to the newly created role of Head of Equity Sales, effective January 2021.

Lau is a pioneer member of Rakuten Trade and has over 20 years of noteworthy experience in equities, corporate finance and investment banking from various local and foreign financial institutions in Malaysia. He also holds a Capital Markets Services Representative License for Investment Advice issued by Securities Commission (SC) Malaysia.

Mr Kazumasa Mise, Chief Executive Officer of Rakuten Trade, said, “We created the division in view of the changing landscape where more new retail investors are entering the market. However, there is a surge in non-licensed individuals, as well as social media forums that are not monitored or moderated by licensed individuals or investment firms. It is important that trading information is backed by licensed experts to ensure there is no misleading information.”

“Lau has already played a vital part in raising the company’s presence in the equities market in the country. We are confident that his significant expertise and sound understanding of the market will enable him to contribute further towards the company’s next chapter of growth,” added Mise.

In his most recent role as Vice President of the Rakuten Research Team, Lau was responsible for stock and market analysis coverage and in 2018 received The Edge Best Call Award for his stock recommendation of Kelington Group Bhd. Prior to joining the fully digital equities broker, he was the Head of Foreign Equity Sales, Research at Kenanga Investment Bank Berhad.

The Division currently uses its Telegram Channel - Rakuten Trade Ideas - which is open to the public to deliver daily trading ideas, insights, intelligence and announcements of upcoming corporate webinars. To date, the ES Division has hosted over 20 public listed company webinars. These webinars provide direct corporate access to their management about their business outlook and prospects so that retail investors can make informed investing decisions.

Rakuten Trade also manages its own Facebook group - RakuRanger Community – which is moderated by licensed staffs from the Rakuten Trade Research team, exclusively for its own clients. It aims to draw discussions from previously unmonitored platforms onto a singular monitored one.