Cover Reijna Rahim is the co-founder of Wahine Capital and the former MD of Nomura Asset Management Malaysia (Photo: Daniel Adams/Tatler Malaysia)
Reijna Rahim is the co-founder of Wahine Capital and the former MD of Nomura Asset Management Malaysia (Photo: Daniel Adams/Tatler Malaysia)
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The former managing director of Nomura Asset Management Malaysia on leaving cushy corporate life to found a tech startup that lets women take ownership of their financial wellbeing
Life is unpredictable—that’s about the only thing that one can plan for. Rejina Rahim has always been a planner. From a young age, she aspired to be financially independent and was never averse to the idea of working hard in the so-called man’s world. After studying international law in university and freelancing as a stringer reporter for The Malay Mail, her foray into capital markets began when she was offered a job as a legal officer at a stockbroking firm.
“I was about to get married, and I wanted to be financially independent,” she recalls. “This was at a time when almost everyone, even your local hawker stall owner, was making money from the stock market. The Securities Commission had just been established, so there wasn’t much regulation yet. My job scope shifted as I went along and I had no one to guide me. I learned how to be independent very quickly,” she adds.
The resolve for financial independence and stability came once again after Rejina had her first child at the age of 26. “I started thinking, ‘Ok, I’ve now got this new life to think about, and I have to be responsible. I can’t just depend on my husband’s salary to sort us out.”
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Above "I’ve always been the kind of person that likes a challenge. I liked the 9-to-5 thing and I always felt I had more to offer." - Rejina Rahim
"I’ve always been the kind of person that likes a challenge. I liked the 9-to-5 thing and I always felt I had more to offer." - Rejina Rahim
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Now a working mum, her second job was at an asset management company, where she worked for 10 years before being headhunted by Japanese asset management firm Nomura to be a founding staff member and set up its Malaysian office. Fifteen years later, she grew the firm to a staff of nearly 50 with over RM30 billion in asset management.
“I’ve always been the kind of person that likes a challenge. I liked the 9-to-5 thing and I always felt I had more to offer,” she says.
As it turns out, she did have more to discover outside her corporate role. She attained a coaching certificate and eventually considered starting her own company. “I was coaching people and saying things like, ‘You should break from your limiting beliefs, what’s stopping you from doing what you want?’ till I realised I wasn’t walking the talk,” she says. “What was it that I wanted? I wanted more! So I gave myself a year to plan my exit, and that’s what I did. It wasn’t easy breaking out from being ‘addicted’ to corporate employment and a monthly salary (laughs)”.
During the pandemic, tragedy struck when Rejina lost her only sister. She recalls the difficulty of making arrangements after her sister’s passing, from dealing with administrative matters and bureaucratic red tape to the tedious process of retrieving documents for lawyers. “It struck me that, surely there was a better way to tie everything together and make things easier for people who have just lost a loved one,” she says.
Nearly two years later, she co-founded Wahine Capital, a platform that gives users the tools, expertise, and insights to be more financially secure in the face of unexpected life events. In 2022, Wahine Capital launched the beta version of W Vault, a tool that gives users an all-in-one snapshot of their financial status, including their assets and liabilities. W Vault also acts as a digital repository that houses users’ important documents, allowing only users and their authorised accessors the ability to access this information in the case of trigger events like dementia, critical illness, permanent disability, or death.
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Above Women are financially more at risk in unplanned life events such as divorce or death of a spouse (Photo: Cottonbro Studio/Pexels)
Women are financially more at risk in unplanned life events such as divorce or death of a spouse (Photo: Cottonbro Studio/Pexels)
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“Plenty of studies have shown that when it comes to unplanned life events—death, divorce, critical illness, and retirement—women have it a lot harder. We’re at risk of losing more than 50 per cent of our income upon death or divorce.” she says. “Another thing is, I would often ask lawyers why it takes so long to get an estate distributed, and they would tell me: ‘Half the time, it’s because of missing documents.”
Wahine Capital’s W Vault is essentially a tool that Rejina herself wished she had. It’s also a platform that lets users (the majority of whom are women) schedule a free 10-min consultation with a panel of experts, from a clinical psychologist, an ex-hedge fund manager, a divorce counsellor and herself, a career and life coach.
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“We want to get the message out that financial security is not rocket science and it shouldn’t have to be a taboo subject. You’d be comfortable talking about diet, exercise, or skincare routines, so why should it be different when it comes to our financial health? As women, we avoid talking or thinking about it, or we think our partners will do it for us. But we also tend to outlive our partners. In Malaysia, women live 5.1 years longer than the average male.”
With the official launch of W Vault in May 2023, Rejina and her co-founders hope it will help women take ownership of their finances and have greater peace of mind when encountering significant life changes.
“The end game is to help women be financially secure. When it comes to trying to take charge of their financial matters, people have many questions and they may not know where to start. I’m hoping that by having that repository of information in one digital space, people can take those initial steps to figure out where they are financially, and eventually start tracking their expenses and budgeting. To plan for the future, you need to know where you are right now."
Credits
Photography: Daniel Adams
Previously contributing to Esquire Malaysia, Expat Lifestyle and Newsweek, Tania oversees digital stories across Tatler’s key content pillars, also leading the Front & Female platform exploring issues and topics affecting women today.
