The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) said on Friday (Dec 4)
it will award digital full bank licences to the Grab-Singtel consortium and
tech giant Sea, in a first for the city-state and a highly anticipated move
that aims to liberalise the financial industry.
Like traditional banks, these players will provide retail
customers with services such as opening accounts, deposits as well as issuing
debit and credit cards.
However, digital banks will not have a physical presence and all
banking services will be done online.
This is different from traditional banks – such as DBS, OCBC and
United Overseas Bank – which offer some banking services via the Internet or
mobile apps.
Digital full banks can also serve corporate customers.
Singapore’s central bank will also grant digital wholesale bank
licences to Ant Group as well as a consortium comprising Greenland Financial
Holdings, Linklogis Hong Kong and Beijing Co-operative Equity Investment Fund
Management.
They are expected to start business from early 2022.
MAS chief Ravi Menon said the central bank applied a
“rigorous, merit-based process to select a strong slate of digital
banks”.
“We expect them to thrive alongside the incumbent banks and
raise the industry’s bar in delivering quality financial services, particularly
for currently underserved businesses and individuals. They will further
strengthen Singapore’s financial sector for the digital economy of the
future,” he said.
MAS said that it set stringent expectations across the
assessment criteria in the selection process.
It said: “The two selected digital full bank (DFB) applicants
were clearly stronger than the other eligible DFB applicants.
“As for the digital wholesale banks (DWBs), the two selected
applicants met MAS’ expectations and were assessed to be demonstrably stronger
across the criteria notwithstanding the general high quality of the eligible
applicants.”
MAS added that it will review whether to grant more DWB licences
in the future as the licences are being introduced as a pilot.
Ant Group, which will be issued a DWB licence, said it is
grateful for the opportunity to further contribute to accelerating digital
financial innovation and inclusion in Singapore and the region.
“We look forward to building stronger and deeper collaborations
with all participants in the financial services industry in Singapore, as we
work together to make financial services more accessible for SMEs while
supporting local talent development in the process,” it said.
Mr Anthony Tan, group chief executive and co-founder of Grab,
said: “We are honoured to have this opportunity to build Singapore’s
next-generation digital bank, and open up access to easy-to-understand and
relevant financial services.”
Likewise, Mr Yuen Kuan Moon, group chief executive
officer-designate of Singtel, said that with Singtel and Grab’s combined
digital expertise and customer knowledge, the consortium is well-placed to
improve banking services for consumers and enterprises.
Mr Forrest Li, chairman and group chief executive officer of
Sea, said: “As a proudly home-grown company, we look forward to further
contributing to the long-term development of our nation’s digital economy,
creating more employment opportunities in Singapore, and empowering our whole
community to thrive in the digital era.”
The tech giant owns e-commerce platform Shopee, game developer
Garena and digital payments arm SeaMoney.
Incumbent players also welcomed the announcement.
DBS Singapore country head Shee Tse Koon said: “We
congratulate the successful applicants and welcome them to our world, where
digital banking is already a reality… We believe that the new entrants
will spur us all on to do better and we will continue to focus on making
banking more intuitive and invisible so that our customers can live more and
bank less.”
UOB chief executive Wee Ee Cheong said: “Their presence will add
to the healthy competition, especially in the area of digital innovations, for
the benefit of Singapore’s consumers and businesses.”
He added: “Keeping the customer at the heart of all we do will
ensure the continued success of our industry. This we believe should be the
focus of innovation: addressing the diverse personal and business banking needs
of our community.”
Mr Sunny Quek, OCBC’s head of consumer financial services
Singapore, said: “Digital banks are expected to add some colour to the
financial space but they face an already hyper-competitive environment.”
He added that OCBC has embraced digitalisation early, in areas
such as instant account opening, contactless payments and personalised
recommendations based on data analytics.
Although it was unsuccessful in its application, Razer Fintech
congratulated the licence awardees.
Chief executive Lee Li Meng said: “While we were hopeful to be
able to start our journey here in Singapore, our strategy of extending the
Razer Fintech business into digital banking remains unchanged.”
Singapore is not alone in its digital banking push.
Hong Kong issued four more virtual bank licences in May last
year, bringing the total number of such licences to eight. The winners included
Ant SME Services, a unit of Ant Group, and a Xiaomi-AMTD Group venture called
Insight Fintech HK.
Countries such as the Philippines, China, Japan and South Korea
also have virtual banks.
Twenty-one applications were submitted for digital bank licences
in Singapore, with MAS saying it could award up to five. Of these, 14 met the
eligibility criteria, MAS said in June without releasing the names of the
contenders.
The following is a list of applicants, including the new licence
holders and contenders which had made their bid public.
Digital full bank licences:
– Tech giant Sea, which owns e-commerce platform Shopee, game
developer Garena and digital payments arm SeaMoney
Source：The Straits Times
