SINGAPORE: Grab Holdings Ltd and Singapore Telecommunications Ltd (Singtel) plan to roll out a banking service next week, joining tech giants like Jack Ma’s Ant Group Co in taking advantage of the country’s fintech liberalisation.
Called GXS, the bank will start by offering a savings account from Sept 5 and envisions expanding into credit products over time.
It will begin by targeting younger users and the gig economy workers that underpin Grab’s car-hailing and meal delivery services, according to a statement.
Grab and telco Singtel aim to compete with tech giants Sea Ltd and Ant, which are building digital banking products for the affluent city-state.
But they’re entering a space dominated by major incumbents including DBS Group Holdings Ltd and Oversea-Chinese Banking Corp.
Singapore joins the United Kingdom and Hong Kong in opening up to digital-only financial services, seeking to cement its position as a regional centre for fintech and wealth management.
Grab, which owns 60% of the venture, has been banking on financial services to help it turn profitable after burning cash in pursuit of growth in ride-hailing and delivery.
Grab hopes to benefit by offering a suite of services across its platform in Singapore, where people who use Grab to hail rides or order food can now also access banking services.
“GXS is a homegrown bank on a mission to support the needs of entrepreneurs, gig economy workers and early-jobbers in our community,” Charles Wong, chief executive officer at GXS Bank, said in the statement.
The bank will offer daily interest deposits – which amount to up to 1.58% per annum – and won’t impose criteria such as minimum deposits, he told reporters at a briefing.
Wong, a former executive at Citigroup Inc, has more than 20 years of experience in the banking industry.
He led its retail banking arm in Singapore and held roles in areas including bancassurance and wealth management before joining Grab, according to his LinkedIn profile.
The Grab-Singtel venture was one of two groups besides Sea to get a full digital bank licence in 2020, allowing it to take deposits and serve both retail and corporate customers.
The licence requires S$1.5bil (US$1.1bil or RM4.9bil) in capital as well as local control.
That compares with a wholesale digital banking licence for companies like Ant, which requires a capital commitment of S$100mil (RM321mil) and can only serve small and mid-sized firms and other non-retail segments. — Bloomberg
