Grab-Singtel, Sea and Ant Group bag Singapore's first digital bank licences amid surprise twist

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FROM early 2022, four digital banks will emerge onto Singapore's banking scene. The incumbents are already sounding the battle cry as the Covid-19 crisis marks digital finance as the way forward. They will also start a new chapter in Singapore's banking liberalisation story as regulators inject diversity and innovation into the financial sector. Read more at The Business Times.

MAS noted that the two selected digital full bank applicants were"clearly stronger" than the rest. As for the digital wholesale banks, the two that won met expectations and were"assessed to be demonstrably stronger across the criteria notwithstanding the general high quality of the eligible applicants".

Forrest Li, chairman and group CEO of Sea, said:"As a proudly homegrown 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."

Meng Liu, analyst at Forrester, said:"Ant's IPO halt is actually incentivising its global expansion plan especially in the South-east Asia market. Ant has already faced intense competition from their peers in China, and their future growth really depends on their global expansion." Others that lost out include the iFast-led consortium with China partners Yillion Group and Hande Group, an AMTD-led group consisting of peer-to-peer lending platform Funding Societies, utilities provider SP Group and Xiaomi Finance, as well as a grouping led by Sheng Ye Capital.

 

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