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Thursday, December 10, 2020 – 5:17 pm
STANDARD Chartered Singapore received enhanced “significantly entrenched foreign bank” (SRFB) privileges from the Monetary Authority of Singapore on Thursday, paving the way for it to establish a digital-only bank.
SRFB’s enhanced privileges allow StanChart to secure an additional full banking license to establish a subsidiary to operate new or alternative business models, such as a digitally led bank with ecosystem partners.
StanChart Singapore was named the country’s first SRFB in August, and MAS is looking to further push the SRFB framework to possibly offer an additional full banking license.
If this digital bank happens, StanChart will join the four digital banks here that recently received licenses from MAS. Consumer Internet company Sea and a Grab-Singtel consortium obtained the two full digital banking licenses, while the two wholesale digital banking licenses were obtained by Ant Group of China and a consortium led by Greenland Financial.
In a statement, Patrick Lee, CEO of StanChart Singapore, said: “We are excited about the opportunity to secure an additional full banking license under the enhanced SRFB framework, and we are actively developing and exploring the best digital models for consumers in Singapore.”
The bank previously confirmed that it was mulling over its decision to build a digital banking team here, similar to MOX in Hong Kong.
StanChart Singapore’s enhanced privileges are in recognition of the bank’s “significantly higher degree of rootedness” that exceeds the SRFB’s benchmarks, according to a statement. With the signing of the UK-Singapore Free Trade Agreement (FTA) on Thursday, you will also be entitled to additional customer service locations in addition to the 50 you are entitled to as an SRFB. In August, it had 18 stores.
Bill Winters, executive director of the StanChart group, highlighted the “long and extensive” bilateral relationship between the United Kingdom and Singapore, and said that the signing of the FTA between the United Kingdom and Singapore allows the continuity of the EU-Singapore Free Trade Agreement ( EUSFTA).
“Singapore is a critical market for us, and it is a great honor to receive enhanced privileges from SRFB,” he said in a statement. “We have invested and grown in Singapore to become the global business and operations center that we are today, and we look forward to playing our role in developing the country’s banking landscape.”
StanChart is the first systemically important national bank to incorporate all of its Singapore businesses, and the largest foreign banking subsidiary with a $ 80 billion balance sheet backed by $ 6 billion of capital. Singapore is the group’s operating center, home to global business, technology and operations; and many of the bank’s leadership teams are anchored here.
Singapore is its second largest market after Hong Kong.
The SRFB framework was announced in 2012, and SRFBs were awarded only as part of an overall package negotiated under the FTAs with the home countries of full banks (QFBs) that meet the requirements and with QFBs that are “significantly ingrained” here.
The first FTA to include SRFB commitments, the EUSFTA, entered into force on November 21, 2019. StanChart Singapore is also the first QFB to qualify for SRFB privileges under the EUSFTA commitments.
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