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The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) announced four successful digital bank applicants. The full digital banking license was granted to the Grab-Singtel consortium and the SEA group best known for its brands; Shopee and Garena.
Meanwhile, the digital wholesale bank license was granted to two related Chinese entities namely; a wholly owned entity by Ant Group and a consortium consisting of Greenland Financial Holdings, Linklogis Hong Kong and Beijing Co-operative Equity Investment Fund Management
Successful applicants must meet all relevant prudential requirements and preconditions for licensing before MAS will issue their respective banking licenses. MAS expects the new digital banks to start operating in early 2022.
MAS had previously announced that it would grant banking licenses for up to two DFBs and up to three DWBs. There were a total of 14 eligible applications.
According to MAS, applications were evaluated based on three factors; value proposition, ability to run a prudent and digital banking business, and growth prospects and other contributions to Singapore’s financial hub.
To select the selected candidates, MAS set strict expectations on all evaluation criteria. The two selected DFB applicants were clearly stronger than the other eligible DFB applicants. Regarding the DWBs, the two selected applicants met MAS’s expectations and were assessed to be demonstrably stronger on all criteria despite the overall high quality of eligible applicants. Therefore, MAS has decided to grant banking licenses to the two DWBs. As DWBs are introduced as a pilot, MAS will review whether to grant more such licenses in the future.
Ravi menon
Ravi Menon, Managing Director of MAS, said:
“MAS applied a rigorous and merit-based process to select a robust list of digital banks. We hope they will thrive alongside established banks and raise the bar in the industry in providing 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. ”
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