Singapore director says it received 21 applications for digital bank licenses
- Candidates for these licenses included e-commerce corporations, tech and telecommunications firms, crowd-funding platforms and cost providers suppliers, the Financial Authority of Singapore mentioned Tuesday.
- The regulator mentioned it will announce its resolution in June and the winners are anticipated to begin their companies by mid-2021.
- Firms which have publicly disclosed their applications embody Seize, Singtel, Razer and Ant Monetary. Singapore has received 21 applications from a number of consortiums and firms for the 5 digital bank licenses which are up for grabs, the nation’s monetary regulator mentioned on Tuesday.
The Financial Authority of Singapore shook up the nation’s banking sector for the primary time in twenty years when it introduced final yr it would subject two digital full bank and three digital wholesale bank licenses. That may doubtlessly enable know-how gamers and non-banking firms to problem conventional lenders within the city-state.
The regulator will announce its resolution in June and the winners are anticipated to begin their companies by mid-2021.Candidates for these licenses embody e-commerce corporations, tech and telecommunications firms, crowd-funding platforms and cost providers suppliers, in keeping with MAS.MAS has outlined the distinction between candidates for digital full bank licenses and wholesale digital bank licenses. Digital full bank candidates should be “anchored in Singapore, controlled by Singaporeans and headquartered in Singapore,” whereas wholesale digital banks might be managed by both Singaporeans or overseas entities.Digital full bank
There have been seven candidates for the 2 digital full bank licenses that will enable non-banking entities to take deposits from retail prospects. Initially, the profitable entities would function with some restrictions — they will need to have at the least 15 million Singapore {dollars} ($11.12 million) funded by its founders or shareholders, they usually can solely acquire a most of S$50 million in whole deposits. Every buyer can solely deposit a most of S$75,000. The banks would solely have the ability to supply “simple capital market products” to retail prospects.
When all of MAS’ necessities are met, the restrictions could be lifted and the entities would have the ability to function with no deposit caps and a minimal paid-up capital of S$1.5 billion.Digital wholesale bank
There have been 14 candidates for the three digital wholesale bank licenses that will enable firms to lend to small and medium-sized companies, which regularly wrestle to seek out funding sources. Digital wholesale banks could be subjected to the identical regulatory necessities as present wholesale banks, which features a paid-up capital of S$100 million. Firms which have publicly disclosed their applications for the digital full bank or digital wholesale bank licenses embody:
- Experience-hailing agency Seize and telecommunications providers supplier Singtel
- Gaming {hardware} agency Razer and its consortium of companions
- Ant Monetary, which runs Alibaba’s large Alipay digital cost service
- Fintech agency V3 Group together with native card and funds firm EZ-Hyperlink
- Tech agency Advance.AI, together with Hong Kong-listed monetary providers agency Sheng Ye Capital and PhillipCapital
- Fintech firm iFast, together with its Chinese language companions Yillion Group and Hande Group
The newest firm to reveal its software on Tuesday was the U.S. listed web firm Sea, which owns the Southeast Asian e-commerce platform Shopee.
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