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The Monetary Authority of Singapore received 21 digital bank applications, the regulator said on Tuesday.
This comprises 14 applications for the digital wholesale bank licenses and seven applications for the digital full bank licenses. The majority of applicants are consortiums, Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) said in a statement, without naming the entities.
The new digital bank licenses have attracted strong interest from a diverse group of applicants, ranging from e-commerce firms, technology, and telecommunications companies, fintech – such as crowd-funding platforms and payment services providers – as well as financial institutions.
MAS is issuing up to five digital banking licenses by June this year – up to two full-bank licenses that permit retail banking, and up to three for wholesale banking.
The new digital banks are expected to start their operations by the middle of 2021. This liberalization move – the biggest for the financial sector here since 1999 – was first announced by the MAS in June last year. Applications closed on Dec 31, 2019.
Applicants that have expressed their interest publicly include Ant Financial, Grab and Singtel, Razer’s consortium, the V3 Group linked to entrepreneur Ron Sim, Temasek-linked supply chain finance firm Sheng Ye Capital, and a consortium led by Hong Kong’s AMTD Group.
