Singapore’s Shopee to Launch Digital Bank in Indonesia

Shopee, the e-commerce arm of Singapore’s Sea Group, is planning on transforming Indonesian lender Bank Kesejahteraan Ekonomi (Bank BKE) into a digital bank, according to a «Reuters» report on Thursday.

An Indonesia’s Financial Services Authority (OJK) official said that Shopee has yet to make an official application with the banking regulators, but is «currently preparing the infrastructure» for the transformation.

The bank, which began operations in 1992, was acquired by Shopee in January from the Jakarta-based lender’s existing shareholders Danadipa Artha Indonesia and Koin Investama Nusantara through its subsidiary Tubro Cash Hong Kong.

Indonesia is in the midst of preparing regulations for new digital banks, which is expected to be released in mid-2021. A digital lender like Bank BKE would be expected to prepare 3 trillion rupiah ($213.64 million) in capital, the official said.

Sea – Southeast Asia’s most valuable startup – raised close to $3 billion in a stock offering in December 2020. The company was also one of two to be awarded a license to operate a full digital bank in Singapore.