South China Morning Post
Advertisement
Advertisement
Ant Group
Get more with myNEWS
A personalised news feed of stories that matter to you
Learn more
The Monetary Authority of Singapore said Ant Group and the Greenland consortium met its expectations and criteria. Photo: EPA-EFE
BusinessBanking & Finance

Ant Group wins Singapore digital wholesale banking licence

  • A consortium comprising Greenland Financial Holdings Group was also awarded a digital wholesale bank licence by the Monetary Authority of Singapore
  • Both banks are expected to start operations from early 2022, MAS said
Ant Group
Eric Ng
Eric Ng
Why you can trust SCMP
Ant Group, controlled by China’s richest person, Jack Ma, on Friday won one of two licences awarded by Singapore to operate a digital wholesale bank in the city state.

A consortium comprising Greenland Financial Holdings Group, Linklogis Hong Kong, and Beijing Co-operative Equity Investment Fund Management bagged the other licence.

“The two selected digital wholesale bank applicants met [our] expectations and were assessed to be demonstrably stronger across the criteria notwithstanding the general high quality of the eligible applicants,” the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) said in a statement.

The digital wholesale banks are expected to start operating from early 2022, MAS said.

Ant Group operates the Alipay electronic payment service, which had 731 million active users as of September 30. Photo: EPA-EFE

The authority added that it may grant additional wholesale banking licences in the future, after reviewing the operations of the two licence winners in the pilot programme.

“We would like to thank the Monetary Authority of Singapore for awarding us a digital wholesale bank licence, and we are grateful for this opportunity to further contribute to accelerating digital financial innovation and inclusion in Singapore and the region,” Ant said in a statement on Friday.
Ant’s Singapore expansion comes after the Hangzhou-headquartered online payments provider unveiled a joint venture in Russia in October last year with internet firm Mail.ru Group to build an online payments service.

The Alibaba affiliate and operator of the Alipay electronic payment service is also targeting expansion in Southeast Asia, South Asia, Africa and the Middle East, according to people familiar with its plan. Alibaba owns the South China Morning Post. Ant had 731 million monthly active users of its Alipay app as of September 30.

Suspension of Ant IPO likely to cost banks US$400 million in fees

Ant last month shelved a US$39.5 billion stock sale in Hong Kong and Shanghai, in what could have been the world’s largest initial public offering, after regulators signalled they were about to unleash a slew of new rules that would reset the landscape for fintech companies in China.

The regulators told Ant executives that in the future, greater financial inclusion driven by internet platforms would take a back seat to financial stability and protecting traditional lenders. 

On Friday, the MAS also awarded licences to a consortium comprising Singaporean ride-hailing company Grab Holding and Singapore Telecommunications, and internet company Sea to run “full” digital banks.

The MAS last year announced a digital bank framework aimed to enable nonbank players with innovative digital business models to offer digital banking services.

Digital full banks will provide a wide range of financial services and take deposits from retail customers, while wholesale ones will focus on serving small and medium-sized enterprises and other non-retail clients.

Post