Mirroring its efforts in Hong Kong, Standard Chartered is planning for a second digital-only bank this time in the rival financial hub of Singapore.
Standard Chartered is planning for its second virtual bank through a joint venture in partnership with National Trade Union Congress (NTUC) Enterprise, according to a «Bloomberg» report citing unnamed sources.
In the planned joint venture, Standard Chartered would hold a majority stake with the remaining held by NTUC Enterprise, a unit within trade union NTUC which operates more than 100 supermarket outlets in Singapore.
The business, code-named «Project Phoenix», will be led by Alex Twigg, who left Australian startup Judo Bank in June where he was its co-founder. Previously, he also founded UBank, an online lending unit in National Australian Bank.
License Leader
In addition to an existing online banking platform, Standard Chartered is making a diversified drive in Asia to tap into the nascent virtual banking market. If successfully launched, the joint venture with NTUC Enterprise would make Standard Chartered the only entity to obtain a virtual banking license in the region’s two largest hubs.
In Hong Kong, Standard Chartered’s Mox – jointly owned with telecom firms PCCW and Hong Kong Telecom, and online travel agency trip.com – is one of eight licensed virtual bankers preparing to officially launch and it recently rolled out a trial to gather initial user feedback.
Virtual banking aside, Standard Chartered’s deepening ties in Singapore also helped it recently earn the status as the city-state’s first Significantly Rooted Foreign Bank (SRFB). Under the SRFB status, Standard Chartered has been rewarded a handful of privileges including permission to set up to 50 places of business, of which 35 can be branches, and the right to establish «a separate subsidiary to develop alternative business models» – the potential route chosen to launch «Project Phoenix»
