Chinese real estate developer and state-owned enterprise Greenland Group, through its investment arm Greenland Financial, has formed a consortium with partners, including Chinese financing platform MinIPO, to vie for a digital wholesale bank licence in Singapore. The group intends to build a digital bank that taps China's financial technology to serve small and medium-sized enterprises in Singapore, leveraging the partners' capabilities, it told Lianhe Zaobao.

Mr Geng Jing, executive president of Greenland Group and chairman of Greenland Financial, said the consortium will be a strong combination of large-scale state-owned enterprises and fintech leaders in China. He added that it will also collaborate with top academic institutions in Asia in areas such as artificial intelligence technology and financial risk management, and fintech talents to help the development of digital wholesale banking.

This adds to a growing list of Chinese contenders joining the digital banking fray in Singapore. Yesterday, China-based Zall Smart Commerce Group announced it had teamed up with Japanese trading conglomerate Marubeni Corporation, and Singapore supply chain platform provider Global eTrade Services, for a digital wholesale bank licence.

The Monetary Authority of Singapore said 14 applications for digital wholesale bank licences have been received.

THE BUSINESS TIMES