Sea’s digital bank picks Natalia Goh as new CEO to ward off tough competition
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MariBank's new CEO Natalia Goh was rival Trust Bank's chief operating officer.
PHOTO: MARIBANK
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SINGAPORE - Sea has appointed Ms Natalia Goh as the new leader of its Singapore digital bank, picking the operating chief of rival Trust Bank to steer the South-east Asian internet company’s budding finance arm.
Ms Goh is replacing Mr Zheng Yu Dong as the chief executive of the MariBank unit, and Mr Zheng will become an adviser to the company. The executives announced the changes on their LinkedIn pages.
Competition in South-east Asia’s digital banking space is intensifying as new entrants such as MariBank battle incumbents to lure the increasingly tech-savvy consumers in the region of more than 650 million people.
MariBank is locked in fierce competition with Standard Chartered’s Trust Bank and a venture owned by Grab Holdings and Singtel called GXS Bank.
Sea’s digital banking division has become one of its key pillars of expansion as revenue growth at its gaming arm wavers. Its e-commerce unit Shopee remains its largest revenue generator.
Ms Goh, a former managing director at Standard Chartered, served as the head of credit cards and unsecured lending in Singapore before joining Trust Bank as its chief operating officer in 2022, according to her LinkedIn profile.
Mr Zheng is stepping down after two years as MariBank’s CEO. He was previously the head of digital banking at SeaMoney, and was formerly the head of investment strategy and advisory at Standard Chartered. BLOOMBERG
