Trust expands product offerings in bid to become S’pore’s 4th-largest bank
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Digital bank Trust launched its latest product as part of a broader plan to expand by end-2024.
ST PHOTO: LIM YAOHUI
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SINGAPORE – Digital bank Trust has launched its latest product as part of a broader plan to expand and position itself by end-2024 to become Singapore’s fourth-largest retail bank by customer volume, behind DBS Bank, UOB and OCBC Bank.
Retail customers can now directly buy travel insurance on the Trust app and will be able to take personal, unsecured loans within the next two to three months, Trust chief executive Dwaipayan Sadhu said on Monday.
Payments via Giro as well as additional savings options will be made available by the year end, while Trust will also expand its insurance offerings with Income Insurance (formerly NTUC Income) beyond personal accident and travel.
Since its launch in September 2022,
The online-only bank now has over 500,000 customers, which is about 10 per cent of Singapore’s adult population. DBS, UOB and OCBC currently have the lion’s share of the Singapore retail market.
Still, Mr Sadhu expects Trust’s customers to double to one million by the end of 2024 as the bank builds greater interest and loyalty for its growing suite of products.
For example, Trust’s travel insurance offering will be packaged with its zero foreign exchange-fee credit cards to take advantage of the returning international travel momentum. According to Mr Sadhu, Trust customers have already used its cards in 102 countries.
Meanwhile, deposit balances have grown to exceed $1 billion, with interest rates of up to 2 per cent a year for non-NTUC union members on their first $75,000 deposit and up to 2.5 per cent a year for union members.
Trust has been able to pay interest at those levels as deposits are invested in Singapore Treasury bills with yields exceeding 2.5 per cent, Mr Sadhu said.
He added that deposit rates are also backed by the bank’s credit card operations and will be further supported by its upcoming instant personal loan business. “As we introduce new loan products, our deposits will be deployed against these assets, which further improve our returns.”
Banks make money from the difference between fees earned from loans and rates paid on deposits.
This will all help Trust break even, that is, generate enough revenue to offset all of its costs, by 2025. The digital bank’s costs last year totalled around $120 million, according to Mr Sadhu.
A joint venture between Standard Chartered Bank and FairPrice, Trust has made achievements thanks to StanChart’s enhanced Significantly Rooted Foreign Bank status here, allowing Trust to obtain a licence to operate like a traditional lender.
This has set it apart from competition in the digital banking space, which is heating up.
In April, GXS Bank, the digital bank backed by Grab and Singtel, announced personal loans of as low as $200
GXS recently also hit its initial deposit cap of $50 million, although new sign-ups are currently frozen under its licence.
Trust could also face competition for some of its products and services from firms like Revolut. The financial technology provider already offers payments, cross-border money transfers and remittances, foreign exchange trading and fractional US stocks trading, as well as commodities and crypto trading on its app.
Although Revolut does not have a licence allowing it to accept deposits and provide credit card and other loan services here, its chief executive Raymond Ng told The Straits Times earlier in May
A partnership could be similar to StanChart’s deal with FairPrice in establishing Trust, Mr Ng said. An announcement on this front could come as soon as this year.
Correction note: A previous version of this story referred to Income Insurance as NTUC Income. This has been corrected.
