Grab-Singtel digital bank to add 200 local staff by end-2021

The digital full bank set up by the Grab-Singtel consortium will hire around 200 staff in Singapore by the end of next year to build up a robust banking infrastructure.

To date, 10-15 per cent of the roles in the digital bank have been filled.

Banking veteran Charles Wong, who headed Citibank Singapore's retail banking until February this year, has been appointed chief executive of the digital bank. The Business Times in March reported Mr Wong's move to Grab after more than 20 years in Citibank .

The digital bank will focus on serving consumers and small businesses. It will first target young PMETs (professional, manager, executive and technician), flexible-income gig workers, as well as micro-small and medium enterprises, it said.

The consortium aims to formally launch the bank in early 2022, and aims to build a "sustainable business" focused on offering Singaporeans a personalised, accessible and trusted financial products, said Mr Wong.

It will look to hire in areas of product, data, technology, risk, finance and compliance, said Grab and Singtel in a statement on Friday evening. Key roles in some of these areas such as cyber security, data and product, have been filled.

The consortium will also open up more technology and fintech-related roles, for which it will train and equip Singaporeans. These would require skill sets in cyber and information security, data science and analytics as well as tech engineering, it said.

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Grab and Singtel first formed a consortium in December 2019 to apply for the licence. Grab has a 60 per cent stake; while Singtel has 40 per cent.

Mr Wong added that it is "truly rare" to be able to have an opportunity to develop a digital bank from scratch.

He said: "Customers from multiple segments, including the underserved and underbanked, will be able to have their financial needs met seamlessly, powered by our next-generation cloud technology and data platform."

Mr Wong spent nearly five years in his previous job at Citibank Singapore, and was credited for bringing about a strong turnaround of the business, leading the unit to deliver consistent double-digit growth.

Anthony Tan, group chief executive and co-founder of Grab, said: "The digital bank will further our goal to empower more people to gain better control of their money and achieve better economic outcomes for themselves, their businesses and families."

Yuen Kuan Moon, Singtel group CEO-designate, agreed: "We have the assets and the synergies to make banking more accessible and intuitive.

"As a home-grown company, we look forward to contributing to this exciting digital era of finance for Singapore that will drive greater value creation, build new careers and develop a strong Singaporean core of fintech talent for the industry."