Ant, Grab Win Singapore Digital Bank Licenses Along With Sea

Ant Group and a venture led by Grab won licenses to run digital banks in Singapore, paving the way for the technology giants to expand their financial services in the Southeast Asian hub. From a report: Sea is also among the four winners announced Friday by the Monetary Authority of Singapore after almost a year of deliberation. A consortium involving China's Greenland Financial is the other successful candidate. Singapore joins the U.K. and Hong Kong in opening up its banking system to purely digital entrants, as it seeks to inject innovation and competition into a market dominated by traditional lenders. The permits are coveted given the city's status as a rapidly growing wealth management center and a gateway to Southeast Asia, where the digital lending market is expected to quadruple in five years.

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