List of banks in Singapore

This is a list of banks with operations in Singapore. Location of incorporation is provided in brackets for foreign banks. There are, at present, 111 commercial banks, 49 merchant banks, and 45 banks with representative offices in Singapore. (EFA=Exempt Financial Adviser; ACU=Asian Currency Unit; SGS=Singapore Government Securities Market)

Commercial banks in Singapore may undertake universal banking, such as the taking of deposits and the provision of cheque services and lending, as well any other business authorised by the Monetary Authority of Singapore, including financial advisory services, insurance brokering and capital market services, as long as they are permitted under section 30 of the Banking Act. Since July 2001, banks were no longer permitted to engage in non-financial activities.

In a bid to encourage consolidation of the local banking industry to form larger banking conglomerates better able to regionalise and compete with foreign banks, the government liberalised the banking sector by awarding greater liberty for foreign banks to operate in Singapore in 2001. Since then, the number of local full banks has shrunk by more than half to 6 today.

There are presently 6 locally incorporated full banks in Singapore, owned by three banking groups. These full banks have the liberty to provide any financial service as permitted by the Banking Act.

There are presently 119 foreign commercial banks in Singapore, of which 28 are Full banks, 54 are Wholesale banks, and 37 are Offshore banks.

Although foreign banks with full bank licences can also offer most commercial banking services to clients compared to local banks, they are restricted in terms of number of branches and automated teller machines.

Liberalisation of the banking sector saw the government creating a new category under the foreign banks category, called the Qualifying Full Bank (QFB). The first four licences were awarded on 20 October 1999 to ABN AMRO, Banque Nationale De Paris (now BNP Paribas), Citibank (transferred to newly locally incorporated Citibank Singapore on 28 June 2004) and Standard Chartered Bank. Two new licences were issued in December 2001 as part of the second phase of bank liberalisation, namely to the Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation and Malayan Banking. These QFBs are permitted to operate up to 15 service locations.

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