Bank Accounts

In line with Singapore’s Smart Nation vision where “everyone has access to fast, simple, and secure payments”, MAS (Monetary Authority of Singapore) and ABS (The Association of Banks in Singapore) announced plan in July 2023 to eradicate corporate cheque usage in the city by end of 2025 while it continues to boost e-payment solution. MAS and the Payment Council proposed a roadmap to terminate the cheque truncation system (CTS) in their consultation paper i...

The HKMA (Hong Kong Monetary Authority) has issued a public consultation paper proposing to simplify the structure of the Hong Kong banking system. The current three-tier structure of the banking system – i.e. licensed banks (LBs), restricted licence banks (RLBs) and deposit-taking companies (DTCs) – has been in place since the 1980s, introduced to strike a balance between flexibility of market entry and protection of small depositors. The HKMA has recently condu...

Hong Kong government-backed ECIC (Export Credit Insurance Corporation) has announced a partnership with five banks HSBC, DBS HK, Hang Seng Bank, BOCHK and Bank of East Asia to offer exporters better coverage for payment defaults by private mainland Chinese firms. The risk-sharing arrangement will make it easier for Hong Kong firms to obtain credit insurance and bank financing for trade with the mainland. ECIC already offers credit insurance to export...

Hong Kong’s SFC (Securities and Futures Commission) has granted Mox Bank a Type 1 (dealing in securities) licence, making it the first virtual bank in the city to receive such a licence. With the new licence, Mox Bank will start piloting Hong Kong and US equity trading services in the HKMA sandbox “soon” and will look to onboard customers in phases later this year. The bank said customers will be able to open an investment account in “minutes” which will enable the...

Amid rising interest from ultra-high net worth (UHNW) families around the world to set up family offices in Singapore, DBS Private Bank has launched in end June 2023 the DBS Multi Family Office Foundry VCC (DBS MFO), the world’s first bank-backed multi family office that leverages Singapore's Variable Capital Company (VCC) structure. This new platform is established as an umbrella VCC, with multiple underlying sub-funds that clients can use to manage their ass...

DBS announced in start July 2023 that it is the first foreign bank to have a successful pilot run an e-CNY merchant solution for a catering company in Shenzhen. Such banking solution empowers corporate client in China to collect payments from their customers in e-CNY China's Cross Border Digital Currencies and allows e-CNY direct into their customers’deposits account. This service is a new form of digital money without having to go through manual ...

SMEs are an integral part of the economy of today and tomorrow. Banks support your business at all stages of your journey. Intershores's mission Is to provide you with a better and banking experience aiming to provide you with the information you need to ensure that the process of setting up your company bank account goes as soon as possible. This message divided into 3 parts: 1. the usual process of account opening in Hong Kong. 2. the information banks u...

MAS (Monetary Authority of Singapore) has fined Citibank N.A., Citibank (Singapore), DBS Bank, OCBC Singapore and Swiss Life (Singapore) a combined SGD 3.8 million (US$2.8 million) for breaching its AML/CFT (anti money laundering and countering the financing of terrorism) requirements end June 2023. The fines were imposed after MAS’s examinations of the financial institutions showing that they had “inadequate AML/CFT controls in place when they dealt with...

Using AI (artificial intelligence), data analytics, biometrics, blockchain and cloud technologies from OneConnect Financial Technology to digitalize the KYC process, OCBC Singapore becomes the first Singapore bank to launch a fully digital account-opening service for customers who are relocated to the city-state to work, study and live. Individuals from Hong Kong, Mainland China, Malaysia and Indonesia are able to open SGD and multi-currency accounts on OCBC’s ...