Trust’s launch effectively removed the supermarket chain’s multi-faceted banking links with Oversea-Chinese Banking Corp (OCBC). On Aug 31, a day before Trust kicked off, OCBC informed its NTUC Plus! Visa cardholders that the partnership will end on Jan 31, 2023.
For more than a century, Standard Chartered Bank (StanChart) was better known for being the merchant bank funding UK traders plying the seas linking up the Empire.
StanChart may not sound like a likely contender for digital banks in Singapore, but the qualifying full bank (QFB) licence holder made its move by launching Trust Bank with FairPrice Group, just a day after GXS announced their debut. Trust’s shareholders — StanChart, FairPrice Group and NTUC Enterprise — together invested $400 million in the bank, with StanChart holding 60% and NTUC, 40%.
