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 over 150 banks and deposit-taking institutions, and 45 banks with representative offices in Singapore. (EFA=Exempt Financial Adviser; ACU=Asian Currency Unit; SGS=Singapore Government Securities Market)

Commercial banks

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 18 July 2001, banks were no longer permitted to engage in non-financial activities.[1]

Local Banks

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 four today.

Full banks

There are presently five locally incorporated full banks in Singapore, owned by three banking groups.

Merchant banks

The typical activities of merchant banks include corporate finance, underwriting of share and bond issues, mergers and acquisitions, portfolio investment management, management consultancy, personal banking and other fee-based activities. Merchant banks may not accept sight or savings deposits or borrow from the public. However, they may accept deposits or borrow from banks, finance companies, shareholders and companies controlled by their shareholders.

Representative offices of banks

Citibank International Personal Bank Singapore

External links

https://secure.mas.gov.sg/fid/
Best Banks in Singapore
Address and Contact numbers of Singapore banks
Complete list of banks and branches in Singapore
List of banks swift codes in Singapore

References

Types of Deposit-Taking Institutions www.mas.gov.sg, retrieved 2025-11-15^
Financial Institutions Directory mas.gov.sg, Monetary Authority of Singapore, retrieved 8 September 2018^
Financial Institutions Directory eservices.mas.gov.sg, retrieved 2025-11-15

Foreign banks

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

Full 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.

Qualifying full banks

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 Maybank Singapore. These QFBs are permitted to operate up to 15 service locations.

In June 2004, the QFB licence was further liberalised. QFBs are permitted to establish up to 25 service locations of which up to 10 can be branches from 1 January 2005. These banks were permitted to share their ATM networks (this was achieved with five of the QFBs through atm5), and provide services via the EFTPOS network from 1 July 2002. On the same day, they are also permitted to provide the Central Provident Fund's Supplementary Retirement Scheme and Investment Scheme accounts and to accept CPF fixed deposits. In 2012, MAS announced new changes to the QFB scheme, requiring QFBs who are "important to the domestic market to locally incorporate their retail operations". Further, such QFBs, whose home countries have Free Trade Agreements with Singapore, will be able to operate up to 50 places of business.

Wholesale banks

Wholesale bank licences were first issued in December 2001 to replace the "Restricted Bank (RB)" licence as a reflexion of greater services which may be conducted by these banks. These banks may conduct the same range of services as full banks, except that they do not deal with banking activities in the Singapore Dollar, and can only have one main branch.

List of banks in Singapore

Commercial banks

Local Banks

Full banks

Merchant banks

Representative offices of banks

See also

External links

References

Digital full banks

Defunct banks

Full banks

Digital full banks

Defunct banks

Foreign banks

Full banks

Qualifying full banks

Wholesale banks

Offshore banks

Full banks

Qualifying full banks

Wholesale banks

Offshore banks

Retail banks in Singapore by total assets (as of 2024)