Sea Group's digital bank is establishing in Singapore to decide individuals

March 16, 2023: Singapore tech firm Sea Group has launched its digital banking services to choose members of the public.

“We are rolling out our services on an invite-only basis,” MariBank stated on its recent website launch.

It is the recent online lender to join several others in Singapore since the city-state issued four digital bank licenses in 2020.

MariBank has been rolling out its things progressively in the third quarter of 2022 and was only available to employees of Sea Group.

The bank currently only offers a savings account that earns depositors annual interest prices of 2.5%. No minimum deposit is required, and no minimum spending amount or salary credit is needed.

Its rival, Grab-Singtel’s GXS Bank, also offers only a single product to customers and employees by invitation.

Digital complete bank licenses were given to GXS Bank and MariBank, which serve retail customers. Ant Group’s ANEXT Bank and Green Link Digital Bank secured digital wholesale bank licenses to serve small-and-medium firms and other non-retail segments.

Digital banks in Singapore are always finding their footing in a largely banked nation, where only 2% still need bank accounts.

The launch of MariBank comes following Sea Group’s announced its first quarterly net profit in the previous week, helped by cost-cutting measures like reducing headcount and marketing money.

Days later, the Indonesian arm of Sea Group’s e-commerce arm Reportedly, Shopee has laid off hundreds of full-time and contract workers.

According to media reports, Sea had already slashed more than 7,000 jobs in the previous year to slash costs.