China’s Ant Group Launches New Digital Wholesale Bank ANEXT

China’s Ant Group, a fintech giant which is under the leadership of billionaire Jack Ma, revealed on Monday that it has launched a digital wholesale bank incorporated in Singapore which is named ANEXT Bank.

The brand-new wholesale bank received approval from the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) to start business on June 2, 2022. This new project is one of Ant’s biggest overseas ventures after its $37 billion initial public offering (IPO) was derailed in 2020 by Chinese regulators.

MAS Chief Fintech Officer, Sopnendu Mohanty, was quoted as saying “this marks yet another milestone in Singapore’s digital bank development journey, a strategic effort to ensure the banking sector remains pregressive, globally competitive and vibrant.”

According to Ant, ANEXT’s main focus will be small and mid-sized enterprises (SMEs), specifically those with cross-border operations.

Technology firm Sea and venture of ride-hailing and fintech firm Grad, both already won “digital full bank” licenses in 2020. These licenses allowed the companies to directly receive deposits and offer services locally to retail and corporate customers. MAS also revealed that these companies intend to launch digital banks somewhere this year.

ANEXT, which is led by banking veteran Toh Su Mei, is planning to also develop an open framework for financial institutions in partnership with Proxtera, which is a local entity initiated by MAS and Singapore’s Infocomm Media Development Authority.

The company has recently revealed that ANEXT’s Business Account will be available from the third quarter of this year.