QUESTIONS NO 11

NOTICE PAPER 12 OF 2020

FOR WRITTEN ANSWER

Date: For Parliament Sitting on 4 September 2020

Name and Constituency of Member of Parliament

Mr Don Wee, MP, Chua Chu Kang GRC

Questions:

Q 11. To ask the Prime Minister how many banks with Qualifying Full Banking Licences currently grant loans to local corporations with turnovers below S$10 million.

Answer by Mr Tharman Shanmugaratnam, Senior Minister and Minister in charge of MAS:

1.     Small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in Singapore are served by a variety of lending institutions and platforms in our financial sector. The three local banks, finance companies and, more recently, crowdfunding platforms, play an active role lending to SMEs and the smaller local enterprises with annual turnover below $10 million. 

2.     Mr Wee asked specifically about Qualifying Full Banks (QFBs). Five of the nine QFBsThe nine QFBs are Bank of China Limited, BNP Paribas, Citibank Singapore Limited, HSBC Bank (Singapore) Limited, ICICI Bank Limited, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China Limited, Maybank Singapore Limited, Standard Chartered Bank (Singapore) Limited, and State Bank of India. currently grant loans to SMEs and local enterprises with annual turnover below $10 million. The remaining QFBs serve other segments of the Singapore market, providing services such as retail banking, wealth management, Renminbi services, securities services, and credit and trade finance for larger corporates.

3.     The Government has provided a 90% risk-share on the loans granted under Enterprise Singapore’s (ESG) Temporary Bridging Loan Programme, which has increased the availability of credit to SMEs. More than 80% of these loans were taken up by local enterprises with annual turnover below $10 million.

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