Written reply to Parliamentary Question on banks adopting Singpass as the primary method of verification
Date: For Parliament Sitting on 6 February 2024
Name and Constituency of Member of Parliament
Mr Yip Hon Weng, MP, Yio Chu Kang SMC
Question:
To ask the Prime Minister whether the Government will consider allowing banks to adopt Singpass as the primary method (i) to verify the addresses of bank account holders and (ii) for bank account holders to update their addresses.
Answer by Mr Lawrence Wong, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Finance, and Chairman of MAS:
1. Banks are allowed to adopt Singpass services such as Myinfo to obtain and verify their customers’ personal particulars. This has been widely implemented for online banking channels. The extent of adoption at bank branches varies and depends on individual banks’ considerations such as the profile of branch customers and their respective preferences, and the extent of Information Technology integration needed. MAS encourages banks to integrate Singpass services into their branch systems so that customers have a choice between digital and physical identity card verification at branches.