Number of Banks with Qualifying Full Banking Licences Currently Granting Loans to Local Corporations with Turnovers below $10 Million

Mr Don Wee asked the Prime Minister how many banks with Qualifying Full Banking Licences currently grant loans to local corporations with turnovers below S$10 million.

Mr Tharman Shanmugaratnam (for the Prime Minister): 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.

Mr Wee asked specifically about Qualifying Full Banks (QFBs). Five of the nine QFBs 1 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.

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.

Note(s) to Question No(s) 1:

1 The 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.