By June 2020, MAS will need to make a decision on which parties will they award the five digital bank licenses to.

The five digital bank licenses can be broken down into

The difference between the two types of licenses is simple:

Digital full banks are allowed to take deposits from retail customers like any of us. This function is something familiar to all Singaporeans with a savings account, very much like the DBS banks and OCBC banks which we are familiar with, but fully digitalised.

Simply put, all your banking services will be done online without the need to head down to a physical branch.

Digital wholesale banks are more catered towards the non-retail