Standard Chartered Bank and FairPrice Group-backed digital bank Trust Bank have officially launched, aiming to bring a “new standard” of banking to Singapore and enable savings on everyday expenses.
With $400 million invested by its shareholders — StanChart, FairPrice and NTUC Enterprise, Trust’s range of products includes a credit card, savings account and family personal accident insurance.
This is combined with Link Rewards, the rewards and loyalty programme integrated with the FairPrice Group ecosystem. Trust offers rewards of up to 21% as a promotional launch rate on everyday spending at FairPrice’s touch points across NTUC FairPrice, Kopitiam, Cheers and Unity.
As part of the launch offering, Trust also provides a family personal accident insurance developed by Income at a premium of 50 cents per month. This is available at no premium for the first two months upon sign-up of the Trust credit card with no limit of the number of dependents covered.
Trust’s savings account provides customers with a base interest rate of 1% p.a. on deposits up to $50,000. For deposits above $50,000, customers get an interest rate of 0.05% p.a. Non NTUC union members get bonus interest of 0.2% p.a. on deposits up to $50,000 when they make five eligible Visa purchases on their Trust card, while union members get bonus interest of 0.4% p.a.
Customers can open their accounts with Singpass and use their virtual cards immediately. The Trust credit card, which also functions as a debit card, is a first-to-market numberless card which allows customers to select their own repayment date upfront.
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Banking with Trust is done solely through its app. It comes with an in-app spend tracker for real time tracing of Linkpoints earned as well as 24 hours in-app customer service voice and messaging.
Trust CEO Dwaipayan Sadhu says the digital bank is the result of 20 months of development and extensive feedback from its beta testers. “Through listening to our customers and by leveraging the strengths of our partners, we are committed to bringing real tangible value to our customers in Singapore through accessibility and convenience, and making Trust a part of their everyday lives,” he says.
Meanwhile, deputy prime minister Lawrence Wong says the launch of the digital bank is very timely, as the pandemic has accelerated society’s embrace of digital services. Singapore’s seniors, for instance, have started using digital banking services, Wong says, citing a study by Singapore Management University which found that 80% of bank customers aged 60 and above used digital banking in 2021, from just 20% in 2019.
“With greater digital adoption in financial services, there is much potential for the banking sector to relook how to do things differently and serve customers better,” he adds.
