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Green Link Digital Bank
Launching the first digital-only bank in Singapore to bring innovative services to small business owners
Singapore
At a Glance
• Provides the foundations for the first ever digital-only bank in Singapore
• Enables 83% faster product development than typical core banking platforms
• Requires 50% fewer resources to manage and operate than standard systems
In 2019, the Monetary Authority of Singapore offered its first ever licenses for digital-only banks. Chinese property development company and Fortune Global 500 member Greenland Group and Hong Kong fintech Linklogis saw a golden opportunity to seize first-mover advantage. Together, they developed plans for Green Link Digital Bank, a financial service provider that would set the standard for innovation in Singapore.
Mr. Kuang Mi, CEO of Lianqi Cloud, and the Head of IT, Greenland Digitech (Parent company of Green Link Digital Bank), explains: “We decided to focus on micro-, small-, and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs) in high-growth sectors such as technology and sustainable construction. Our goal was to provide digital and mobile banking that would enable our clients to access much-needed capital, manage and improve their liquidity and cash flow, and expand their businesses.”
Turning plans into reality
Building an all-new digital bank from scratch was a considerable challenge. The founders wanted Green Link Digital Bank to offer an extensive range of services—from deposit accounts, loans and electronic payments to specialist trade and supply chain financing, and cutting-edge open banking offerings.
Mr. Kuang Mi continues: “We knew we would face strong competition from other agile fintechs that specialize in developing user-friendly, multi-channel banking services. To survive and thrive in this challenging market, we aimed to implement a lean, agile, and cost-efficient operating model that would enable us to focus on digital innovation and foster long-term relationships with our clients.”
Turning plans into reality would require the right mix of robust infrastructure resources and flexible product development capabilities. To move quickly, the team behind Green Link Digital Bank searched for a proven, best-of-breed core banking platform that would help to meet regulatory requirements and serve as a reliable foundation for its online and mobile services. Scalability was another key requirement: once the bank was well established in Singapore, the plan was to expand into other South Asian markets.
Laying robust foundations
After assessing core banking systems from international and local vendors, Green Link Digital Bank selected Temenos core banking running on the Huawei Cloud to support its launch. The bank makes extensive use of the core platform, including Temenos Payments and Temenos Data Hub, for product development, managing client accounts and transactions, and for key back-office and compliance processes.
Greenland Digitech led the implementation of the core platform for Green Link Digital Bank, with support from Temenos and Huawei. The bank went live in just 11 months, as Mr. Kuang Mi confirms: “Temenos delivered exceptional support, ensuring we completed the implementation quickly and efficiently.”
“The Temenos team was very impressive, presenting well and offering helpful guidance when we applied for our banking license. The platform offered all the core functionality we needed to move to market quickly. We also drew confidence from the fact that many leading Asian banks use Temenos solutions, while their international expertise will be especially useful as we scale operations beyond Singapore.”
Mr. Kuang Mi, CEO of Lianqi Cloud, and the Head of IT at Green Link Digital Bank
Breaking new ground in Singapore
Supported by Temenos, Green Link Digital Bank has successfully launched on the market, becoming the first digital-only bank to operate in Singapore. Using product development frameworks in Temenos core banking, the bank has created compelling and relevant payments, lending, and supply chain finance services to help MSMEs to access vital working capital and trade with local and international partners.
At Greenland Digitech, we have considerable experience with other core banking platforms. In most cases, it can take as long as six months to develop, trial, and launch new products. With Temenos core banking solution, we can bring services to market within one month—83 percent faster, which is helping us to make an impact in the Singaporean market and reach clients before competitors.”
Mr. Kuang Mi, CEO of Lianqi Cloud, and the Head of IT at Green Link Digital Bank
The pre-configured workflows in Temenos also simplify systems management for Green Link Digital Bank, as Mr. Kuang Mi comments: “Most core banking systems require customization and additional coding. Temenos core banking eliminates this complex, time-consuming work: we can manage and operate the platform with 50 percent fewer resources than a typical core system, freeing time for more valuable work.”
Forging a nimble, cost-efficient operating model
Running Temenos core banking on the Huawei Cloud is helping Green Link Digital Bank optimize agility and cost-efficiency. “With the cloud model, we avoid the hassle and expenses of managing on-premises infrastructure, and we can quickly deploy additional resources to run testing cycles for new product features,” adds Mr. Kuang Mi. “Using Temenos core banking on the cloud makes us a more nimble operation.”
Furthermore, Temenos Data Hub is enabling Green Link Digital Bank to achieve efficiencies in its back-office workflows, as Mr. Kuang Mi adds: “Temenos Data Hub offers us a lot of flexibility around how we schedule and run our batch processes, and helps us gain a clear view of our end-of-day position.”
Currently, Green Link Digital Bank is using the API capabilities of Temenos core banking to develop and trial open banking services for MSMEs. The bank is running several pilot schemes with clients to test and optimize the new offerings before launching them to the wider market in Singapore.
“Temenos core banking gives us very strong foundations to support our operations. We will continue to build on the platform to create differentiated banking services for MSMEs. With Temenos, we have launched a first-of-a-kind digital-only bank in Singapore, and we have the capabilities in place to innovate, win new business, and scale our operations into other Asian markets when the time is right.”
Mr. Kuang Mi, CEO of Lianqi Cloud, and the Head of IT at Green Link Digital Bank