In Singapore, DBS, OCBC and UOB Bank already taken the lead in FinTech. How do they start this transformation? 

1. Build a start-up team

As the largest bank in Southeast Asia, DBS Bank has won titles such as the world's best digital bank and the world's safest bank in recent years, which is an example of successful transformation. But only ten years ago, DBS' reputation was not so good!

Especially with the advent of the digital wave, DBS feels the pressure to change. In the past few years, the CEO of DBS Bank announced that DBS would transform into a new FinTech team with more than 20,000 employees (now 26,000 employees worldwide).

At the same time, he created new energy from external rails, and founded the HotSpot project in 2015 to cultivate the FinTech start-up team. In 2016 and 2018, DBS Bank was successively selected by Euromoney as the first "World's Best Digital Bank".

2. Establish a laboratory for FinTech

In Singapore, the bank's own their innovation laboratory. And banks will set up FinTech laboratories because of the encouragement from the Singapore Monetary Authority (MAS).

The innovation laboratory of DBS Bank is called DAX; and the new creation base of OCBC in the warehouse area of ​​the old terminal is The Open Vault (TOV), which literally translates as "open vault."

The TOV team of OCBC Bank has held the "TOV Innovation Challenge" since 2016. Eight departments put forward practical operational problems and solicited proposals from the start-up team. After 12 weeks of collaborative development, the bank developed a successful solution.

3. Corporate finance services

The FinTech laboratory “FinLab” established by United Overseas Bank (UOB) leverages FinTech energy and introduces it into corporate finance services.

Half of FinLab's funding comes from Singaporean government agency “SGInnovate”, which must take on the task of fostering start-up teams and small and medium-sized enterprises. The role of FinLab is like a broker, matching the technology of the start-up team with the needs of SMEs, seeking business opportunities for the start-up team, and accelerating the digitalization of SMEs.

Since 2016, FinLab has held three rounds of solicitation. From more than 700 solicitations in more than 40 countries, 13 new start-up teams have been selected and brought them to participate in the Smart Business Transformation program (Smart Business Transformation).

4. Talent hunting

In recent years, major banks in Singapore have actively sought out people. For example, DBS Bank launched the Unicorn Talent Internship Program. In 2018, there were as many as 1,500 applicants and 24 students were selected.

These students must work with the operation department to find out customer needs and propose solutions after three months. If the plan is really adopted, students with outstanding performance will be admitted first.

DBS also to recruit talents, mostly from universities in Singapore, Southeast Asia, and even as far as India to recruit programmers. But many banks are also recruiting talents.