The Singapore government, including the country’s central bank – the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) – have begun a pilot with four banks that allows citizens to apply for a new bank account without needing to submit supporting documentation.

The Smart Nation and Digital Government Office (SNDGO) and Government Technology Agency (GovTech), in collaboration with MAS, have begun the trial which aims to explore simplifying online banking transactions with the use of the Government’s MyInfo service.

From today, prospective customers of United Overseas Bank (UOB), Development Bank of Singapore (DBS), Oversea-Chinese Banking Corporation (OCBC) and Standard Chartered Bank (StanChart) with a registered profile on myinfo.gov.sg can apply for a new bank account without needing to submit supporting documentation.

Currently banks require users to submit copies of their identity, income and CPF documents for applications. With MyInfo, customers can pre-fill these government-verified personal particulars into the necessary forms, and avoid the need to submit supporting documents. This quickens transaction times and the banks are thus expected to benefit from higher productivity and lower compliance costs.

Sopnendu Mohanty, chief FinTech officer at MAS, said: “MAS is excited by the opportunities that national infrastructure platforms can bring to the financial industry, such as hassle-free online account opening and instant account activation in the near future. MAS would like to urge the industry to reimagine their customer journey for instant gratification as they leverage platforms like MyInfo.”

Jacqueline Poh, chief executive of GovTech, added: “We want to explore how citizen-centric government digital services can be extended to better help industry and transform service-delivery to citizens. We have seen good take-up of MyInfo, and hope that this public-private collaboration will provide citizens with even more benefits.”

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