Trust Bank taps ecosystem to fuel digital banking growth

The digital lender credits partnerships, not just tech, for its scale to one million customers in under four years

Trust Bank has attributed its rapid growth in Singapore to its ecosystem partnerships, saying they enabled the digital lender to scale faster than technology alone could.

Speaking at the Asian Banking & Finance and Insurance Asia Summit in Singapore on 1 July, Naveen Sethia, chief customer officer at Trust Bank, said the bank's partnership with Standard Chartered and NTUC enabled it to build on existing customer relationships and loyalty programmes rather than developing them from scratch.

"Our foundation, so Trust has two shareholders," Sethia said. "It's a unique partnership between Standard Chartered Bank and NTUC."

He said Standard Chartered contributed its long banking heritage in Singapore and track record of innovation, whilst NTUC provided access to a broad consumer ecosystem spanning FairPrice supermarkets, food outlets, Income Insurance, union memberships and the Link Rewards programme.

"This all also helped us a lot, because we as a bank don't need to build a loyalty system from get-go," Sethia said. "Even today Link credit card is a product that we offer, and client get Link points as a reward, and that was widely popular even before we started."

The shareholder model formed one of three foundations Sethia said enabled Trust to scale rapidly after launching in September 2022. The bank has grown to more than one million customers, equivalent to one in five adults in Singapore, and reported its first quarterly profit in March this year.

Sethia also credited Singapore's digital infrastructure as another key growth driver, describing the country's national digital identity system and real-time payments network as critical enablers of customer acquisition.

Singapore's MyInfo and Singpass systems allow customers to complete know-your-customer checks quickly, whilst payment platforms such as PayNow, FAST and SGQR make digital transactions seamless.

Trust also built its technology stack without legacy systems, adopting a cloud-native architecture and event-driven design from the outset.

"Since we started in 2022, we had the luxury of going cloud native," Sethia said. "We don't need to rely on legacy systems."

Trust paired that technology foundation with a customer-first culture to shape product development before expanding from savings accounts and credit cards into lending, investments and insurance.

Its customer-led innovations include a card that switches between debit and credit, digital supplementary card applications, automated payments, Saving Spot for goal-based saving, and digital investment products.

Sethia said many of these innovations were developed after customers shared specific needs with the bank.

Sethia said customers wanted the simplicity of fintech investment platforms without sacrificing the trust associated with established banks. Trust responded by launching mutual funds in 2025 before expanding into stock trading and fractional investing.

"We really focus on solving some of the needs people have in a different way," Sethia said. "People will engage, and they will use you more."