GXS appoints banking veteran as Group CEO as Bank doubles down on its commitment to Singapore and Malaysia
SINGAPORE, 2 February 2023 – GXS Bank (GXS) strengthens its commitment to improve financial inclusion in Singapore and Malaysia, where GXS and its subsidiary hold banking licences, with the appointment of Muthukrishnan Ramaswami (“Ramu”) as its Group Chief Executive Officer (“CEO”). Ramu’s appointment is subject to regulatory approval.
As Group CEO, Ramu will be instrumental to GXS’ ambition to serve more individuals and small businesses in Singapore and Malaysia. Ramu will also lead regional partnerships in which GXS can benefit from economies of scale even as these partnerships are localised for Singapore and Malaysia.
A veteran in the financial services industry, Ramu has more than 35 years of experience across a range of financial businesses including exchanges, clearing houses as well as retail and wholesale banking. He has held regional and international leadership roles across Singapore, Hong Kong, India, London and New York. This included leading the technology operations and services strategy in 42 countries as Chief Information Officer for Citibank’s International Retail Banking business.
More recently, Ramu spent 12 years as President of the Singapore Exchange (SGX), during which he also served as CEO of all of the Exchange’s regulated subsidiaries. Since stepping down from his role at SGX in 2019, Ramu has served on various boards including GovTech Singapore and Temus (a digital transformation company established by Temasek in partnership with UST, a global digital services company).
On his appointment, Mr Ramu said, “Digital banks have an increasing and important role to play in extending banking and credit facilities to a large and underserved group of individuals and businesses across Southeast Asia. As a digital bank that has been built purposefully to serve the needs of this segment, GXS has a huge opportunity to be a significant player in Singapore and Malaysia. I look forward to helping the GXS team fulfil its potential in becoming a leader in this space.”
Mr Hsieh Fu Hua, Chairman of the GXS Board in Singapore, said, “We warmly welcome Ramu who is familiar to our Board as a leader in the financial services industry. Ramu’s appointment as Group CEO further strengthens our leadership bench and we are confident that Ramu’s experience and industry knowledge will contribute to GXS’s next phase of growth.”
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GXS Bank to redefine banking services with Singapore’s first digital bank for consumers and businesses
SINGAPORE, 31 August 2022 – GXS Bank (GXS) today launched Singapore’s first digital bank for consumers and businesses. The Bank’s launch product is the GXS Savings Account, which has been designed to ease the pain points that these individuals experience as they save for their dreams.
GXS is backed by a consortium consisting of Grab Holdings (Grab) and Singtel. The Bank aims to revolutionise banking services for its customers by leveraging its technological capabilities and the collective power of the GXS, Grab and Singtel ecosystem.
GXS is also the first digital bank in Singapore to be awarded the Data Protection Trustmark by the Infocomm Media Development Authority (IMDA), testifying to the Bank’s best-in-class data protection practices to keep customers’ personal data safe and secure.
A bank that challenges banking conventions
To uplift basic banking standards in Singapore, GXS’ beach head strategy is providing a banking experience that addresses the pain points of Singapore’s underserved segment, such as the two in five adults who are underbanked.
Charles Wong, Singapore CEO of GXS, said, “GXS is a homegrown bank on a mission to support the needs of the entrepreneurs, gig economy workers and early-jobbers in our community. To start, we are challenging the notion of what a basic savings account could do to support their goals and dreams.
Over the coming months, we will also tackle other obstacles that hinder consumers and small businesses from reaching their goals sooner, such as growing their wealth or accessing credit.”
A savings account that raises the bar
GXS’ first financial product is the GXS Savings Account, which is designed to address the gaps that hinder consumers such as those who are gig economy workers, self-employed entrepreneurs and early-jobbers from reaching their saving goals.
For example, given that cash flow is important for this group of individuals, the GXS Savings Account enables them to earn interest daily. GXS Savings Account-holders also do not need to worry about being penalised with fees should they need to withdraw their savings as there is no minimum balance requirement.
The GXS Savings Account is also designed to encourage customers to stay disciplined with their savings without the hassle and stress that may be associated with this activity.
Understanding that consumers in Singapore have the habit of allocating different pockets of funds for different goals, GXS has an intuitive feature within its Savings Account known as Saving Pockets that enables customers to do just that.
In designing Pockets, GXS incorporated techniques such as visualisation and smart nudges to help its customers develop and sustain a habit of saving.
For example, saving is no longer just setting money aside in an account with a string of numbers. Instead, GXS customers can customise their Pockets to make saving for their dreams personable. In addition to naming their Pockets, customers can choose to tag their Pockets to any photo which resonates with their goals.
To help them stay on track with their saving habit, GXS also sends timely nudges to customers, such as encouraging them to top up their Pockets when they’re close to their goals or cheering them on the progress they have made.
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A Gen Z bank that is born to grow with customers in the digital age
A digital native, GXS is built to stay nimble and agile alongside customers as their needs change over time and their expectations are continually shaped by technology.
For example, GXS has built a data infrastructure that enables the Bank to analyse the data swiftly in order to generate extensive and meaningful insights. GXS uses these insights to develop, refine and iterate new features, services and conversations that matter to its customers.
“GXS is uniquely positioned to learn and to refine the banking experience so that it is extremely personalised and relevant to customers because we are part of a powerhouse ecosystem that includes Grab and Singtel. Their platforms are used daily by more than three million Singaporeans. The frequent interactions between consumers and the platforms within our ecosystem provide us with deeper and sharper insights on what our customers need and how we can serve them seamlessly across all touchpoints within our ecosystem,” Mr Wong said.
As customers continue to make transactions and interact within the ecosystem, GXS is able to understand their banking needs more deeply and offer them hyper-personalised support.
GXS’ digital bank app will be available in Apple’s App Store and Google Play Store from 5 September 2022. The Bank’s services will be rolled out progressively to consumers thereafter, starting with selected employees and underbanked customers within the GXS, Grab and Singtel ecosystem.
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About GXS Bank
GXS Bank (GXS) is a digital bank with a relentless focus to make banking better for the everyday consumer and small business. This includes Singapore’s underserved individuals and businesses.
The Bank aims to improve financial inclusion and to drive financial revolution for its customers through the secure and ethical use of technology and data.
GXS holds a banking licence issued by the Monetary Authority of Singapore. It is backed by a consortium consisting of Grab Holdings Inc. – Southeast Asia’s leading super app, and Singtel – Asia’s leading communications technology group.
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