Singapore’s cloud-native Trust Bank just filed results that would make even marble-and-mahogany incumbents blush. Revenue for 2024 vaulted from S$39 million to S$97 million – a 148% surge – while operating losses narrowed from S$128 million to S$93 million. The figures come straight from the bank’s FY-2024 statement, which also noted that costs rose only 4% thanks to an AWS-heavy stack that scales with compute, not branch rent.
Momentum extends beyond the P&L. Trust crossed the one-million-customer mark earlier this year—roughly a quarter of all Singaporean adults—and deposits doubled to S$3.8 billion. Cheap float now funds a fast-growing personal-loan marketplace that syndicates risk back to Standard Chartered, the bank’s 40% shareholder, letting the parent earn spread while the offspring earns fee.
How did a young digital bank scale so fast? Start with FairPrice Linkpoints, which lures shoppers without so much as an MRT billboard. Add a no-annual fee credit card, then layer in a loan engine that pulls instant credit data and issues offers in-app; by December the loan book had trebled year-on-year.
Unit economics look healthier each quarter. Deposit costs hover a hair above 1%, while personal-loan APRs live comfortably north of that. With revenue up 148% and expenses almost flat, Trust shaved a cool 27% off losses in twelve months—progress the Monetary Authority of Singapore will take as proof that digital challengers can grow responsibly.
Rivals are watching. Grab-backed GXBank just dangled QR-code cashback to seed its own flywheel, and DBS is stuffing extra perks into PayLah!, yet neither can match Trust’s cost-to-income optics while paying downtown rent. Meanwhile MAS is sharpening capital rules that will reward lean balance sheets; Trust’s modern platform could earn it a lighter regulatory lift right when competitors face heavier buffers.
Risks remain. Promotional APRs will fade, nudging credit losses higher, and next year’s GST-voucher PayNow disbursement may tempt rate-hungry savers to shop around. Still, analysts who once called break-even “aspirational” now pencil it in for late-2025, betting that loan growth plus ultra-cheap funding will finish the job.
A rare sight in digital banking: profit on the horizon
Trust Bank just showed that in a saturated, fully banked market you don’t need branches—or even profit yet—to build a nine-figure business. What you do need is a supermarket loyalty loop, a feather-weight tech stack, and the patience to let deposits compound. If costs stay lean and the loan book keeps growing, Singapore could see something rare in digital banking: profits in sight, and sooner than expected.