Speaker 1: You're listening to AC N A podcast.
Speaker 1: Hey, there. It's Andrea Heng. And this is the Money
Speaker 1: Talks podcast where we discuss everything there is to know
Speaker 1: about personal finance. If this is the kind of topic
Speaker 1: you're interested in and you probably are. That's why you're here.
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Speaker 1: it will make a huge difference to us. If you
Speaker 1: follow us, let us know your burning questions and we'll
Speaker 1: get them answered for you. Now, let's get into some
Speaker 1: quick headlines that you may have missed this week. Hey, Tiffany.
Speaker 1: Hey. All right. So what are we starting with? Let's
Speaker 1: start with a question for you on a scale of
Speaker 1: 1 to 10. How comfortable are you about declaring all
Speaker 1: your personal information to your insurance provider? I'm talking here
Speaker 1: about your income assets and information about your dependents to
Speaker 1: my insurance provider. You know what? I actually don't think
Speaker 1: twice about it. I probably go all out. Same. I
Speaker 1: do the same as well because I've never considered how
Speaker 1: much data I'm giving.
Speaker 1: I always assume that this is crucial information exactly. That's
Speaker 1: what I think you're about to tell me that that's
Speaker 1: not the case. Well, that still is the case but
Speaker 1: that may change because the monetary authority of Singapore is
Speaker 1: proposing to cut down the information that customers need to
Speaker 1: give when buying simple insurance policies. Oh, wow, that's huge. Ok.
Speaker 1: So what is considered simple though? So for example, we're
Speaker 1: talking about life insurance policy,
Speaker 1: standard critical illness riders that are sold with term life
Speaker 1: insurance and stand alone critical illness policies. Basically almost everything
Speaker 1: that I have. I am relieved, but at the same
Speaker 1: time stupefied because I'm thinking, wow, why didn't I think
Speaker 1: about the ramifications of giving away my privacy or my
Speaker 1: data to someone like an insurance agent, like I would
Speaker 1: have thought that would be absolutely vital, right?
Speaker 1: Ok. So what sort of information then do I not
Speaker 1: have to reveal if this policy goes ahead? Yeah, so
Speaker 1: you don't have to reveal details like your employment status,
Speaker 1: your assets and your liabilities. But let's talk about stuff
Speaker 1: that you must declare still, right? Things like your annual
Speaker 1: income and your financial objectives. Sure. Yeah. So for anyone
Speaker 1: who's listening now, if you like the idea that insurance
Speaker 1: companies shouldn't collect too much of your data,
Speaker 1: you have until 15th March to give your feedback to
Speaker 1: the MA S, you know, this is so important especially
Speaker 1: now in an age where your personal data might just
Speaker 1: be floating around anywhere and you don't know how safe
Speaker 1: these providers, these companies are going to be guarding hacks. Right. Exactly. Exactly. Wow,
Speaker 1: this is huge. I might actually fill up that feedback
Speaker 1: form to the MS. Ok. So moving on quickly to
Speaker 1: another piece of news, can't ignore this one. Is
Speaker 1: this finally the end of the Lazada retrenchment saga just
Speaker 1: to prime us off last week, Lazada and the unions
Speaker 1: representing the retrench workers said they came to an amicable settlement.
Speaker 1: An NTUC spokesperson told CN A that union members can
Speaker 1: be assured that they will now be better off. But
Speaker 1: here's the caveat. They didn't disclose what the final payout
Speaker 1: will look like because of a confidentiality agreement.
Speaker 1: Ok. So I guess we can just take it as
Speaker 1: surface value that is better off. Yeah, exactly. Here's hoping
Speaker 1: that the money can still help these workers t through
Speaker 1: at least a few months before they find a new job.
Speaker 1: I personally have a story that I will say for
Speaker 1: next week when we look at how to manage your finances,
Speaker 1: if you're retrenched, making that episode was significant for me
Speaker 1: because it made me wish that I had someone to
Speaker 1: walk me through this. But then you know what, that's
Speaker 1: what we are here for to help you.
Speaker 1: Every Singaporeans first bank account is one that's set up
Speaker 1: by his or her parents and then we grow up,
Speaker 1: we strike out on our own because you know, we
Speaker 1: want to take charge of our finances. We're adults. Right.
Speaker 1: So we do what we do best. We go out. Well,
Speaker 1: these days we go online to shop around for a
Speaker 1: new bank account that best serves our financial needs and goals.
Speaker 1: But when there are so many types of savings accounts
Speaker 1: offered by so many banks, it gets really overwhelming. Well,
Speaker 1: this episode is here to cut through the noise and
Speaker 1: we're going to get help from Prashant Agarwal CEO at
Speaker 1: Money Hero Group. Hey Prashant. Hey
Speaker 2: and very nice to meet you.
Speaker 1: Wise, likewise. Thanks for coming in. So before we begin,
Speaker 1: I'm curious, do you have more than one savings account?
Speaker 1: I do. Ok. Alright, please walk me through this. How
Speaker 1: many do you have and why I
Speaker 2: in fact have three, you
Speaker 1: have three savings account and what does each one do
Speaker 2: look? I think diversification of accounts is important, right? And
Speaker 2: I actually personally encourage that quite a bit. When I
Speaker 2: say three accounts, you're talking about one account for your
Speaker 2: everyday expenses. You're using one account for your savings. Ok. Right.
Speaker 2: Which is emergency fund, right? And one account, which is
Speaker 2: your wealth management account, right? Which is where you do
Speaker 2: most of the investments. Now, why do I believe in
Speaker 2: having more than one account is because firstly, it makes
Speaker 2: a
Speaker 2: of sense to have multiple accounts to diverse your risk, right?
Speaker 2: You know, we know that we are all in Singapore.
Speaker 2: All bank accounts are protected. By SD I and that
Speaker 2: limit is 75,000 Singapore dollars for now. But that is
Speaker 2: going to change to $100,000 starting first of April. Now,
Speaker 2: I do believe that in Singapore banking system is incredibly safe.
Speaker 2: It is probably one of the safest banking systems in
Speaker 2: the world to be here. Absolutely,
Speaker 2: absolutely. We all should be very proud of the infrastructure
Speaker 2: that our regulators have created for us. But having said
Speaker 2: that diversifying and splitting your risk is still a good idea.
Speaker 2: The second reason I believe is having a backup for emergencies. Now,
Speaker 2: as much as our banking systems are very stable and
Speaker 2: you know, most of the transactions are done digitally. We
Speaker 2: have had instances where the digital platforms have gone down, right?
Speaker 2: And we've had more than one such instances. So you
Speaker 2: don't want to be in that position where you're stuck,
Speaker 2: need to make an urgent payment and and you're unable
Speaker 2: to do that. So that's another reason for that. Um
Speaker 2: The third one is personally for me that I'm very
Speaker 2: passionate about is maximizing my returns now because there are
Speaker 2: so many options available, there are such great deals available.
Speaker 2: You can split your money into multiple bank accounts and
Speaker 2: maximize your returns. So that I feel is a great
Speaker 2: opportunity not to be missed. And lastly, it just helps
Speaker 2: you manage your finances better personally for me. But even
Speaker 2: for the younger generation that I all
Speaker 2: always talk to or I mentor is use the 50
Speaker 2: 30 20 rule which is use 50% not more than 50%
Speaker 2: of your total salary in expenses. Ok. 30% in investments
Speaker 2: and put 20% in savings for your emergency fund. It
Speaker 2: may be a good idea to put them in a
Speaker 2: separate bank account out of sight, out of mind. No
Speaker 2: withdrawal
Speaker 1: card needed.
Speaker 2: Absolutely.
Speaker 1: That's a good move. That's a good move. I like
Speaker 1: that rule 50 30 20. Ok. So as you
Speaker 1: right, there are so many types of accounts out there,
Speaker 1: there's a savings account, a current account, multi currency, even
Speaker 1: fixed deposit accounts. And these tend to be the most
Speaker 1: common ones. What's the difference between all of these different accounts?
Speaker 1: I'll
Speaker 2: try and explain this in a very simple current account
Speaker 2: is as the name suggests, it's an account you use
Speaker 2: for your everyday expense, right? Have enough money in it
Speaker 2: that you're using your transactions, your daily transactions, your inflows
Speaker 2: and outflows from it.
Speaker 2: But be careful. Actually, I would say in all of
Speaker 2: them that they could be minimum balance requirements, right? So
Speaker 2: current account is typically used for your current expenses, savings accounts,
Speaker 2: as I said previously is your emergency, right? So do
Speaker 2: not do not touch, right? Do not touch until you
Speaker 2: absolutely need to. And a fixed deposits as we know
Speaker 2: are deposits that get locked in. So while fixed deposits
Speaker 2: are a great way to earn some some income,
Speaker 2: but you know that it is not liquid asset, right?
Speaker 2: If you urgently need money, you're going to lose, you're
Speaker 2: going to have to pay some penalty to break your
Speaker 2: fixed deposit. So fixed deposits is, is kept quite separately.
Speaker 2: And then of course, you know, you have your investment
Speaker 2: accounts that are used primarily for your stock trading, for
Speaker 2: your equity trading or your other investment
Speaker 1: needs. What's your take on the multi currency accounts? Where
Speaker 1: do they fall in terms of popularity? I guess in
Speaker 1: terms of, I would say utility
Speaker 2: multi currency accounts, it depends significantly on the individual needs. Now,
Speaker 2: I can talk about my own example. I have lived
Speaker 2: in seven countries.
Speaker 1: That's the dream.
Speaker 2: Now, of course, Singapore is home for me. I'm very
Speaker 2: proud of being here, but that means that I do
Speaker 2: have some financial interest in multiple countries. All right. So
Speaker 2: multi currency account specifically for me is very, very useful
Speaker 2: because I do need to transfer funds into multiple accounts.
Speaker 2: And I love to have a consolidated view of all my,
Speaker 2: all my expenses and all my incomes. Now I do
Speaker 2: some rental incomes from properties which are overseas and I
Speaker 2: would like to keep them in my consolidated account. So
Speaker 2: that is one use case, there could be other use
Speaker 2: cases as well, which means sometimes you may want to
Speaker 2: just park some money in a different foreign exchange account
Speaker 2: because you see that the rates are really good. Like,
Speaker 2: for example, a lot of people are, now we're looking
Speaker 2: at Singapore, Japanese yen or even Singapore Australian dollar Malaysian
Speaker 2: ring it. Right. So it could be a great way
Speaker 2: to make some small trades for yourselves. And the difference
Speaker 2: between trading and a multi currency account is this is
Speaker 2: your own asset. It's sitting with you. You're not speculating
Speaker 2: it on a daily basis.
Speaker 1: You're just parking it in there and watching it move.
Speaker 2: Absolutely. Absolutely. So those utilities now, I do feel that
Speaker 2: there was another utility which is gradually going down, which
Speaker 2: was travel. Yes. And now you have so many more options.
Speaker 2: You have travel cards, you have multi currency, travel cards
Speaker 2: which are kind of
Speaker 2: disrupting the multi currency account. But you know, it depends
Speaker 2: each to yourself. You know, what, what's your spending habit?
Speaker 2: What's your usage habit? There is some utility of travel
Speaker 1: there. That's a great primer. Thanks very much for that.
Speaker 1: So I wanted to go back to history a little bit.
Speaker 1: So back in the day, it's really just a very
Speaker 1: simple bank account to what it is now where there
Speaker 1: are so many different ones. I mean, what's changed or
Speaker 1: what's prompted this emergence of having just so many accounts
Speaker 1: out there.
Speaker 2: Let me say the wealth of Singaporeans. I mean, we are,
Speaker 2: we are very, I mean, it's a real reason, very
Speaker 2: wealthy country, right? And at the same time, so banks
Speaker 2: see us as a very attractive market. Now, I categorize
Speaker 2: banks in four broad categories. So you've got the big
Speaker 2: three Singaporean banks. Then you have the large international banks, right,
Speaker 2: then you have the challenger banks, right. These are banks
Speaker 2: which are regional banks who are trying to make a
Speaker 2: presence in Singapore and actually have seen unprecedented growth, significant
Speaker 2: growth in the recent times. I can think of a
Speaker 2: few actually. And then you have the digital banks. That's right. Right.
Speaker 2: The new new kids on the block. Now, what is
Speaker 2: interesting is each of these are looking to attract a
Speaker 2: different kind of customer, right? Because some of the banks
Speaker 2: like your large Singaporean banks may want to deepen a
Speaker 2: relationship with the customer.
Speaker 2: A digital bank is looking for acquisition, right? A Challenger
Speaker 2: Bank may want to attract you again from an acquisition perspective,
Speaker 2: they want to attract you or they have very, very
Speaker 2: attractive exchange rates between Singapore and their home countries. So
Speaker 2: they're all attracting different types of customers. And that fundamentally
Speaker 2: means that there is
Speaker 2: something great for all of us, irrespective of how much
Speaker 2: money we make, what our age is, what our financial
Speaker 2: status is. There is a great bank account available for
Speaker 2: all of us. All we need to do is make
Speaker 2: sure that we are doing our research, we understand what
Speaker 2: our financial needs are. We're doing our research, we use
Speaker 2: platforms which
Speaker 2: simplify the benefits of all these bank accounts for you
Speaker 2: match your requirements to it and make a decision. So,
Speaker 2: so we're in a very good position actually. Yeah,
Speaker 1: we spot for choice. We're the ultimate buffet table if
Speaker 1: I can put it that way. All right. So what
Speaker 1: are the things that we need to think about when
Speaker 1: it comes to deciding which type of account to open?
Speaker 1: I'm thinking here, the difference between function
Speaker 1: and goal.
Speaker 2: It's a really good question. Now, there are some very
Speaker 2: fundamental things that we should look at when we are
Speaker 2: looking to search for a bank account. The first thing
Speaker 2: is what is the interest rate that we're going to
Speaker 2: earn from it. And especially since the interest rates have
Speaker 2: gone up, there are some
Speaker 2: very attractive offers out there. The second thing is to
Speaker 2: look at fees, right? And not be blindsided because some
Speaker 2: accounts do attract fee if you go below a minimum balance.
Speaker 2: The third one is convenience. Now, convenience can be broken
Speaker 2: down into two.
Speaker 2: The number of atms that the bank has now that
Speaker 2: is becoming increasingly less important for someone like me. And
Speaker 2: I think for most of us since COVID, because now
Speaker 2: we do a lot of digital payments. Having said that
Speaker 2: every once in a while you do need a little
Speaker 2: bit of cash. So you need to make sure that
Speaker 2: the bank that you choose has some ATM coverage. The
Speaker 2: second part of convenience is the digital banking app. How
Speaker 2: easy it is to
Speaker 1: use. It is so crucial.
Speaker 2: This exactly because you have to make
Speaker 2: payments, you have to receive money, you have to check
Speaker 2: your accounts. So how easy it is for you to use.
Speaker 2: And last and definitely not the least is the rewards
Speaker 2: and the gifts or the incentive. I'm
Speaker 1: really curious about this angle here. I mean, obviously it's
Speaker 1: attractive to me as a customer, but what's in it
Speaker 1: for the bank? I mean, what's the mechanism here? Try
Speaker 1: and walk me through this psychology of offering these gifts
Speaker 1: and extra rewards for signing up with them.
Speaker 2: I think it's a way for banks to attract new customers.
Speaker 2: It's as simple as that, right? Gifts are a great
Speaker 2: way to advertise to market a product and it is
Speaker 2: a great incentive for a customer to make a decision. Now,
Speaker 2: I'll tell you in very simplistic form, right? You and
Speaker 2: I are talking about it as friends and we're thinking about, yeah, we,
Speaker 2: you know, we should maybe this account, maybe that account,
Speaker 2: let's do our research. Now, when you see a gift,
Speaker 2: it prompts you to make a decision,
Speaker 2: you stop thinking you actually act
Speaker 1: like, oh, I want that. I'll sign up just to
Speaker 1: get
Speaker 2: that correct. So I don't recommend people to simply pick
Speaker 2: a product because the gift is attractive.
Speaker 1: Yeah, see I wouldn't, I wouldn't either. And I'm trying
Speaker 1: to understand the psychology of the people that do. I mean, is,
Speaker 1: is that what it really is. It's just trying to
Speaker 1: draw the customer to that particular product that may actually
Speaker 1: be inferior perhaps.
Speaker 2: And I don't think so. I don't think that's the
Speaker 2: idea
Speaker 2: the key objective is to make people act, right? I
Speaker 2: think rewards help people make the decision faster and act,
Speaker 2: which means you don't procrastinate your decision, right? So my
Speaker 2: recommendation always is know what your needs are, right? And
Speaker 2: let's go through those, let's say in a bank account,
Speaker 2: what are typically your needs? Your first need is you've
Speaker 2: got a certain amount of deposit that you want to
Speaker 2: park somewhere. The second is
Speaker 2: have your salary.
Speaker 1: Yes, I was going to ask about that. Yeah, that
Speaker 2: should be credited somewhere. So you need an account to
Speaker 2: credit your salary. Third is going to be a credit card,
Speaker 2: you know, you make certain payments. Fourth is bill payments, right?
Speaker 2: You're making utility payments, telco payments, et cetera. Now these
Speaker 2: four things are pretty much table take standard for everyone,
Speaker 2: then comes other products such as home loan, right? Insurance
Speaker 2: and investment accounts. Now
Speaker 2: what banks are doing is it's very easy to understand
Speaker 2: that banks will share with you or incentivize you if
Speaker 2: they make money. Sure, of course, it's simple business which
Speaker 2: means the more money they make from you, the more
Speaker 2: they're willing to incentivize. Yeah, they're
Speaker 1: basically paying for your loyalty.
Speaker 2: Absolutely. So mapping what your needs are. Now, there are banks,
Speaker 2: I can tell you which can give you about 3 3.5%
Speaker 2: of interest on savings account. Six,
Speaker 2: for crediting your salary, making bill payments and spending more
Speaker 2: than $500 on their credit card in one account just
Speaker 2: simply doing that. But you also need to then see,
Speaker 2: is there a catch, it may be banks that don't
Speaker 2: have a very vast branch network or they do not
Speaker 2: have a very vast ATM network. So you may need
Speaker 2: to balance it out. Similarly, if you are someone like
Speaker 2: me who's in my late forties, I've got a family,
Speaker 2: I've got kids. So if my needs are more complicated
Speaker 2: and my needs include pretty much all seven aspects I
Speaker 2: spoke about right, which adds home loan, my mortgage, my
Speaker 2: investment account, my insurance needs and hence more traditional banks
Speaker 2: actually incentivize very well. If you are a wholesome customer
Speaker 2: where you're using all the services or bits and pieces
Speaker 2: of all the services and there are savings accounts that
Speaker 2: can give you up to 7%.
Speaker 1: You can obviously opt not to do that right to
Speaker 1: stay within the same ecosystem.
Speaker 1: Is there something to be said about the benefit of
Speaker 1: going to different banks for different needs? So for example,
Speaker 1: my salary is credited into one account with one bank
Speaker 1: and then my investment account is with another bank and
Speaker 1: so on and so forth. Is there any value to
Speaker 1: that as
Speaker 2: well? 100%? And it all comes down to what incentives
Speaker 2: the banks are actually giving away to give you a very,
Speaker 2: very simple example. There are banks which are simply incentivizing
Speaker 2: you for putting their money in the savings account and
Speaker 2: they don't expect you to transact. They, they don't expect
Speaker 2: you to put your salary credits on it, but simply
Speaker 2: incentivize you on the quantum of money that you're actually
Speaker 2: putting in right now. That is a great account for
Speaker 2: me as a savings account. I was just thinking that
Speaker 2: I don't want to touch that money. It's my emergency fund.
Speaker 2: I don't want to transact. Why wouldn't I put it
Speaker 2: in a bank where I can earn a little bit
Speaker 2: of interest rather than in the consolidated bank, which is
Speaker 2: not incentivizing, correct.
Speaker 2: So this is where spending a little bit of time
Speaker 2: on these platforms, learning about the options can actually save
Speaker 2: you a lot of money and don't forget this is 100%
Speaker 2: risk
Speaker 1: free. Yeah, and it's not just saving you money, it's
Speaker 1: making you money in some instance. Indeed. Yeah. Ok. So
Speaker 1: you've talked about the fees and charges that need to
Speaker 1: be aware of. Can we expand a little bit more
Speaker 1: on that? What are the kinds of charges that we
Speaker 1: need to look out for when we're considering and shopping
Speaker 1: around for a bank account?
Speaker 2: The most fundamental and basic one is account fee. Now
Speaker 2: most banks you would see will waive off the account
Speaker 2: fee unless your minimum balances drop under a certain level.
Speaker 2: So you need to be very well aware of that. Right.
Speaker 2: So that is most basic, the other fees that comes
Speaker 2: in and I'll move more into the wealth accounts,
Speaker 2: priority banking accounts. There is a number of fees right.
Speaker 2: There will be an account management fee. There could be
Speaker 2: fees on buying and selling of securities, there'll be fee
Speaker 2: on foreign exchange transactions, um and conversions. Now, one of
Speaker 2: the things that I've often seen is that when people
Speaker 2: go for investment accounts, they do
Speaker 2: don't necessarily understand that fee structure well enough because it
Speaker 2: comes in that link that comes along with your account,
Speaker 2: the
Speaker 1: unsubscribe link it all the way at the bottom, it's
Speaker 1: buried and then you have to find what language it's
Speaker 1: written in.
Speaker 2: Right? Indeed, indeed. And that's why again, using platforms that
Speaker 2: are supposed to help you with this, the platforms that
Speaker 2: are helping you simplify the understanding of that fee. But
Speaker 2: one of the simple
Speaker 2: things I'd say is call up the bank and ask
Speaker 2: them very clearly. And and they will tell you what
Speaker 2: are all the fees that I'm paying and compare those
Speaker 2: fees as well. Now, less crucial in a savings account
Speaker 2: because in savings accounts are very simple, very standard as well,
Speaker 2: very standard, very simple, but definitely very crucial when you
Speaker 2: go into wealth accounts or investment
Speaker 1: accounts. Ok. That's a very good reminder actually, for us
Speaker 1: to really ask the right questions and not just blindly
Speaker 1: sign up on the dotted line. So a big reason
Speaker 1: a lot of my peers tend to choose a particular
Speaker 1: bank is to open an account that has nothing to
Speaker 1: do with finances. And we touched a little bit on
Speaker 1: this earlier and that's convenience. My question is, how big
Speaker 1: of a factor is this when it comes to choosing
Speaker 1: an account? How important is this consideration? You know, having
Speaker 1: the range of services, the online access, et cetera?
Speaker 2: I think it's very critical, right? I think it's very
Speaker 2: critical in today's world because
Speaker 2: we do need to remind ourselves that there is a
Speaker 2: functional need we need to fulfill with our banks, right?
Speaker 2: There is an everyday need that everyday need of making payments,
Speaker 2: that everyday need of receiving payments of splitting bills with
Speaker 2: friends of needing cash to make emergency payments. I think
Speaker 2: convenience plays a very, very crucial part where it comes
Speaker 2: down to again is understanding
Speaker 2: that how are you splitting between convenience and return? Exactly right.
Speaker 2: And that's where I would go back to splitting my
Speaker 2: money into multiple accounts to say there are accounts which
Speaker 2: are paying me a higher return, but I have to
Speaker 2: sacrifice convenience. I'm going to put in my emergency funds there.
Speaker 2: I'm not going to put in my daily usage funds.
Speaker 2: But if for my current account usage for my daily
Speaker 2: usage convenience does play a
Speaker 2: critical part. So one of the things that I would
Speaker 2: do because I look at my bank accounts on an
Speaker 2: annual basis. Right. I would review and I will see
Speaker 2: whether I have the right accounts. Am I making the
Speaker 2: best decisions? And I would open the account? I would
Speaker 2: try out the online banking. Right. And the convenience factor,
Speaker 2: especially around how easy it is for me to transfer
Speaker 2: funds in and out of the banks, how intuitive it
Speaker 2: is for me. And I have had instances where I
Speaker 2: didn't like the online banking and I actually canceled
Speaker 2: my account and I and I called up the bank
Speaker 2: and I told them I said, look, the only reason
Speaker 2: I'm canceling is I actually don't like the interface. I
Speaker 2: don't find it useful for me and hence, I don't
Speaker 2: think it serves my purpose.
Speaker 1: Wow. So you have actually canceled accounts because you just
Speaker 1: did not like the way it worked. I think that's
Speaker 1: a valid reason to leave the bank in that respect.
Speaker 1: And along the same vein then is the reputation of
Speaker 1: the bank equally important here because I'm thinking about
Speaker 1: the emergence of digital banks, right? With the emergence of
Speaker 1: digital options. Now, I'm thinking about the reputation of a
Speaker 1: bank and how credible and crucial it is when making
Speaker 1: that decision because I'm not just putting in $50 100 dollars,
Speaker 1: $1000 in there. I'm talking about copious amounts of money.
Speaker 1: I
Speaker 2: think in that aspect we are quite fortunate that the
Speaker 2: MA S as a regulator is very, very stringent, right?
Speaker 2: And
Speaker 2: it is one of the best regulators across the world.
Speaker 2: So I think two things there, one, the very fact
Speaker 2: that
Speaker 2: these financial institutions are licensed by MA S gives us
Speaker 2: a lot of credibility. So personally, for me, I don't
Speaker 2: feel that my money is at risk. Right. Secondly, the
Speaker 2: ST IC, as I mentioned before, that all our money
Speaker 2: is guaranteed up to $75,000 or, or $100,000. Uh from
Speaker 2: first of April, I think that is a reasonable amount
Speaker 2: of insurance. Now, while we have seen big banks collapse in,
Speaker 2: in the US, we saw in Europe
Speaker 2: in Switzerland recently, while I don't expect any of that
Speaker 2: such thing to happen in Singapore or actually in most
Speaker 2: parts of Asia where banking systems are pretty advanced. But
Speaker 2: I think it gives me a lot of credibility that
Speaker 2: MA s is very stringent. It's very stringent in giving
Speaker 2: digital banking licenses. It's very stringent in the ongoing compliance
Speaker 2: and regulation that everybody has to deal with and abide
Speaker 2: by and that gives us a lot of confidence. So
Speaker 2: I think we can be not careless,
Speaker 2: but absolutely go for the features and I have a
Speaker 2: lot of trust in the system.
Speaker 1: You know, you're right, you're right in saying that by
Speaker 1: virtue of the fact that it's very stringent rules and
Speaker 1: regulations to manage any risk to customers. It really makes
Speaker 1: us spoiled for choice. Like we have the we have
Speaker 1: the opportunity to for the lack of a better description
Speaker 1: play around and experiment with different types of accounts including
Speaker 1: digital banks. So my final question then to you is
Speaker 1: while we're on the digital vein here,
Speaker 1: is there a need then for digital wallets and investment
Speaker 1: accounts and platforms like stash or sci or and da
Speaker 1: when banks these days have offered the very same functions,
Speaker 1: do we need one?
Speaker 2: Then I would always say that we always need more products, right?
Speaker 2: Why not? Why not?
Speaker 2: Right. Because as consumers, we should have more choices, the
Speaker 2: more choices we have the better decisions we can make.
Speaker 2: So I welcome competition. I think competition is great. It
Speaker 2: is healthy. Let's not forget that a lot of traditional
Speaker 2: banks have now
Speaker 2: improve their platforms because of the challenges, right?
Speaker 1: That's the way to look at
Speaker 2: it. Yeah, I mean, for years they were dominant. I mean,
Speaker 2: I don't know, refresh my memory, but biggest breakthrough in
Speaker 2: technology in banking before the digital banks was what? ATM
Speaker 1: Exactly. And then when digital banking came on our phones
Speaker 1: like wow, I can do this on my phone now. Correct?
Speaker 1: And then all these other options came up. All these
Speaker 1: other functions were introduced by competitors, as you said, and
Speaker 1: now they are giving the big banks a run for
Speaker 1: their money.
Speaker 2: And I think as a consumer, I love it as
Speaker 2: a business owner. I love it because I want that
Speaker 2: innovation to continue this will push the innovators to innovate
Speaker 2: even further, which will push the traditional banks to follow
Speaker 2: suit and maybe even try to beat them in some aspect.
Speaker 2: So why
Speaker 1: not? But don't you think though that it will lead
Speaker 1: to option paralysis for consumers?
Speaker 2: Well, that's where we come in. That's where businesses like
Speaker 2: ours really
Speaker 2: into picture because our job is to make financial decisions
Speaker 2: easier for people to see through all the complexity and
Speaker 2: help people make decisions based on their specific needs. So
Speaker 2: I think as long as platforms like these exist that
Speaker 2: can help people make decisions, the choices are good. All right.
Speaker 1: And that's exactly what you've come on the Money Talks
Speaker 1: podcast to do and you've done a very good job
Speaker 1: of it. I might add Prashant,
Speaker 1: we're so glad to be able to have you break
Speaker 1: this down for us. Thank you so much for coming
Speaker 1: on the Money Talks podcast. It's been
Speaker 2: my pleasure. Thank
Speaker 1: you. I hope you had fun. Thanks a big thank
Speaker 1: you to you too. Listener. If you liked this episode,
Speaker 1: you know, show us, leave us a comment or a
Speaker 1: dating on wherever you get your podcasts. Well, if you
Speaker 1: want to find us in case you don't know, we're
Speaker 1: streaming on Apple podcasts and Spotify as well as youtube
Speaker 1: for Money Talks. The team is Joanne Chan Tiffany Ang
Speaker 1: Christina Roberts win. I'm Andrea Heng.