Humans beat bots at Green Link Digital Bank as it nears profit

To Melvin Teo, CEO of Green Link Digital Bank (GLDB), “digital” is just a label.

Unlike its peers, the bank didn’t dive headlong into digital-first offerings.

“While it’s all well and good to spend a lot of time experimenting [with] fintech, all the very sexy technology things… that approach may not be so sustainable,” Teo tells Tech in Asia in a rare in-depth interview since taking on the CEO role in 2022.

Instead, GLDB prioritized chasing steady profits – an approach that’s already paying off.

Specifically, it focused on getting the traditional deposit lending business up and running “to pay for the bills,” Teo adds.

He has three decades of banking experience under his belt – the kind of background you’d expect of a bank CEO, digital or not.

As DBS’ country manager for both Indonesia and China between 2010 and 2014, Teo worked under the revered Piyush Gupta – the bank’s former group CEO – whom Teo says imposed the highest standards.

Gupta “required the country head to be on top of everything [happening] in the country,” according to Teo.

“Today, I require the same of myself,” he adds.

From 2015 to 2020, Teo served as CEO at Singapore-listed Yeo Hup Seng, a local beverage company and household name. There, he saw firsthand how far banks fall short when dealing with corporate customers.

That same observation would make his return to banking years later a full-circle moment. But he didn’t know that yet – so much so that he pulled back from the spotlight after his stint at Yeo Hup Seng.

But in 2022, Greenland Holdings chairman Geng Jing, who is also GLDB’s current chairman, convinced him to leave semi-retirement.

Three years into its operations, GLDB is the closest to profitability of Singapore’s five digital banks.

Humans first, digital later

AI and blockchain top of mind

Profitability buys time