🧠 Food for thought

Implications, context, and why it matters.

GXS losses reveal the cost of building digital finance outside Grab’s core mobility business

• Losses widened to S$214.3 million, while net interest income doubled to S$30.2 million. Building a digital bank from scratch consumes cash.
• Grab filed its 2024 annual report on March 14, 2025, which investors can review for updated GXS details to judge the path to profitability.
• A shift from building to running mode signals that GXS finished its initial technology build and early customer push. Losses persist, so scale still falls short of covering fixed costs. That makes the investment from Grab and Singtel hard to justify.

Software vendors selling compliance, risk management, and cost optimization tools can target Malaysia’s other licensed digital banks facing similar scaling hurdles

• Malaysia licensed five digital banks. The group includes GXBank (GXS’s Malaysian unit); AEON Bank; Boost Bank; KAF Digital Bank; and Ryt Bank. They operate under a foundational phase, with RM 3 billion asset caps set by the central bank. Rules cover liquidity and capital adequacy. They also cover consumer protection and cybersecurity.
• KAF Digital Bank won regulatory approval in December 2024. Ryt Bank followed in early 2025. Both institutions sit at an early stage, so scaling and cost control decisions now matter as they move from build to live operations.
• Enterprise software firms in regulatory technology (RegTech), fraud monitoring, or bank operations can build outreach lists. Start with the five Malaysian lenders above. Add Singapore’s four Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) digital banks. These are GXS Bank; MariBank; ANEXT Bank; and Green Link Digital Bank. Include Trust Bank, a Singapore consumer bank that runs via an app under a full bank licence. Pitch tools that lower unit costs while keeping compliance.