OCBC bank most popular among S’pore start-ups, but it’s probably not the best

Do Singapore banks measure up in the eyes of start-up entrepreneurs?

In Singapore, it looks like OCBC is the most popular bank among start-up entrepreneurs for creating a business account. That is the result of a poll SGE did on Facebook and LinkedIn in which 127 entrepreneurs responded.

Here’s what we asked them: “As a start-up founder in Singapore, which bank do you go to and set up your local account?”

Actually, OCBC is the leading bank by a mile at 45 percent of the respondents. The others, DBS (17 percent), UOB (15 percent), and Standard Chartered (13 percent), were not even close.

With such a yawning gap, it’s easy to assume that OCBC is the best choice for every entrepreneur — but that’s not necessary the case. To find out more, we dug a little deeper, speaking to entrepreneurs and comparing the different banks ourselves.

Banking services designed for start-ups?

Looking at the surface, only three out of the top four banks — namely, OCBC, DBS, and StanChart — have products designed for and marketed at upstart companies.

OCBC has the Business Entrepreneur Account, which offers a low initial deposit of S$500, instant account opening, and unlimited free cheques. DBS has the Entrepreneur’s Account for Start-ups, which also offers a minimum deposit of S$500, two year’s free subscription to their online banking portal, and more.

StanChart, meanwhile, has Essential Lite, which has no minimum balance requirement.

But all four banks (including UOB) offer company debit cards, which is crucial especially for Internet start-ups.

“For small businesses that purchase a lot of services and products on the Internet, for example, hosting, domain names, crowdsourced design, and so on, this is almost essential these days,” said Francis Teo, founder of Bluelambda, an SEO consultancy firm. He owns two business bank accounts at OCBC and DBS.

To Jason How, an entrepreneur who picked StanChart, the lack of a minimum balance requirement was a factor. “It makes one less worry for me,” he said.

Online banking services are important…

Many of the entrepreneurs that SGE polled have Internet businesses. In that regard, online banking services are something they really scrutinize. The consensus is that OCBC’s online banking platform is the most terrible of the bunch.