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ABS is made up of member banks drawn from a wide spectrum of banking entities ranging from major global giants to smaller financial niche service providers.

Membership is voluntary and open to commercial banks licensed by the Monetary Authority of Singapore. These banks may be locally incorporated or branches of foreign banks operating in Singapore. Banks join as ordinary members or associate members depending on their licence type. Membership fee is based on the category of banking licence held.

Ordinary membership is open to banks with full, qualifying full, wholesale or offshore bank licences.

Associate membership is for representative offices of foreign banks which do not conduct any banking business in Singapore.

Full Banks conduct a whole range of banking business for retail and corporate clients. The licence is open to Singaporean and non-Singaporean banks but the latter enjoy less flexibility than their local counterparts in their branch and automated teller machine networks.

Qualifying Full Bank (QFB) licences were first awarded on 20 October 1999 by MAS, thereby introducing a new group of bank licences under which our members operate. This licence is open only to non-Singaporean banks and allows those awarded to have additional branches and/or off-premise ATMs as well as to share ATMs among themselves. In June 2001, under the second phase of banking liberation, the QFB privileges were expanded.

QFBs are allowed to:

• Establish up to 25 service locations, which can be either brick-and-mortar branches or off-site ATM locations
• Share ATMs among themselves
• Provide debit services through an EFTPOS network and
• Provide Supplementary Retirement Scheme and CPF Investment Scheme accounts and, from 1 July 2002, accept CPF fixed deposits .

Wholesale Bank (WB) licences were first awarded in December 2001 and became effective on 1 January 2002. This new licence replaced the Restricted Bank and the Qualifying Offshore bank licences to better reflect the wide range of activities that could be conducted. WBs may transact banking business with persons who are not approved financial institutions. They can only have one place of business in Singapore and cannot operate savings accounts and Singapore-dollar fixed deposits of less than $250,000.

The QFB and WB banking licences form part of MAS' programme to liberalise commercial banking in Singapore, through the promotion of a more open and competitive environment and spurring the development and upgrading of local banks.

Offshore Banks were first set up in 1973 and operate mainly in the Asian dollar market, foreign exchange and wholesale banking with non-residents. With residents, the total loan amount involved, currently set at $500 million, must be approved by MAS.

Representative Offices do not conduct any regular banking operations but promote business and correspondent banking business between their home offices and the region.