• Published on 27 July 2023
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Standard Chartered and Atome partner to expand financial access and inclusivity

As part of its overall strategy to grow the mass retail segment and increase mobile-first financial inclusivity, Standard Chartered Singapore forges ahead in industry innovation through its strategic partnership with Atome in Singapore.

Standard Chartered partnered with a buy now, pay later (BNPL) provider to co-create and offer a wide suite of mobile-first consumer payment solutions and financial services. Atome currently has thousands of merchant partners on its platform, across online and offline retailers in fashion, beauty, lifestyle, fitness and homeware. Standard Chartered has been serving the Singapore community for more than 160 years, offering an entire range of financial services across personal, priority and private banking to support their banking and wealth needs.

More than 100,000 BNPL transactions have been booked under the Lender of Record partnership since April this year. Early results from this strategic partnership demonstrate strong customer growth in line with expectations, where the bank is on track to exceed its target customer growth from its unsecured loans business by the end of this year, as part of its goal to double its overall retail base.

This is part of the 10-year multi-product regional strategic partnership between Atome Financial and Standard Chartered Bank. This partnership enables Atome to grow and promote financial inclusion for its millions of customers across the region while enhancing the bank’s access to retail customers. The strategic partnership will also be launched in Malaysia, after the successful rollout in Singapore and in Indonesia.

As part of this partnership launch, two exclusive promotions are available for Atome users in Singapore. New Standard Chartered credit card holders will receive SGD 250  ($185.09) (in Atome+ points) upon successful card activation and can register to join the one million KrisFlyer Miles Giveaway, earning chances for every spend. New cardholders of the Standard Chartered Journey credit card, the bank’s new mass-affluent miles credit card, can score additional bonus chances for this giveaway.

Jessie Li, managing director and head of consumer, private and business banking at Standard Chartered Bank Singapore, said: “We are excited to partner with Atome in delivering a wider suite of payment solutions to consumers in Singapore and to play an active role in growing the digital consumer finance ecosystem. This partnership model is key to not only helping us scale but also in how we can add value to our clients’ digital lives. By providing practical solutions through greater flexibility in payment options and a broader range of benefits and privileges, we can offer a wider reach of consumers the choice of payment solutions that best complements their everyday digital activities.”

Bryan Quek, general manager at Atome Singapore, said: “This partnership deepens our collaboration with Standard Chartered here in Singapore. Providing Atome’s flexible deferred payments at checkout has been proven to drive engagement, transaction growth and repeat use while delivering high-value customers to our merchants. Now, having such a trusted financing partner gives added security and confidence to both our consumers and merchant partners. It will also accelerate Atome’s user growth and merchant business expansion, both locally and regionally, as we collaborate on other digital-first consumer financing products.”

Re-disseminated by The Asian Banker