Singaporean family office to set up digital bank in Bahrain

The Whampoa Group, a family office based in Singapore, is set to open a digital bank in Bahrain, the kingdom’s Economic Development Board said on May 18. The group expects to open the bank by the end of the year and is aiming for a global customer base.

The bank will offer digital asset trading, custody and management as digital banking services. According to Bloomberg, the Central Bank of Bahrain has granted the bank “approval in principle” pending compliance with all requirements.

Whampoa Group is associated with two prominent Singaporean Lee families, including Amy Lee, niece of Singaporean statesman Lee Kuan Yew, and Lee Han Shih of Singaporean multimedia conglomerate Potato Productions.

#Singapore‘s Whampoa Group, a #investment firm with interests in global #technical companies, the headquarters of his new digital #Bank in #BahrainThe Economic Development Board (EDB) of the Gulf state said this on Thursday. The bank aims to launch by the end of this year, according to the EDB. pic.twitter.com/GEJtUPAlzb

— kuwaitnews.masaha (@MasahaKWT) May 18, 2023

According to its LinkedIn page, Whampoa Digital was founded in 2021. It participated in a $500 million investment fund established in June 2022 by Binance Labs, the venture capital arm of the cryptocurrency exchange. In September, it announced the creation of its own $100 million venture. capital fund to support Web3 startups. It is also an investor in TikTok parent company ByteDance.

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A Chainalysis report released in October found that the Middle East and North Africa has the fastest growing crypto market in the world. Whampoa Group CEO Shawn Chan said the company chose the kingdom for this initiative because of “Bahrain’s solid reputation in the financial services industry, transparent regulatory framework and continued promise to collaborate and innovate.”

Binance was licensed to operate in Bahrain in March 2022, and local payment platform EazyPay partnered with Binance Pay in October to enable crypto to be used at more than 5,000 outlets in the country. Bahrain is also home to the Sharia-compliant CoinMENA cryptocurrency exchange.

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