Catering to new, young investors

THE growing number of online-only brokerages in Singapore highlights the rising clout of retail investors in the city-state, which will surely serve as a springboard for the growth of retail investing in neighbouring South-east Asian countries.

Over the past two years, new online-only brokerages have set up shop in Singapore, joining industry veterans with both online services and physical branches. This has led not only to an increasingly crowded landscape but also a larger number of options available to investors.

This growing competition has put downward pressure on fees, which is attracting a new breed of investors who are younger, more tech-savvy and hungry for information about investing in equities not only in Singapore, but also overseas.