Built on trust since 1964: How this award-winning finance company has grown with its SME customers

SINGFINANCE’S wins at this year’s Singapore Corporate Awards (SCA) may look like results of a good 12 months, but the financial institution’s chief executive officer Lee Sze Leong will tell you they were more than 60 years in the making. 

Established in 1964, Sing Investments & Finance Limited (SingFinance) is no stranger to accolades, having won 10 SCA awards since 2015 in the under-S$300 million market-capitalisation category.

But Lee says this year’s wins are particularly meaningful as they mark the team’s first recognition in the mid-cap category.

The SingFinance team took home Gold for Best Risk Management, and Silver for both Best Managed Board and Best Investor Relations. 

The leap into the mid-cap category not only reflects how the Singapore-listed company has grown and evolved over the years but also how its fundamentals remain strong. 

“The awards reinforce our belief that growth and good governance must advance together, supported by sound judgement, accountability and stakeholder trust,” says Lee.

A more personalised approach to SME financing

For customers, that discipline plays out in how SingFinance decides whom to back, how it structures financing and how closely its relationship managers stay with a business as its needs evolve. 

This is particularly important for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), whose financing needs do not always fit neatly into standard lending templates.

Rather than start with a product, SingFinance’s relationship managers first try to understand how a customer’s business works – where money comes in, where it needs to go and what can trip the company up. 

This approach is closer to that of a private banker, with the dedicated relationship manager looking across the customer’s financing needs instead of passing the business from one product specialist to another.

“SMEs often have unique business models and financing needs that cannot always be addressed through a standard approach,” says Lee.

How SingFinance tailors SME loans to different business needs

Winning a sizeable government project should have been good news for one SME. 

But there was a problem: It did not have the track record or scale to secure the financing it needed to deliver the job.

Instead of assessing a single loan application in isolation, SingFinance’s relationship manager studied the company’s entire business cycle to work out what it would take to fulfil the contract.

The solution brought together working capital financing to support raw material purchases, asset-based financing to facilitate the acquisition of equipment and vehicles, and factoring facilities to unlock funds tied up in trade receivables.

By integrating these facilities, the customer was able to maintain healthy cash flow while supporting business expansion and operational growth.

The same relationship manager coordinated the different facilities, giving the business owner one point of contact who understood both the project and how the various financing pieces fit together. 

Another SME faced a different challenge. It already had buyers lined up for its goods but needed financing for almost the full value of its purchases from a supplier.

SingFinance looked beyond the borrower to examine the buyers and how money would flow through the transaction. 

With a clearer picture of where repayment would ultimately come from, it structured financing around both ends of the deal. 

It is this willingness to understand the business behind the numbers that has helped SingFinance turn customers into long-term relationships.

Balancing SME growth with prudent financing

That willingness to find a way forward does not mean being any less disciplined about risk. 

At SingFinance, risk management starts when an opportunity is first considered rather than appearing as a final checkpoint. The team weighs the opportunities against the risks, challenges its assumptions and decides whether – or how – financing can be structured responsibly.

This approach is backed by a board with experience across financial services, regulation, risk, audit and business leadership, providing strong oversight as the company continues to grow. 

Stakeholder engagement is another important part of SingFinance’s approach. The company maintains regular communication with stakeholders through SGX disclosures, annual general meetings, corporate channels and investor outreach.

Together, these practices map neatly onto SingFinance’s three SCA wins this year: risk management, board oversight and investor relations. 

The wins also show how SingFinance has been able to grow without losing sight of the fundamentals that brought it this far.

“Our objective is not simply to become bigger, but to become stronger and grow sustainably while staying true to who we are,” says Lee. 

When asked what comes next after this milestone, Lee responds candidly: “The next morning, the work continues.”

It is a simple reflection that captures how he views the recognition as a meaningful moment for SingFinance, while remaining focused on continuing the work of strengthening the business, serving its customers and earning the trust of its stakeholders.

Find out more about SingFinance here.