GXS’ FY2025 loss narrows to S$208.1 million on higher income and lower costs

[SINGAPORE] GXS’ loss narrowed in FY2025 to S$208.1 million from S$214.3 million in the year-ago period, said the digital bank on Tuesday (Apr 28).

The entity comprises GXS Bank in Singapore and GXBank in Malaysia.

The loss for GXS Bank narrowed too, falling to S$132.1 million in FY2025 from S$145.4 million previously. Lower operating costs and higher income were cited as reasons for the drop.

Net interest income for GXS grew to S$55.6 million in FY2025 from S$30.2 million. GXS Bank’s net interest income for FY2025 rose to S$39.3 million from S$26.8 million in the previous year.

Non-interest income for GXS spiked to S$14 million in FY2025 compared with S$1.9 million. At GXS Bank, non-interest income rose to S$4.7 million from S$2.7 million in the same period.

Operating costs for GXS declined to S$217.6 million in FY2025 from S$223.1 million in FY2024. At GXS Bank, costs fell to S$134.5 million in FY2025 from S$152.4 million.

Deposits stood at S$2.3 billion in FY2025 for GXS, a growth of 38 per cent from the prior year.

GXS group CEO Lai Pei-Si told The Business Times that the bank has been able to scale its loan book some three times, to now stand at S$1 billion, and that she plans to keep doing so in 2026.

Allowances for credit and other losses for GXS grew to S$58.4 million in FY2025 from S$22.9 million in FY2024. For GXS Bank, it rose to S$41.5 million from S$22.6 million.

SEE ALSO

Grab shareholders agree to double voting power of Class B ‘super-voting’ shares

Indonesia’s Grab-backed Superbank surges on debut, triggers trading halt

Grab-Singtel’s GXS bank cuts about 10% of workforce as it moves on from early-stage operations

Talent a key priority for new GXS Bank CEO Lai Pei Si

More

In growing the loan book, GXS’ credit quality has improved, with its expected credit loss falling from 6.8 per cent to 4.6 per cent in FY2025.

This is partly driven by the change in the loan portfolio, with secured loans being part of the book in FY2025. This diversification has allowed GXS to better respond to credit cycles, said Lai.

GXS Bank also launched a secured lending product with small and medium-sized enterprise (SME) funding platform Funding Societies on Monday. This product allows SMEs to borrow up to S$2 million against residential or commercial property.

Aside from diversifying the loan mix, GXS has improved its own credit models and is better able to anticipate changes in credit cycles, using data to iterate its credit models quickly.

“Therefore it is giving us the ability to provide credit better, with more accuracy; these are the reasons why the percentage has actually reduced,” said Lai.

While allowances for credit and other losses will likely be higher in FY2026 compared with FY2025, this will be mainly due to the larger loan book.

“2025 has proven that we can find a product-market fit with our customers,” noted Lai.

GXS is not focused on non-net interest income for now, with the aim of catering to its target market segments of those underserved by traditional lenders, she added.

Biggest need for GXS’ customers

The biggest need that GXS’ customers have is in getting access to borrowing.

“We went out with unsecured lending first, because it is what was most demanded by our customers; but it’s also where we’re able to build margins and revenue, (with it) becoming our second-largest revenue generator,” said Lai.

About 20 per cent of GXS’ loan customers are “thin file” borrowers, or borrowers with little to no credit history with a credit bureau. In Malaysia, 40 per cent of borrowers are first-time borrowers, with GXS’ credit models tuned to score the credit worthiness of such borrowers, who would be turned away from traditional lenders.

“We design with the idea to make sure our credit models enable first-time borrowers to take a loan,” said the group CEO.

GXS launched fee product GXS Invest only in July 2025, some three years after its launch in 2022.

Reception for the product has been “encouraging”, according to Lai. There are plans to launch another version of GXS Invest in the first half of 2026, which will have another four funds for customers to choose from, depending on their risk appetite, she added.

There are also plans to launch a credit card in the second half of 2026 for customers in Singapore. This product will tap the ecosystems of GXS’ parent companies – Grab and Singtel.

GXBank’s contributions

In FY2025, GXS Bank continued to provide most of the financial contributions to GXS due to the one-year head start it has, compared with GXBank.

But GXBank has been growing strong in FY2025, especially with its FlexiLoan product, an unsecured lending product, with growth in the multiples, noted Lai.

“GXBank’s retail FlexiLoan product has in a short time been able to grow to half a billion in ringgit in total outstanding loans with more than 600,000 applications coming through,” she said.

The market is large, and the demand is great, and with a product-market fit, GXBank will be able to grow its businesses. For fee income, GXBank has gone with bancassurance, distributing Zurich Insurance products, rather than launching an investment product.

GXS is on track to hit its profitability milestone within five years by 2027, said Lai, following the framework that the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) has set out for digital banks here.

Total expenses have declined, mainly due to GXS’ regional technology infrastructure, providing a base for the various digital banks under GXS to adapt existing products for their own markets.

The cost-to-income ratio has more than halved to 313 per cent in FY2025 from 695 per cent in FY2024.

The digital bank is keeping a close eye on the current macroeconomic volatility and uncertainty, but Lai is banking on the lender’s digital nature.

“The data sets and how frequently we monitor the situation – it enables us to not only watch, but (also) react quickly if we want to,” she said.

For FY2026, GXS is targeting “two-times revenue growth” and “three-times asset growth”, she added. The digital bank is betting on having found its product-market fit and its challenger-bank status in carving out a bigger share of the market.

Importantly, GXS will have to keep its team motivated and incentivised to grow the bank together, said Lai. It will have to continue to differentiate itself with the products it has.

“Have we been able to serve segments that we want to serve and other banks are not serving? That’s the reason why we’re here,” she noted.