GXS wants more secured loans, targets second-hand car market

[SINGAPORE] GXS Bank aims to have secured loans make up half of its lending book by next year, as the digital bank expands into vehicle financing to diversify a portfolio currently weighted towards unsecured lending.

“We do not want to be overleveraged on unsecured loans,” said Jenn Ong, group head of retail at GXS.

“By next year, we will grow our secured loans, and it will be 50 per cent of our lending book.”

Car loans is one of the more accessible segments for GXS to enter, she noted. The digital bank is not ready to move into mortgages just yet, given the larger ticket sizes and longer tenures.

It launched the AutoLoan product in Singapore on Sep 9 for Grab drivers to finance the purchase of their own electric or hybrid vehicles.

GXS taps data from Grab, including drivers’ track records, to underwrite the loans, which could include terms such as 100 per cent financing and tenures of up to 10 years.

Feedback from Grab drivers has helped to shape the AutoLoan product, with some thinking about owning a car rather than just renting it, she noted.

GXS currently finances only EVs and hybrids under its offering for Grab drivers, aligning with Singapore’s shift towards cleaner-energy vehicles and drivers’ needs to reduce fuel costs, said Ong.

Singapore aims for all new car and taxi registrations to be cleaner-energy models from 2030.

Beyond Grab drivers

Launching AutoLoans for Grab drivers is just a start, as GXS has ambitions to roll out the product to consumers, said Ong.

GXS tapped the dealer network of B2B financing solution provider Goldbell Helios (GBH) to launch the AutoLoan product for consumers, which is currently being beta tested with a select group of customers.

Working with a partner reflects the way car financing is typically distributed in Singapore, where buyers often arrange loans through the dealer selling them the vehicle.

“If I have to knock on 1,000 dealers’ doors, it is going to take a long time, that’s why we went with GBH,” said Ong.

GXS, which built AutoLoan in six months, aims to scale the product quickly. Unlike its offering for Grab drivers, its consumer AutoLoan product is not restricted to EVs and hybrids, with the digital bank willing to finance petrol vehicles.

The bank is entering a sizeable financing market. Outstanding motor vehicle loans from banks and finance companies stood at about S$12.7 billion in July 2026, based on data from the Monetary Authority of Singapore.

The digital bank is also focusing on used cars rather than new vehicles. The new car market already has incumbent banks partnering up with the big car brands, making it hard for GXS to enter, noted Ong.

The second-hand market is also bigger, as 105,487 cars saw their ownership transferred in 2025, compared to 52,397 new cars bought that year.

“It is not so much the banks, but many smaller firms doing their own financing. I feel that we can take that space,” said Ong.

There are plans to roll this out to other countries, as Singapore is a test bed for the AutoLoan product. GXS aims to smooth out any issues with operations, including dealing with defaults, finding the vehicle, repossessing it and making a sale.

Its partnership with GBH will also give GXS access to expertise and data that can help it learn the operational side of the car-financing business.

“That’s why I feel that Singapore is the best test bed to start off first,” said Ong.