Ecosystem bank, group-built AI: MariBank leans on Shopee data and on the credit-risk and fraud models of parent Monee rather than publishing bank-level AI systems of its own.
How is MariBank using AI?
MariBank, Sea's Singapore digital full bank, uses AI mainly through its parent Monee: transformer-based credit-risk models trained on Shopee and Sea ecosystem data, which Sea says lifted loan approval rates by around 10% at similar risk, plus AI fraud detection and income-document checks. The CEO says Shopee data helps judge creditworthiness. The bank is still loss-making: MariBank Singapore lost S$55.6 million in 2025 on S$1.92 billion of deposits, while the group, including the Philippines, held S$4.23 billion of assets.
Category
Neobank
Founded
2020
Headquarters
Singapore, Singapore
Licence and supervision
Singapore digital full bank (MariBank Singapore Private Limited), licensed and supervised by the Monetary Authority of Singapore (successful applicant announced December 4, 2020); subsidiary MariBank Philippines, Inc. reclassified from a rural bank to a digital bank by the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (July 2026).
Scale
S$4.23 billion group total assets and S$2.82 billion group customer deposits at December 31, 2025; MariBank Singapore alone held S$1.92 billion of deposits and S$222 million of loans and lost S$55.6 million in 2025 (audited accounts, March 2026)
Flagship platform
Monee credit-risk models and Shopee ecosystem data (group-level)
AI leadership
Natalia Goh · Forrest Li · Siew Ghee Kung Lim
- MAS named an entity wholly owned by Sea Ltd as one of two digital full bank applicants on December 4, 2020; MariBank opened to the public on an invite-only basis in March 2023 after rolling out to Sea employees from the third quarter of 2022, per CNBC.
- AI at MariBank is disclosed at group level: Sea says Monee applies AI to fraud detection and credit-risk assessment, that its transformer-based credit models lifted approval rates by around 10% at a similar level of risk, and that AI income-document verification cut review time by around 95%.
- CEO Natalia Goh, appointed in July 2024 from rival Trust Bank, told Fortune in August 2026 that MariBank uses 'quite a bit of data from Shopee' to judge creditworthiness in the Philippines, where credit-bureau data is thin.
- 2025 audited accounts: MariBank Singapore lost S$55.6 million (2024: S$51.3 million) as allowances for credit and other losses rose to S$20.5 million from S$4.4 million; deposits grew to S$1.92 billion and loans to S$222 million, while S$1.85 billion sat in government securities and treasury bills.
- Including MariBank Philippines, the group held S$4.23 billion of assets, S$2.82 billion of deposits and S$897 million of loans at end-2025, and booked a S$46.6 million loss after S$133.4 million of allowances.
- Sea's May 2025 rebrand of SeaMoney to Monee set up a digital banking group under MariBank and opened a Singapore headquarters housing Centres of Excellence in AI and anti-money laundering; in July 2026 the Philippine central bank granted MariBank Philippines a digital banking licence.
- MAS's Guidelines on AI Risk Management, issued October 7, 2026, apply to MariBank as a licensed bank, with oversight expectations from October 2027 and lifecycle controls from October 2028.
What is Monee credit-risk models and Shopee ecosystem data (group-level)?
MariBank sits inside Monee, Sea's digital financial services arm. Sea says Monee's latest credit-risk models use transformer-based architectures trained on behavioural and transactional data across Sea's ecosystem and have lifted approval rates by around 10% at a similar level of risk, and that Monee uses AI for fraud detection and to verify income documents, cutting review time by around 95%. MariBank CEO Natalia Goh told Fortune the bank uses 'quite a bit of data from Shopee' to judge creditworthiness in the Philippines. MariBank has not published a bank-specific AI system or figure.[11][10][9]
What has MariBank done on AI, and when?
- Oct 15, 2026
Sea and Google AI Futures Fund collaborate[13]
Sea said teams across the group, working through Sea Labs, will get access to selected Google frontier models; the partnership builds on a February 2026 expansion that included agentic commerce and agentic payments.
- Oct 7, 2026
MAS issues Guidelines on AI Risk Management[12]
The final Guidelines apply to all MAS-regulated financial institutions, including digital banks, covering generative AI and AI agents; MAS said FIs may use existing governance structures and need not set up a dedicated AI committee solely for this.
- Sep 23, 2026
Sea adopts NVIDIA Vera Rubin; Monee AI in fraud and credit[11]
Sea said it will be the first enterprise in Southeast Asia to adopt the NVIDIA Vera Rubin platform and that at Monee AI is applied to fraud detection and credit-risk assessment.
- Aug 11, 2026
Sea details Monee's transformer credit models[10]
On the Q2 2026 call Forrest Li said Monee's latest risk models are pretrained on ecosystem behavioural and transactional data with a transformer architecture, lifting approval rates by around 10% at similar risk, and that AI income-document checks cut review time by around 95%.
- Aug 3, 2026
CEO describes Shopee-data underwriting and regional plan[9]
Goh told Fortune that MariBank uses Shopee data to judge creditworthiness in the Philippines and wants to build a regional digital banking group headquartered in Singapore; Fortune noted Sea injected S$75 million into the bank in January 2026.
- Jul 23, 2026
MariBank Philippines receives a BSP digital banking licence[8]
The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas reclassified MariBank Philippines from a rural bank to a digital bank; President Siew Ghee Kung Lim said the licence lets it keep innovating and reach more Filipinos.
- Mar 3, 2026
2025 audited accounts: wider bank loss on higher allowances[5]
MariBank Singapore lost S$55.6 million (2024: S$51.3 million) with allowances up to S$20.5 million; the group including MariBank Philippines reported S$4.23 billion of assets and a S$46.6 million loss. Auditor's report dated March 3, 2026.
- Feb 13, 2026
Remittances to Weixin Pay with TenPay Global[6]
MariBank announced a partnership with TenPay Global to offer users remittances to Weixin Pay, one of several 2026 product launches listed in its newsroom alongside a gold fund (January 6) and Shopee bonus interest (July 20).
- May 8, 2025
SeaMoney becomes Monee; MariBank becomes a banking group[4]
Sea opened a Singapore headquarters for its financial services arm housing Centres of Excellence in product management, artificial intelligence and anti-money laundering, rebranded SeaMoney as Monee and established a digital banking group under MariBank.
- Jul 15, 2024
Natalia Goh named CEO[3]
Sea appointed Trust Bank's operating chief Natalia Goh to lead MariBank, replacing Yu Dong Zheng, who became an adviser, Bloomberg reported (via Yahoo Finance).
- Mar 14, 2023
MariBank opens to the public on an invite-only basis[2]
MariBank launched its website and began admitting selected members of the public, offering only a savings account; it had been rolling out to Sea employees since the third quarter of 2022, per CNBC.
- Dec 4, 2020
MAS names Sea's entity a digital full bank applicant[1]
MAS announced four successful digital bank applicants: two digital full banks (a Grab-Singtel consortium and an entity wholly owned by Sea Ltd) and two digital wholesale banks, expecting operations from early 2022.
Where does MariBank use AI today?
| System | What it does | Status | Use case |
|---|---|---|---|
| Shopee ecosystem data in underwriting[9] | CEO Natalia Goh says MariBank uses 'quite a bit of data from Shopee' to judge creditworthiness in the Philippines, where many customers lack an existing credit product. | In production | Credit scoring & underwriting |
| Transformer-based credit-risk models (Monee)[10][11] | Monee's risk models are pretrained on behavioural and transactional data across Sea's ecosystem; Sea says recent enhancements lifted approval rates by around 10% at a similar level of risk. Disclosed for Monee as a whole, not for MariBank Singapore specifically. | In production | Credit scoring & underwriting |
| AI income-document verification (Monee)[10] | Sea says Monee built AI tools to verify user-submitted income documents across markets, languages and formats, cutting review time by around 95% while keeping accuracy high, so credit-limit requests are answered almost instantly. | In production | AML / KYC |
| AI fraud detection plus in-app scam controls[11][7] | Sea says Monee applies AI to fraud detection. MariBank's own published anti-scam tools, such as Money Lock, which locks part of a savings balance against transfers, are rule-based features; the bank does not describe AI in them. | In production | Fraud detection |
| Monee AI Centre of Excellence in Singapore[4] | Monee's Singapore headquarters, opened May 2025 for over 1,000 staff, houses Centres of Excellence in product management, artificial intelligence and anti-money laundering serving the group including MariBank. | In production | AI governance (general) |
| NVIDIA compute and Google frontier models (group-level)[11][13] | Sea is adopting the NVIDIA Vera Rubin platform for AI models and agents and, from October 2026, gives teams access to selected Google frontier models through the Google AI Futures Fund; how these reach MariBank is not disclosed. | Announced | Third-party & vendor AI |
Use-case links open the tracker's rules-by-use-case matrix: which documents govern each system type.
What has MariBank disclosed in numbers?
| Metric | Value | As of |
|---|---|---|
| MariBank Singapore loss | S$55.6 million (2025), from S$51.3 million (2024)[5] | Dec 31, 2025 |
| Customer deposits | S$1.92 billion bank / S$2.82 billion group (bank: S$1.54 billion a year earlier)[5] | Dec 31, 2025 |
| Loans and advances to customers | S$222.4 million bank (from S$103.7 million) / S$896.7 million group[5] | Dec 31, 2025 |
| Allowances for credit and other losses | S$20.5 million bank (2024: S$4.4 million) / S$133.4 million group[5] | Dec 31, 2025 |
| Group total assets | S$4.23 billion (bank alone S$2.92 billion)[5] | Dec 31, 2025 |
| Monee credit-model approval uplift | around 10% versus previous models at a similar level of risk[10] | Jun 30, 2026 |
| Monee income-document review time | reduced by around 95% with AI verification[10] | Jun 30, 2026 |
“So we use quite a bit of data from Shopee to help us judge creditworthiness.”[9]
Natalia Goh · CEO, MariBank · Aug 3, 2026
“Sea’s existing businesses give it insights and a good understanding of what consumers do online.”[9]
Natalia Goh · CEO, MariBank · Aug 3, 2026
“Review time reduced by around 95% while maintaining a very high level of accuracy, letting us respond to credit limit requests from users almost instantly.”[10]
Forrest Li · Chairman and CEO, Sea Limited · Aug 11, 2026
“Our ambition to become an AI-native company goes beyond improving what we do today.”[13]
Forrest Li · Chairman and CEO, Sea Limited · Oct 15, 2026
Who runs AI at MariBank?
Which regulators govern MariBank's AI?
| Authority | Why it matters here | Documents |
|---|---|---|
| MAS | MariBank Singapore holds a MAS digital full bank licence; its credit models, fraud controls and any generative AI fall under MAS's AI risk-management guidelines, its 2024 information paper on AI model risk and its deepfake cyber-risk circular. | MAS Guidelines on Artificial Intelligence Risk Management MAS AI Model Risk Management information paper MAS Circular MAS/TCRS/2025/06 |
| Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas | Supervises MariBank Philippines, the group's subsidiary reclassified as a digital bank in July 2026, where MariBank says it uses Shopee data to judge creditworthiness. | |
| SEC | Parent Sea Limited is listed on the NYSE, so the AI credit and fraud results it reports for Monee, MariBank's parent segment, are made under US securities disclosure rules. |
Linked authorities have a page in the Regulation tracker; the others are named for completeness and not yet tracked.
What does the public record suggest about MariBank's AI strategy?
Analysis by BankingNewsAI from the sources cited on this page. Observations, not advice.
01
The AI record belongs to the parent
Every quantified AI claim (approval uplift, review-time cut) is Sea's statement about Monee as a whole; MariBank Singapore has published no bank-level AI system, figure or governance disclosure.
02
Ecosystem data is the underwriting edge
The CEO names Shopee data as a credit input in the Philippines, which makes cross-entity data governance within Sea central to how MAS and the BSP will view its models.
03
Credit costs are rising faster than loans
Bank-level allowances rose almost fivefold to S$20.5 million in 2025 while loans roughly doubled to S$222 million, and most assets remain in government securities rather than lending.
04
The Philippines is where the lending is
The group loan book (S$897 million) is four times the Singapore bank's (S$222 million), so the AI-assisted underwriting Goh describes is concentrated in the Philippine subsidiary.
05
Profitability clock is running
Fortune notes digital banks had to show a path to profitability within five years of launch; MariBank Singapore's loss widened in 2025 and Sea added S$75 million of capital in January 2026.
How does MariBank use AI?
Mostly through its parent Monee, Sea's financial services arm. Sea says Monee uses AI for fraud detection and credit-risk assessment, with transformer-based credit models trained on ecosystem data that lifted approval rates by around 10% at similar risk, and AI document checks that cut income-verification review time by around 95%. MariBank's CEO says Shopee data helps judge creditworthiness. The bank has published no AI figures of its own.
Does MariBank use Shopee data for loans?
Yes, according to its CEO. Natalia Goh told Fortune in August 2026 that because Philippine credit-bureau data is thin, 'we use quite a bit of data from Shopee to help us judge creditworthiness.' Sea separately says Monee's credit models are pretrained on behavioural and transactional data across its ecosystem, lifting approval rates by around 10% at a similar level of risk.
Is MariBank profitable?
Not in Singapore. MariBank Singapore's audited 2025 accounts show a S$55.6 million loss, wider than S$51.3 million in 2024, as allowances for credit losses rose to S$20.5 million. The group including MariBank Philippines lost S$46.6 million. Deposits at the Singapore bank reached S$1.92 billion and loans S$222 million at end-2025.
Who owns MariBank?
MariBank is wholly owned by Sea Limited (NYSE: SE), the owner of Shopee and Garena, and sits within Monee, Sea's digital financial services business. Since May 2025 MariBank has been the head of a banking group that includes MariBank Philippines. Sea injected S$75 million into the bank in January 2026, Fortune reported, after share capital rose from S$555 million to S$775 million during 2025.
Who regulates MariBank?
The Monetary Authority of Singapore, which licensed MariBank Singapore as one of two digital full banks after naming the applicants on December 4, 2020; its AI Risk Management Guidelines of October 7, 2026 apply to the bank. MariBank Philippines is supervised by the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas, which granted it a digital banking licence in July 2026. Group total assets were S$4.23 billion at end-2025.
Who is the CEO of MariBank?
Natalia Goh, appointed in July 2024. She was previously the operating chief of rival digital bank Trust Bank, and she replaced the bank's inaugural CEO Yu Dong Zheng, who became an adviser, Bloomberg reported. In 2026 she has set out a plan to build a regional digital banking group headquartered in Singapore, starting with the Philippines.
- MAS Announces Successful Applicants of Licences to Operate New Digital Banks in Singapore
- Sea Group's digital bank launches in Singapore to a select group of individuals
- Sea's Digital Bank Picks New Chief to Ward Off Tough Competition (Bloomberg)
- Sea Limited Opens New Digital Financial Services Headquarters in Singapore, Rebrands SeaMoney to Monee
- MariBank Singapore Private Limited and its subsidiary — Audited accounts for the financial year ended 31 December 2025
- Latest News & Media Updates (retrieved 2026-10-24)
- How can I safeguard my deposits with Money Lock? (retrieved 2026-10-24)
- MariBank Philippines Secures Official BSP Digital Banking License
- Sea's MariBank wants to export its Singapore digital banking playbook: First stop, the Philippines
- Sea Limited (SE) Q2 2026 Earnings Call Transcript
- Sea is the First Enterprise in Southeast Asia to Adopt NVIDIA Vera Rubin Platform
- MAS Sets Out Supervisory Expectations on Responsible AI Adoption by Financial Institutions
- Sea and Google AI Futures Fund Collaborate to Advance AI Innovation
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