The loans are borne out of the OCBC Women Unlimited Programme, which the bank has rolled out in four markets across the region. OCBC launched the programme in Malaysia last month, following Hong Kong in April and Singapore in April 2024. In Indonesia, the programme is known as the Women Warriors Programme and was rolled out in 2020.
OCBC launched the programme in Singapore under the name OCBC Women Entrepreneurs Programme, where women-owned SMEs can secure financing of up to $100,000 within the first two years of incorporation. OCBC has also waived the 1.5% “facility fee” levied on approved loan amounts.
These loans, aligned with the Social Loan Principles issued by the Loan Market Association, aim to enhance the socioeconomic advancement of women, and strengthen the growth and resilience of women-owned businesses.
According to OCBC, one in three of its SME customers across the four countries are owned by women entrepreneurs. According to the bank’s data, women-owned SMEs in Singapore typically experience about 30% lower sales turnover growth in their first three years of operation compared to male-owned SMEs.
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Women entrepreneurs are often “a little bit more cautious at the start”, says Linus Goh, the outgoing head of global commercial banking at OCBC Bank. This makes them less likely to take up a loan early in their business journeys, he adds at a Sept 17 media briefing.
“Lots of entrepreneurs at the beginning — if things were left to themselves — they raise some capital on their own and will exhaust that capital first before they seek help,” says Goh, who will retire on Sept 30 after 21 years with OCBC. “But actually the idea is that you draw on a facility concurrent with your capital, and then you have a credit record that starts to develop early, so that gives you the wherewithal to get started well… The stigma of taking the loan earlier was something that we wanted to remove.”
Jlynn Chen, who has been in the beauty line since 2003, is a beneficiary of the OCBC Women Unlimited Programme in Singapore. Chen founded sustainable beauty brand The Powder Shampoo in 2022, and the company’s waterless, eco-friendly haircare products are now sold in 16 markets.
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Since securing a social loan from OCBC, The Powder Shampoo is on track to double its customer base by the end of 2025 and achieve 150% revenue growth by the following year.
Commenting on the slower initial growth of women-owned SMEs in Singapore, Chen says men “sell themselves so much higher”, while women “want to be better than what we sell ourselves at”. “This is a social and cultural issue that we face… I hope that it will change as we become more confident in how we speak and vice versa. With institutions and corporations like OCBC helping us, that would really help tweak these numbers as the years pass.”
Another beneficiary is Yasmin Sim, one of three co-founders of The Plattering Co. The catering company expects to increase its customer base by 50% and triple its revenue by 2027; it is currently establishing a second kitchen, which will be Halal-certified. The company aims to expand into Malaysia within the next 12 months.
Echoing Chen’s comments, Sim says her partners were “scared to take people’s money” at the start. “We were scared that we wouldn’t be able to return their money. I think we’re very conservative, we’re very cautious. I believe that with this programme and with us stepping up, I believe that [women] will have more courage to take the first step.”
According to OCBC, loan commitments extended to women-owned SMEs in Singapore grew by more than 20% in the 12 months following the launch of the programme in April 2024. Women-owned SMEs in the food and beverage sector received the highest number of loans, followed by those in the building and construction, and transport and logistics sectors.
Some 36% of OCBC’s SME customers in Singapore are owned by women entrepreneurs. The bank’s data also shows that the percentage of newly-incorporated SMEs founded by women here grew from 23% in 2018 to 30% in 2023 and nearly 40% in 2024.
Iris Ng, OCBC’s head of emerging business, global commercial banking, says: “We continue to see growth potential in the women entrepreneur segment and remain committed to supporting them through our SME programmes dedicated to them… Following the success in Singapore and Indonesia, we are confident that the programme will also resonate strongly across Hong Kong and Malaysia.”
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Read more about OCBC’s sustainable and social loan schemes:
OCBC Malaysia offers up to RM600,000 collateral-free financing for women entrepreneurs (August)
OCBC issued sustainability-linked loans to 110 SMEs in 2024, more than four times y-o-y (February)
OCBC to waive fee on loans issued to women-owned SMEs in Singapore under new programme (March 2024)
OCBC issued over $7 bil in sustainable financing to region's SMEs last year, more than double y-o-y (February 2024)
