DBS Bank has launched a first-of-its-kind service with would allow small and medium-sized businesses apply for a Letter of Credit online.

The new DBS service allowing small and medium-sized businesses (SMEs) to apply for a Letter of Credit (LC) online will see the issue time drop from a week to two days under the Singaporean bank’s latest digital move.

DBS head of SME banking, Joyce Tee, said LCs were used to provide assurance of payment to overseas suppliers and would noticeably speed up process times.

Tee said digital initiatives were increasingly proving to be the most successful banking methods, as customers continued the call for simple, digital-first solutions.

“This service is yet another first for SMEs in Singapore; our digital offerings to help SMEs apply for an account, loan products and banker’s guarantee online have been popular,” she said.

“In the last three months of 2016, about 75 per cent of new accounts opened with DBS were done via the online channel.”

DBS said positive feedback from SMEs had already been received by the bank and that the credit service would be the first in a slew of new digital offerings to be launched by the bank this year.