SINGAPORE – Financial services platform Chocolate Finance has paid out all withdrawal requests made between March 10 and March 18, the firm announced on March 21.
Customers received 100 per cent of their capital and all earned returns, it noted, adding that withdrawal requests continue to be processed in an “orderly fashion”, in line with the “standard three to six business days processing time”.
Chocolate Finance said it will process all withdrawals within three to six business days starting from March 24.
Previously, withdrawals of up to $20,000 – or multiple withdrawals totalling that amount in a single day – were paid out instantly. Amounts above $20,000 were processed within three to 10 business days.
The firm told The Straits Times that it is unable to commit to a timeline for the resumption of instant withdrawals.
Chocolate Finance, which operates under private company ChocFin, was founded by Singapore permanent resident Walter de Oude, the founder of insurer Singlife.
It is licensed as a fund management service provider by the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS), and is required to safeguard users’ money, which is separated from the company’s own finances using licensed custodian banks such as HSBC.
The firm suspended instant withdrawals on March 10 because of high demand, adding that the pause was “not a liquidity issue, but a matter of managing our increased transaction volume”.
The MAS said on March 10 that it is querying ChocFin about its representations of its instant withdrawals programme.
The firm raised the spending cap on its Chocolate Visa debit card to $1,000 on March 14, after imposing a $250 limit on March 11 to manage its “liquidity programme”.
Chocolate Finance declined to comment on the amount of withdrawals it has processed since March 10. It had cash assets close to $1 billion as at February 2025.
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