Sea Group tells Singapore staff to credit salaries into company-owned MariBank, raising legal and privacy questions

Sea Limited informed Singapore-based employees in early September 2026 that MariBank — the digital bank it wholly owns — would become the mandatory salary crediting bank from the October payroll, with staff offered a S$100 Shopee voucher for updating their details by 17 September. Employment lawyers confirmed that under Singapore law, an employer cannot force staff to receive wages through a specific bank without a contractual basis, and that employees are entitled to decline without consequence. The directive raised wider questions about the blurring of boundaries between employer and financial institution, and the implicit pressure on workers to funnel their financial data — including salary and spending patterns — through their corporate employer's own platform.