Why Walter de Oude Believes Cash Is Singapore’s Most Under-Managed Asset

SINGAPORE, August 27, 2026 : For Walter de Oude, the idea behind Chocolate Finance is deliberately simple: cash should not sit idle.

The Founder and CEO of Chocolate Finance believes cash is one of the most under-managed asset classes in personal and business finance. In a conversation for Asia Insights on AsiaBizToday, Walter said the company’s latest move, the launch of Chocolate Business Accounts, extends the same basic proposition that powered its consumer platform into the SME and corporate space.

Chocolate Finance launched Chocolate Business Accounts in Singapore in August 2026, two years after launching its consumer offering. The product is positioned as a cash managed account for businesses, not a corporate bank account or fixed deposit, and is designed to help companies earn better returns on cash that would otherwise remain in low-yield accounts while waiting to be used for payroll, supplier payments or other operating needs.

“The idea is really simple,” Walter said. “We’ve realised that all businesses are sitting on cash and banks are just kind of not doing anything while it’s waiting for payments and other things. All we’ve done is built a solution which gives people a better return on their cash when they need it, and instant access anytime.”

Cash as an Under-Managed Asset

Chocolate Finance began with consumers, targeting individuals who hold cash in bank accounts earning low returns. But Walter said the company quickly recognised that businesses face the same issue.

“I think cash is probably the most under-managed asset class there is,” he said. “Everybody’s got cash in the bank that’s sitting there doing nothing or earning a very low return, and our job really was to give people a slightly better return on their cash, make it really easy to do it, and get access to your cash anytime.”

He estimated that there is around S$1 trillion of cash sitting in Singapore accounts earning little, and said reports suggest individuals and businesses may be missing out on about S$800 million a year in potential interest.

For Walter, the problem has remained unresolved because of habit and inertia. Businesses keep money in bank accounts because that is what they have always done. What Chocolate is trying to do, he said, is create a “neat, clean” way for companies to earn more on idle cash and move it back to their bank accounts when needed.

That is why Chocolate Business has been designed around access rather than lock-in. Businesses can move cash into Chocolate to earn a return, then move it back when required for operations.

Not a Bank Account, Not a Fixed Deposit

A central part of Chocolate’s positioning is that the business account is not a bank account. Walter was careful to make that distinction. “Everybody always needs a traditional bank. You need to make payments and receive money and all of those things,” he said. “But your store of money sitting in the bank is actually idle. It’s just not doing anything while it’s there.”

Chocolate’s role, he explained, is to create a mechanism through which users can move cash from the bank into a Chocolate account to earn a return, and then transfer it back when needed.

He also addressed a question that may be important for business owners: the fact that Chocolate is not covered by Singapore Deposit Insurance Corporation protection. Walter argued that the construct is different from depositing money with a bank.

“If you put your money with Chocolate, you’re not actually giving it to us,” he said. “Your money goes into a separately segregated, ring-fenced, custodised account, which is then invested in investment-grade corporate bonds to deliver the returns that we need to deliver.”

He added that if anything happens to Chocolate, customer money remains in that segregated account. Chocolate now manages more than S$1.7 billion of assets on behalf of retail and corporate customers, according to Walter, with around 150,000 retail customers using its products.

Building Trust in a Non-Bank Platform

For a platform that is not a bank, trust is central to adoption. Walter said Singapore’s highly regulated financial sector is an important part of the environment in which Chocolate operates.

“We live in Singapore, which is the most highly regulated financial services sector there is,” he said. “Chocolate is licensed as a financial fund management company in Singapore under the supervision of MAS.”

He said the company’s task is partly educational: helping individuals and businesses understand that cash can be treated as an asset rather than a passive store of value.

“We’ve all been taught forever that cash is just a commodity that you park for later use. But actually, no, cash is an asset,” he said. “Why don’t you maximise the value of your assets?”

This is where Walter’s previous experience becomes important. Before Chocolate Finance, he founded Singlife and built across insurance, banking and asset management. That background has shaped his approach to simplicity, product design and customer confidence.

He sees Chocolate as a continuation of the same philosophy that shaped Singlife: using digital execution to simplify financial products and improve customer outcomes.

“At Singlife, we built a much more engaging digital executional franchise for transforming how insurance works,” he said. “What we’re doing now with Chocolate is the same basic fundamental change to help people get a better return on cash.”

He believes that what may feel new today could become normal within the next five to 10 years, as people realise that earning more on cash does not have to be difficult.

A Different Fee Model

Chocolate Finance also seeks to differentiate itself through how it earns money. Walter said the company makes money only after it delivers the target return to customers. For Chocolate Business, that means the platform must generate more than the promised return on underlying assets. If it does not, the company’s obligation under the Chocolate Top-Up Programme is to make customers whole at the stated return.

“If we don’t make the returns, we don’t eat,” he said. “There’s 100% alignment between our interest as a company and your interest as a customer in delivering returns that are dependable.”

He contrasted this with traditional asset managers, who typically charge management fees regardless of whether returns go up or down. Chocolate, he argued, has built a more aligned model because the company is paid only when it delivers what it promises.

The investment approach is also designed to match the nature of the product. Walter said equities would be too volatile for a cash-like offering. Instead, Chocolate focuses on secure, less volatile instruments that can support the promised return while preserving the liquidity customers expect from a cash product.

Why “Chocolate”?

For a finance company, the name Chocolate stands out. Walter said that was intentional. “Everybody loves chocolate. Chocolate makes you happy, and we want you to be happy about your money,” he said.

Behind the playful brand is a serious insight: money is emotional. For many people, it is associated with anxiety, budgeting stress and uncertainty. Chocolate Finance, he said, was built around the idea of creating “a happy place for money”, where customers can sleep better knowing that their cash is accessible, in good hands and earning a decent return.

That positioning is part of the company’s broader challenge to incumbent financial institutions. Walter believes technology, regulation, behaviour and customer expectations are changing the way people think about money.

While Chocolate Finance currently begins with cash, Walter sees the platform broadening over time.

“The future is definitely evolving,” he said. “At the moment, it started just purely on cash, but in the future, it’ll move into payments and remittances and cross-border and all those other things that you’d love to be able to see.”

For SMEs, the roadmap begins with helping businesses earn better returns on idle cash, then gradually adding services that help them use that cash more efficiently for business needs. Geographically, Chocolate has expanded to Hong Kong, has been licensed in the UAE, and has ambitions for additional Asian markets.

Artificial intelligence is also expected to play a role in Chocolate’s growth. Walter said AI is already helping financial technology companies bring products to market faster and operate more efficiently. In future, he expects AI assistants to become part of customer interactions, including money transfers, advice and financial management.

He said Chocolate operates with a small team by design, and AI enables the company to keep costs low. Lower costs, in turn, allow it to deliver better value to retail and business customers.

A Happy Place for Money

Asked what he wants Chocolate Finance to stand for five years from now, Walter returned to the company’s core emotional promise. “I want Chocolate to be a happy place for your money,” he said. “I want you to have access to your money and get a decent return on it. And I want you to sleep better at night knowing that your money is in a decent spot.”

Over time, he expects Chocolate to move from cash into broader areas of financial well-being, including longer-term wealth, retirement, savings, asset and liability tracking and financial advice.

For Singapore’s SMEs, the launch of Chocolate Business may be the first step in that expansion. For Walter, the opportunity is not merely to compete with banks, but to rethink how people and companies treat the cash they already have.

“Cash is an asset,” he said. Chocolate Finance is betting that once businesses begin to see it that way, idle cash may no longer feel acceptable.