(Bloomberg) ? HSBC Holdings Plc, one of six foreign lenders with expanded banking licences in Singapore, is tying up with a retailer to give its customers more access to cash withdrawal facilities.

HSBC, the world?s second-largest bank by market value, will use Bermuda-registered Dairy Farm International Holdings Ltd.?s outlets to allow its customers to withdraw up to S$500 ($290) at a time, from as early as January 2004, it said in a statement. Dairy Farm operates 150 stores in the island-state, including supermarkets.

?We will be able to tap our collaboration with Dairy Farm to give our customers the benefits of increased accessibility and convenience in banking with HSBC,? said Paul Lawrence, chief executive officer of HSBC in Singapore.

While Singapore has been deregulating its banking industry gradually since 1999, the country still prohibits foreign banks from sharing the local automated cash machine network and limits the number of branches and off-site ATMs.

In the past four years, Singapore has given Citigroup Inc., Standard Chartered Plc, ABN Amro Holding NV, HSBC, Malayan Banking Bhd. and BNP Paribas SA ?qualifying full bank? status, allowing them to open up to 10 branches and five off-site ATMs.

The three Singapore lenders, DBS Group Holdings Ltd., United Overseas Bank Ltd. and Oversea-Chinese Banking Corp., have a total of 1,547 automated cash machines, according to the central bank. HSBC has 24 in Singapore.

London-based HSBC, which started operating in Singapore in 1877, also said it will use MasterCard International Inc.?s platform to offer debit services to its customers.

Customers would be able to make point-of-sale payments at 23,000 retailers in Singapore.