OCBC Bank claims to be the first Singapore bank to roll out a digital instant account-opening service for all customers who are Singaporeans or permanent residents.
Even if you do not currently have any relationship with OCBC Bank, you can leverage national data repository MyInfo and – for the first time – OCBC Bank’s real-time, digital KYC process (e-KYC) to open an OCBC 360 Account using your mobile device or desktop.
It all takes less than five minutes via the bank’s website, with no need to visit a bank branch or provide documents. Verification and authentication happens in real time; once this is completed, you get a new account number within seconds of a successful application. You can start using the account right away for functions like electronic transfers, rather than having to wait a few days for application approval.
There are two main processes involved in OCBC Bank’s digital instant account opening. The first is submitting an application, which is made fuss-free thanks to MyInfo, the digital vault of verified personal data designed by the Singapore government. Logging in using your SingPass, you simply consent to OCBC Bank using your MyInfo profile to set up a new account. An online OCBC 360 Account application form is then pre-filled with your personal details, so you do not need to key in details or submit any additional documentation.
The second process is to verify that you are who you say you are, which is known as KYC or “know your customer”. Even after OCBC Bank successfully integrated its systems with Myinfo in May 2017 in a successful industry pilot – so you could pre-fill application forms with your government-verified personal particulars – you still had to wait for your account to be approved because KYC checks had to be conducted, typically using humans.
Now, however, OCBC Bank has digitised the KYC process, and for the first time, is able to authenticate customers in real time using electronic means so that approval for successful account applications is granted instantly.
Mr Aditya Gupta, OCBC Bank’s Head of E-Business Singapore, said:
Aditya Gupta
“Instant is the new black. I believe this instant, hassle-free and secure access to our core banking products will make it hugely compelling for people to initiate and deepen their primary banking relationship with OCBC Bank.
Our ambition is to have one in every two customers on-boarded digitally with zero human intervention, and this launch is a significant milestone in that journey. We will be extending this service to a broader suite of our products shortly.”
Driving digital with the OCBC 360 Account
In 2014, OCBC Bank was the first bank in Singapore to enable customers to apply for a bank account online with the launch of the OCBC 360 Account, the first account in Singapore to reward customers with bonus interest for doing more banking transactions using their account, such as crediting their salary, making bill payments or spending on their credit cards. Since then, more than 20 per cent of OCBC 360 Accounts have been applied for remotely on a mobile device or desktop, with account approvals taking up to three days.
Now, with the MyInfo integration and the bank’s real time e-KYC process in the account opening journey, account approvals are instant for successful applications. Customers will be able to use the OCBC 360 Account opened online to immediately make funds transfers via PayNow or Fast, and start earning bonus interest from performing various transactions.
This fast and seamless on-boarding proposition will sit well with time-strapped PMETs and young professionals who are highly digitally engaged and who make up two-thirds of OCBC Bank’s existing OCBC 360 Account base. The OCBC 360 Account customer base has grown 30 per cent year-on-year and has captured a sizable base of PMETs’ salary crediting – over 40 per cent of deposits growth comes through OCBC 360 Accounts – while also driving day-to-day banking and the use of PayNow.
More than 90 per cent of OCBC 360 Account customers are digitally active and have accessed OCBC Bank’s digital platforms at least once in the past three months. Digitally active customers are found to own twice as many banking products as those who are not digitally active, and the number of OCBC 360 Account customers who take up financial products has grown by more than 10 per cent since a wealth bonus interest was introduced in 2015. The wealth bonus interest was increased in 2017 to 1.2 per cent, with a lower tier of 0.6 per cent for products with smaller premiums also introduced to make this bonus interest more accessible to customers.
OCBC’s Timeline of Digital Initiatives
In April 2018, OCBC Bank introduced instant credit card approvals and provisioning to Apple Pay for all customers, even new-to-bank customers. OCBC Bank was among the first in Singapore to roll out AI-powered voice banking services through the Google Assistant and on Google Home devices in April 2018.
OCBC Bank led the way in Singapore in launching voice-powered conversational banking for retail customers in February 2018, which allows customers to ask Siri to check their bank balances, credit card overview and make e-payments. It was the first bank in Singapore to introduce biometric authentication to access bank account details with OCBC OneTouch in March 2015, and OCBC OneLook in November 2017 on the OCBC Mobile Banking app, leveraging fingerprint and facial recognition technology.
OCBC Bank then offered customers the convenience of banking on their wrist, launching its mobile banking app for Apple Watch in March 2016. In November 2016, OCBC Bank enhanced its OCBC Pay Anyone e-payments service by enabling customers to send money via OCBC Pay Anyone directly within Apple’s iMessage on iPhones, and via any app on Android devices using the OCBC Keyboard in August 2017.
