OCBC announced today the roll-out of cheque encashment service across all its ATMs at 23 branches. Since February 2020, customers have been able to encash cheques – for up to a maximum of $30,000 in a single cheque – by depositing them into the ATM to instantly get cash. This capability enables the ATMs to process 90 percent of all the cheques usually encashed at OCBC Bank branch teller counters.
Even as Singapore pushes to become cheque-free by 2025, cash cheques continue to be used by small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), typically to pay staff salaries, get cash for daily business operations or pay vendors for services rendered.
The average cheque encashment transaction time has been reduced to under three minutes at the ATM, as customers can save about 60 per cent of their time compared to waiting to be served at a branch. All the necessary security checks and verifications are performed by Digital Ambassadors on mobile tablets in real time, so security is not compromised. The next generation ATMs have already processed cheque encashments totalling close to S$17 million.
Sunny Quek
“As we continue to push Singapore’s cashless and cheque-less agenda, we are also accelerating our pace of digital transformation by continually upskilling our branch staff to take on digital roles. We recognise that there are still segments of customers who require services like cheque encashments; it takes up a significant amount of time for a customer and counter teller staff just to fulfil a single such transaction. We have addressed this by enabling transactions such as cheque encashment to be performed seamlessly on our next-generation ATMs instead.
“As we embark on our branch digital transformation journey, we don’t forget our staff. Through our OCBC Future Smart Programme, our tellers and branch service staff have acquired digital skills. At the same time, our staff are happy that they are able to do more value-added services than voluminous and repetitive over-the-counter tasks.”
