OCBC Bank moving towards greater digitalisation

PETALING JAYA: With the banking industry embracing digitalisation at breakneck pace, OCBC Bank (M) Bhd is not holding back as it looks to carve a significant presence in this area.

OCBC Bank’s newly minted head of consumer financial services, Anne Leh, said digitalisation is the way forward for the group.

“We will augment our digital platforms in the two key areas of self-serve digitalisation and assisted digitalisation.

“In self-serve digitalisation, we are looking to strengthen our mobile banking platform by harnessing our stronger client acquisition platform as well as strengthening the digital wealth and payment offerings.

“This is to make it all the more convenient and safer for our customers to perform their transactions, ” she told StarBiz in an e-mail interview.

For assisted digitalisation, Leh said OCBC is investing in tools and capabilities that would further empower frontliners to serve customers better, whether in person or remotely.

She said OCBC is also looking at lifting its wealth management game for its Premier Banking and Premier Private Client (PPC) customers by introducing a new enhanced wealth platform.

“We are going headlong into this and will likely launch it towards the end of the year, ” Leh added.

The bank recently launched the country’s first secure chat service, OCBC RM Chat, for its Premier Banking and PPC customers.

The service is the fruit of a sandbox innovation that was approved by Bank Negara in 2018 under the Financial Technology Regulatory Sandbox Framework.

OCBC is looking to provide more offerings under this service while moving ultimately to availing it to all the bank’s retail customers as well. By early March, close to 2,000 customers had signed up for this innovative service.

Leh said the bank would be focusing on sustainability by developing platforms, processes and products that embed environmental, social and governance (ESG) measures more consciously into them.

OCBC as a whole has been keenly following the developments in sustainable financing globally in light of the many positive initiatives introduced since the Paris Agreement of 2015 and the introduction of the UN Sustainable Development Goals the same year.

In a bid to strengthen its consumer financial services business, Leh noted that the bank has set its sights on becoming the standout bank of choice for top talents.

“Despite the push in digitalisation, we believe that people are still the most important asset. With digitalisation, we will be able to turbocharge our people into the future fully equipped with the necessary tools and capabilities.

“We will continue to focus on and grow our wealth management products and offerings for our affluent segments that form the core of our wealth business by bringing in a new enhanced wealth platform that will lift our wealth management business, ” she said.

The bank is looking to strive for growth in lending by curating segment-specific propositions, especially in affluent lending for affluent segments, she said, adding that despite the impact of the pandemic, OCBC is confident that lending would improve this year.