UOB to pilot use of GovTech's Sign with Singpass to confirm customer transactions

UOB is piloting the use of the Government Technology Agency's (GovTech) Sign with Singpass in its customer transactions, with plans to roll out electronic signature services for customers across the region from 2022.

It is the first bank in Singapore to pilot Sign with Singpass, it said in a press statement on Thursday.

With the new feature, Singpass users will be able to sign an electronic document digitally via the Singpass app. UOB will use the feature to confirm transactions or product applications.

It will start the 12-month pilot with a set of retail and corporate customers in transactions including forms for individual wealth planning services and the PayNow Corporate application.

A "cryptographically random, indecipherable" code will be shared with the bank's document management platform to confirm the digital signing, ensuring personal data stays confidential, UOB said.

When the pilot is over, the bank plans to expand the use of Sign with Singpass in more of its products and services for both its retail and wholesale segments in Singapore.

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For markets without a national digital identity platform, UOB will use electronic signatures and authenticate customers through two-factor authentication.

Once rolled out across all markets, electronic signatures will cut down the use of more than two million multi-page hardcopy documents each year. This translates to saving more than 700 trees per year, UOB said.

UOB head of group technology and operations Susan Hwee said the change in customer expectations and experience during Covid-19 has made it imperative that the bank explore and extend its digital capabilities across more of its financial services and products.

In a press statement in the evening, DBS said it has deployed secured electronic signatures through DBS DigiSign for its institutional customers since August last year. The bank said in 2020, it was the first to partner with GovTech to deploy SingPass Face Verification in a number of banking applications. Rather than use the traditional card and PIN verification method, existing retail customers wanting to sign up for DBS digibank access can do so via a "selfie" using SingPass facial verification.

Meanwhile, OCBC in March this year made itself the first to tap Singapore's SingPass Face Verification, to securely verify customers for banking transactions at ATMs without the need for ATM cards. This is a secure alternative to using physical ATM cards, the bank had said.

Kwok Quek Sin, senior director for National Digital Identity at GovTech, said: "We will continue to work with industry partners to build more beneficial services and establish new digitally-enabled ways of doing business."

Sign with Singpass is part of the National Digital Identity Smart Nation strategic national project, which aims to build a trusted digital identity ecosystem for citizens, public agencies and private sector companies.