OCBC Bank integrates e-payment with Apple's Siri, iMessage

Singapore

IN a bid to integrate digital payments into their customers' lives, OCBC Bank has rolled out a new feature that lets them send money through Apple's Siri and iMessage.

These services are available for all customers using iPhones running on the iOS 10 software and the latest OCBC Mobile Banking app, said the bank. It added that the payments are secure as they are authenticated by the customer using their mobile banking credentials.

Said its head of e-business for Singapore, Aditya Gupta: "We know that customers now prefer their banking to be embedded in other things they do, rather than having to start their interaction journey from a bank's platform. . . We are integrating payments into our customers' everyday lives and making it completely frictionless for them to engage us via actions that are second nature to them - using messaging and voice commands."

Users can instruct Siri to send money to a contact on the phone list, which will prompt OCBC's Pay Anyone app to pop up. They then complete the transaction through the app.

Similarly, one can tap on the "Apps" icon next to the chatbox in iMessage and select the app, which will launch within iMessage itself.

OCBC Bank increased the daily transfer limit from S$100 to S$1,000 last month. Since then, the amount of money sent via the e-payment service has risen 250 per cent, said Mr Gupta.

"We expect e-payments to have a multi-fold increase and will continue to add more payment channels for customers to our suite of digital services," he said.