OCBC launches fully digital account-opening service for foreigners moving to Singapore
OCBC has launched a digital account-opening service for overseas customers relocating to Singapore, the bank said on Thursday (Jun 22).
The service targets customers from Malaysia, Indonesia, mainland China and Hong Kong. It enables them to open Singapore dollar and multi-currency accounts on the OCBC Digital app “within minutes”, the bank said.
Usually, the account-opening process takes days – or even weeks – for foreign customers, as they need to physically travel to a bank branch to have their documents verified. Singapore citizens need only use their Singpass accounts for digital identity verification.
To fully digitalise the process, OCBC said it leveraged artificial intelligence, data analytics, biometrics, blockchain and cloud technologies.
Through the digital account-opening service, OCBC aims to cut the time foreigners need to relocate to Singapore, as bank services are crucial for administrative arrangements such as salary crediting and securing accommodation.
These customers will also gain access to the bank’s wealth-management services, including time deposits, international remittances, single-premium endowments, and robo-investment services.
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Such services are sought-after, said the bank, noting that there has been an increase in foreign customers in Singapore investing through the OCBC Digital app since 2020. The total amounts invested have risen nearly seven times in the same period, it added.
With borders reopening post-pandemic, more foreigners are coming to Singapore to work, study and live. OCBC expects the monthly average number of foreigners who open an account with it in 2024 to be a fourfold increase over the 2022 figure.
Sunny Quek, OCBC’s head of global consumer financial services, said: “By providing them with a seamless and secure way to open an OCBC account, we hope that they will be able to get settled and integrate into Singapore life more quickly.”
While OCBC is the first of the three local banks to provide this service, HSBC has a similar offering.
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