OCBC Bank first in Asia Pacific for Siri payments
Siri sitting pretty
OCBC has become the first bank in Asia Pacific to let customers send cash through Siri.
Users can send money with a voice command via Siri, then use the OCBC Pay Anyone mobile e-payment service. It also offers Apple’s instant messaging service – iMessage. No need to stop texting, payments can be made without leaving the conversation screen or opening up any other mobile apps.
Aditya Gupta, OCBC Bank’s head of e-business in Singapore, says 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”.
According to OCBC, Siri and iMessage services for OCBC Pay Anyone are available to all OCBC Bank customers using iPhone devices running the iOS10 software and the latest OCBC Mobile Banking app.
Why so Siri-ous?
Siri has got some serious attention.
Digital bank N26 (formerly Number26) is now offering voice-powered payments via Siri – the “first” bank in Germany to do so. Users can transfer money by talking to Siri; and can also request money from their N26 contacts using iMessage.
All this follows Apple’s developers previewing new Siri integrations for payments – such as asking it to send a secure payment without ever opening an app. The firm said with the introduction of SiriKit for developers, messaging apps can tap into the “power” of Siri.
