OCBC Bank first in Singapore to launch voice-powered banking
OCBC says it is the first bank in Singapore to offer its customers day-to-day banking and make cashless payments using their voices.
“How much money do I have in my bank account?”
According to OCBC, its retail banking customers are now able to check their bank account balances, outstanding credit card balances and details, as well as make instant e-payments – using Siri, Apple’s virtual assistant.
The e-payments can be made to any bank account in Singapore, including accounts not linked to the PayNow service. PayNow is a nationwide peer-to-peer funds transfer service that enables funds transfers using mobile or national registration identity card (NRIC) numbers. In October last year, OCBC rolled out a similar service to business banking customers.
For example, customers can ask questions such as “Hey Siri, what’s my balance?”, or “How much money do I have in my bank account?”, or “What is my credit card spend?”. They can then authenticate the transaction with their fingerprint or facial recognition.
Aditya Gupta, OCBC Bank’s head of e-business Singapore, says the new service “brings us one huge leap closer to making natural language voice-activated banking and payments a reality”.
The bank also reminds people about its previous developments. This includes introducing biometric authentication to access account details with OneTouch in March 2015, an app for Apple Watch in March 2016; and OneLook in November 2017 – also on its app.
