OCBC Bank unveils robo-investment service
The mercurial OCBC Bank is busy again and has unveiled its robo-investment service, OCBC RoboInvest.
Another first
The service is targeting “young and tech-savvy investors”, and requires an initial investment amount of SGD 3,500 ($2,550).
OCBC says it has become the first bank in Southeast Asia to launch a robo-investment service.
The bank adds: “Just as they might pick a playlist using a digital music service, customers can choose from 28 diverse portfolios of equities and exchange traded funds across six markets, constructed based on themes like technology, real estate investment trusts, fast-moving-consumer-goods companies, property, healthcare and food and beverage.”
RoboInvest uses algorithms to monitor each portfolio automatically and periodically re-balance assets if there are economic and market movements that impact the portfolio.
It then alerts customers via emails so they can approve the re-balancing. This means customers do not need to constantly monitor their investments.
It costs 1.5% annually for assets under management of up to SGD 50,000 ($36,500), and 1% annually for assets under management of more than SGD 50,000.
According to the bank, a pilot run from March to December in 2017 confirmed its hypothesis that investors between the ages of 25 to 40 years old have no reservations embracing “self-service” investing as long as the investment portfolios are in line with their investment preferences and match their risk profiles.
The customer insights from the pilot run were developed with a Singapore start-up, WeInvest. This partnership was forged through the bank’s innovation unit, The Open Vault at OCBC.
OCBC likes to stay active.
Last month, it said it plans to make half of its bank tellers become “digital ambassadors” as it seeks to upskill its workforce.
While in June, it launched a digital instant account-opening service for Singapore residents or nationals, becoming the first Singapore bank to have such a service.
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