OCBC operates one of the largest small and medium enterprise (SME) banking franchises in Singapore, representing nearly half of all SMEs nationwide. Across Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, Hong Kong, China and Macau, the bank now delivers business banking under a One Group digital model, supported by shared infrastructure that enables scale, consistency and faster deployment across markets. Carmen Chan, deputy head of global transaction banking, OCBC, said the evolution of Velocity and the OCBC Business App was not a user-interface refresh but a fundamental re-engineering of the bank’s digital architecture. Organised around the four pillars — Apply, Transact, Service and Engage — the platform was redesigned to systematically remove friction across onboarding, transaction execution, servicing and customer engagement. Chan said the focus was on building a common digital foundation that allows the bank to deliver banking services efficiently across markets, while supporting customers as they operate in increasingly complex and cross-border environments. To achieve this, the bank rebuilt both front‑end and back‑end architecture in parallel. The platform now operates on application programming interfaces (APIs) and microservices architecture, enabling modular deployment across markets while maintaining regulatory and data localisation compliance. In a region where digital banking capabilities often remains fragmented across channels and markets, OCBC’s approach transforms onboarding, transacting, servicing and customer engagement into a unified regional environment. Digital identity as a foundational platform capability Under the Apply pillar, OCBC approached digital identity not as a one time onboarding requirement, but as a foundational capability embedded into its regional digital banking platform. By standardising identity verification frameworks and integrating government backed digital identity tools, the bank enabled consistent and secure onboarding experiences across markets, while maintaining local regulatory compliance. Chan noted that traditional cross-border onboarding processes often required physical presence, passport checks and in-branch verification. These processes created friction for customers operating across markets and limited the ability to scale digital onboarding consistently. OCBC addressed this by embedding identity tools directly into its platform, allowing identity verification to be executed digitally as part of a controlled, end-to-end onboarding flow. In Hong Kong, for example, the bank implemented Chinese National ID verification for Hong Kong business account opening, allowing Mainland Chinese directors to complete remote authentication while adhering to anti-money laundering and regulatory requirements. OCBC is also among the first foreign banks to digitise the PIN mailer process, removing the need for customers to wait for physical mailers in order to activate online banking access. The activation process is now fully digital, reducing time-to-access and operational processing. Chan cited another example where OCBC introduced Singpass authentication for cross-border onboarding, enabling Singaporean directors to complete identity verification digitally through Singapore’s national digital identity. This marked a first-in-the-world initiative in leveraging government-backed digital identity for cross-border business account onboarding. The approach eliminated the need for branch visits while maintaining regulatory assurance, particularly for Singapore-based directors opening Malaysian business accounts. Chan said by embedding these identity tools into the digital banking platform, OCBC shifted identity verification from a procedural step to a scalable platform capability. This reduced onboarding friction for customers while strengthening consistency, control and auditability across markets — providing a critical foundation for regional digital banking at scale. Embedding banking into treasury and ERP systems Digital banking platforms cannot remain standalone portals if they are to scale regionally. Under the Transact pillar, OCBC invested in integration solutions that embed banking functionality directly into corporate platforms such enterprise resource planning systems (ERPs) and treasury management systems to serve regional or large corporates. Through secure API connectivity with Bank of Ningbo’s treasury management system, corporate clients can retrieve OCBC account information, view balances, track liquidity and initiate payments within the BON interface. This supports consolidated liquidity management across treasury environments spanning multiple banks, markets and entities. OCBC also embedded its services into the cloud-based ERP system of Yonyou, the leading ERP provider in China by market share. Clients can initiate payments and synchronise financial data directly within their enterprise workflows, reducing manual intervention. For SMEs using Xero and Infotech accounting platforms, OCBC’s secure bank-feed integration enables automated reconciliation and improved financial reporting accuracy. This embedded model powered OCBC’s ambitions in offering banking services regionally at scale that interconnect and interoperate with corporate platforms, improving customer productivity. Secure, digital-first customer servicing Under the Service pillar, OCBC focused on strengthening security and efficiency in how customer servicing is delivered through its digital banking platform. Traditional call-centre authentication relied on dynamic security questions to verify customers’ identity during service calls, creating friction and increased exposure to impersonation and social engineering risks. OCBC replaced call-based verification with app-based authentication through the OCBC Business App, enabling customers to verify themselves securely within a controlled digital environment. Chan said this approach reduced impersonation risk while streamlining the servicing process. Customers can also initiate webcall interactions directly within the app using web real-time communication technology, rather than relying on conventional phone channels. By integrating authentication and servicing within the digital platform, the results were measurable. Digital authentication and webcall reduced average handling time by 20% and cut verbal verification time by 50%. OCBC also introduced a market-first digital corporate mandate management solution that brings traditionally paper-based servicing requests onto the digital banking platform. By digitising mandate management, mandate changes are authenticated digitally and captured systematically within the platform, improving transparency and control for both customers and the bank. Customers can view and update mandates electronically, reducing reliance on physical forms and minimising processing delays. Chan said this capability streamlines servicing efficiency while ensuring strengthening control and governance across markets. Embedding mandate management into the digital platform ensures changes are consistently authenticated and traceable, supporting efficient and well‑governed servicing at regional scale. AI-orchestrated engagement to drive commercial activation Through its Engage pillar, OCBC established an intelligence layer that connects its digital banking platform with internal product systems to enable coordinated, data driven customer engagement. Powered by an AI-driven Campaign Module, the platform analyses behavioural signals, transaction patterns and product usage to prioritise and surface relevant propositions—aligning customer needs, eligibility, and business objectives within a single, orchestrated engagement engine. Chan said the relevant product propositions and solutions are surfaced contextually within the digital journey, aligned to customer eligibility and usage patterns, reducing application friction and accelerating product access, while adaptive learning continuously sharpens targeting through observed customer interactions. The engine achieved click-through rates close to three times of industry averages, as well as increased customer satisfaction scores across the region in Singapore, Malaysia and Hong Kong. Microservices and regional codebase consolidation OCBC adopted a micro-frontend framework that enables modular feature deployment. Onboarding updates, regulatory adjustments and interface enhancements can be introduced without disrupting other modules. The backend migrated to microservices architecture, supporting independent scaling of transaction processing, process orchestration and service authentication components. The codebase was regionalised to allow shared deployment across markets for a consistent regional customer experience while maintaining local regulatory adherence. Chan said the rebuild was operationally complex but necessary to support cross-market scalability. The architecture supports transaction growth and customer expansion without proportionate increases in operational headcount, improving cost scalability. A unified regional banking platform Across Southeast Asia and Greater China, digital banking remains uneven in maturity. Many banks operate parallel domestic systems with limited cross-border integration. Chan said OCBC’s digital platform addresses regional fragmentation by converging onboarding, embedded connectivity, digital servicing and AI driven engagement into a single regional architecture. The shift represents a move beyond interface upgrades towards a shared digital foundation that supports consistent capability deployment anchored on the four pillars of Apply, Transact, Service and Engage. The shift towards API-based and microservices architecture enables shared deployment across markets while maintaining regulatory compliance — a foundation that allows OCBC to scale consistently. In a region where corporates increasingly operate across borders while banking systems remain domestically organised, OCBC’s consolidated digital architecture reshapes how financial services are delivered at scale. By integrating identity verification, payments, servicing and financing into a seamless cross market experience, the bank positions itself not only as a digital platform provider, but as a strategic enabler to support customer growth across the region.
