UOB Malaysia recognised for new digital account opening service at the Asian Experience Awards

It can be accessed through the UOB Mighty mobile banking app.

As with other industries, banks are seeing customer expectations increase at a drastic rate. UOB Malaysia tapped new technologies and innovated to launch an online account opening service through its all-in-one mobile banking app UOB Mighty to answer the need for uninterrupted banking.

Through the app, customers can embark on their financial journey with the bank and open a personal bank account anytime, anywhere in just ten minutes. This reduces the average time taken to open an account by up to 60%.

According to the UOB ASEAN Consumer Sentiment Study 2020, more than half of respondents preferred to open a bank account online while 67% were willing to apply for a financial product via the internet or mobile banking.

In view of the precautionary measures put in place to battle the pandemic, more people are staying at home which has led to an increase in mobile and internet banking usage in the past year.

Mobile apps and web browsers were the top two channels used by consumers to conduct their banking activities at 80% and 71%, respectively.

By digitalising the application and account opening process, UOB Malaysia replaced lengthy paper-based forms and kept only a minimal number of fields to complete.

Customers need only to upload an image of their new MyKad and complete a facial scan. An electronic KYC solution was also integrated to verify and authenticate the identity of the customers.

Upon submitting the application, customers will receive a notification through the app within two minutes on the application status. 

If successful, they will be prompted to transfer funds to their new bank account to activate it. Once completed, they can already start using their preferred deposit accounts.

For this change, UOB Malaysia was given the “Malaysia Customer Experience of the Year – Banking” in the recently concluded Asian Experience Awards hosted by Asian Business Review.

The awards recognise the ingenious initiatives of creative companies delivering meaningful brand experiences to their stakeholders in all industries in Asia.

From launch to early September 2021, UOB Malaysia has received 9,849 applications for account opening online. Customers have described the process as being convenient, smooth, and fast.

In addition, customers will also have access to Mighty Insights, an artificial intelligence-driven digital banking service on UOB Mighty. It offers relevant money management solutions through hyper-personalised insights based on transaction data.

Mighty Insights will provide prompts that enable customers to save and to spend more wisely through insights on their spending and cash flow, including recommended solutions that will help them meet their financial goals.

It is likewise enabled to remind customers about upcoming payments or to alert them on any out-of-ordinary transactions made on their respective accounts.

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¹ The survey was conducted by UOB in July 2020 among more than 3,500 individuals aged between 18 and 65 years old across five ASEAN markets, namely Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam. In terms of using cashless payments frequently during the pandemic, Malaysian consumers were only behind those in Singapore (70 per cent), but ahead of Vietnam (64 per cent), Indonesia (63 per cent) and Thailand (51 per cent).

Watch the interview below to know more about their winning project: