UOB continued a strong performance across all retail segments in 2021

• UOB’s gross retail revenue remained strong at $1.45 billion (SGD 2 billion).
• UOB TMRW leveraged heavily as a platform to house and scale initiatives
• The bank presented 53 million AI-driven insights to one million unique customers

United Overseas Bank Limited (UOB), one of the leading banks in Singapore was recognised as The Best Retail Bank in Singapore at the Excellence in Retail Financial Services Programme 2022 by The Asian Banker based on its strong financial performance on retail segments and improvement of its digital banking services and customer experience.

UOB gross revenue remained robust at SGD 2 billion

UOB’s gross retail revenue remained strong at $1.45 billion (SGD 2 billion), a 7% increase compared to $1.37 billion (SGD 1.9 billion) in 2020. The bank’s weaker net interest income was cushioned by strong double-digit growth in net fee income and a 2% growth in total customer base with 2.1 million customers in 2021. UOB saw strong balance sheet, with 7% current account savings account (CASA) growth and 28% new mortgage sales growth. The bank’s total retail fee income is 40% compared to 34% in 2020. UOB’s estimated market share in mortgage/housing loan is 29% compared to 24% in 2020.

UOB TMRW, its digital banking app,  acquired and served its customers digitally at scale, breaking physical limitations, to offer a transparent and engaging digital banking experience through features such as artificial intelligence (AI)-driven insights. This platform allowed its customers to make informed and intuitive decisions on product take-ups most suitable for their needs and lifestyle, thereby solidifying its business lines and franchise performance in 2021. Around 3.5 million digitally-enabled customers in Southeast Asia were served, 14% more than the previous year. The mobile app ranked number one among key banking apps in Singapore by app ratings on Google Play at the end of 2021.

SimpleInvest, a digital investing platform that offers investment solutions, serves 10,000 unique customers, with 90% of them being 'new-to-unit trust' customers, further solidifying its role in reaching new audiences and availability of investment to the masses. Recognising that Singaporeans are deal-hunters, UOB partnered with Fave, an e-commerce and payments app, to launch Singapore’s largest deals, cashback and rewards programme, Rewards+. Embedded in TMRW for easy access, it offers more than 1,000 deals at more than 20,000 merchant locations.

Meanwhile, OCBC has $795 million (SGD 1.1 billion) gross revenue retail banking business compared to $1.08 billion (SGD 1.5 billion) in 2020. The bank saw a growth of 35% return on investment (ROE) in retail revenue in 2020 compared to UOB’s 7% . DBS has $1.88 billion (SGD 2.6 billion) total retail income compared to $2.1 billion (SGD 2.9 billion) in 2020a and 59% cost to income ratio in retail as of September 2020. Estimated market share in mortgage/housing loan is 20.4% compared to 19% in 2020.

UOB TMRW leveraged heavily as a platform to house and scale initiatives

The bank rolled out its UOB TMRW, an all-in-one banking app with a new look, built around effortless banking and smart experience. Portfolio Advisory Tool (PAT), an application that assists relationship managers (RMs) in providing customised solutions based on customers’ goal and appetite, now enhanced with research and expertise drawn from its partnership with JP Morgan. SimpleInvest a new simple way for customers to invest with flexible amounts by choosing from three funds – liquidity, income and growth solutions which are tailored to different comfort levels. Unit Trust (UT) Transact, a platform to bring investment to the next level by enabling customers to choose from a curated selection of more than 100 funds.

UOB has remained committed to its customers, and continued to extend initiatives to ensure that the bank remain a trusted source of stability, security and strength through its services. The bank rolled out the Extended Support Scheme (ESS), an extension of the Special Financial Relief Program (SFRP) implemented in 2020. ESS, done in collaboration with MAS, has helped ease cashflow and reduce debt for individuals whose income/employment were adversely impacted by the pandemic.

Such initiatives are aligned with the retail bank’s strategic intent of investing digital, transforming physical to engage its customers digitally but also not neglecting the human touch in order to elevate customer experience and reinforce relationships.

Digibank and NAV Planner are the digital banking apps of DBS that rivals UOB TMRW. Digibank is a digital banking proposition which provides two intuitive apps to fulfil all its customers’ banking and lifestyle needs. NAV Planner is one of the world’s most advanced financial planning solutions, added an AI-powered digital investment advisory feature to help investors determine and meet regulatory requirements, before investing amid market volatility. This led to a four-fold increase in customers who completed their investment journeys. Assets under management (AUM) of digitally-managed investments such as digiPortfolio, InvestSaver exchange traded funds and online unit trusts also grew by 52%.

UOB presented 53 million insights to one million unique customers

UOB TMRW creates a hyperpersonalised digital banking experience. UOB insights, a digital adaptive banking experience for the customers that rolled out bonus interest tracker, rewards wallet and cards management as part of an overall customer-centric enhancement to the banking app. Throughout the year, 53 million insights were presented to one million unique customers, a 23% and 16% YoY growth respectively.

UOB’s number of electronic payment (e-payment) transactions grew more than 20% YoY in 2021. Credit and debit cards remained the key drivers of e-payment transaction volumes in 2021,  driven by a jump in mobile payments with 62% YoY. The growth was also driven by the strongest YoY growth in the number of NETS QR payment of 205% and PayNow transactions of 72% in 2021.

With the launch of Singapore Financial Data Exchange (SGFinDex) in December 2020, OCBC Bank enabled customers to consolidate their financial information in one platform through OCBC Financial OneView. As of January 2022, the bank saw 123,000 customers benefit from using the platform to have an overall view of their financial health and to achieve their financial wellness goals.

About The Asian Banker

The Asian Banker is the region’s most authoritative provider of strategic business intelligence to the financial services community. The global research company has offices in Singapore, Malaysia, Manila, Hong Kong, Beijing, and Dubai, as well as representatives in London, New York, and San Francisco. It has a business model that revolves around three core business lines: publications, research services and forums. Visit the company website at www.theasianbanker.com

You may visit the Excellence in Retail Financial Services page at http://awards.asianbankerforums.com/retailfinancial/

To view the respective evaluation criteria, click here: https://awards.asianbankerforums.com/retailfinancial/criteria-country

For further information, you may get in touch with:

Chris Kapfer

Director of Research

Tel: (+63) 90 6582 8117

ckapfer@theasianbanker.com