KUALA LUMPUR (July 26): UOB Malaysia has launched a digital account opening service that will enable customers to open a personal bank account expediently via the bank’s all-in-one mobile banking app, UOB Mighty. 

With the new service on the app, opening an account is expected to take only 10 minutes online, which is up to 60% faster than performing the same process at a branch.

UOB’s ASEAN Consumer Sentiment Study survey conducted in July 2020 among more than 3,500 individuals aged 18 to 65 across five ASEAN markets — Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand and Vietnam — revealed that more than half of its respondents preferred to open a bank account online while 67% were willing to apply for a financial product via internet or mobile banking.

The study also showed that 80% of respondents favoured using mobile apps, while 70% liked using web browsers.

“We have also integrated an electronic Know Your Customer (e-KYC) solution to verify and to authenticate the identity of our customers. This means that new customers do not have to visit a branch in person to verify their identity for account opening.

“Upon submitting the application, they will receive a notification within two minutes on their application status through the app. Once the application is verified and approved, customers can then transfer funds to their new bank account to activate it.

“Within minutes, they will be able to start using their preferred deposits account to grow and to manage their finances,” UOB Malaysia personal financial services managing director and country head of personal financial services Ronnie Lim said.

As part of UOB’s enhanced digital banking experience, customers will also be able to tap Mighty Insights4, an artificial intelligence (AI)-driven digital banking service on UOB Mighty.

The service offers relevant money management solutions through hyper-personalised insights based on customers’ transaction data, including “prompts” that enable customers to save and to spend more wisely, recommend solutions that help them to meet their financial goals as well as alerts on upcoming payments and out-of-ordinary transactions made on their account.

At launch, the bank is offering customers bonus interest of up to 6.68% per annum upon the opening of a savings account via the UOB Mighty app.

In addition, customers will also receive Shopee e-vouchers of up to RM248 when they apply and spend with UOB debit or credit cards.