Making digital investing more convenient with OCBC Bank’s Online Unit Trust

The bank’s mobile banking app feature helped them win at the 2023 Malaysia International Business Awards.

As the world evolves into a fast-paced and highly digital environment, consumer expectations tend to change due to the myriad activities that now take centre stage in their daily lives. Whilst consumers understand the importance and need for investments, most do not pursue investing due to the somewhat prohibitive time and effort needed to start the activity, such as going to a branch to place an investment or making sense of market trends for wiser investing.

OCBC Bank (Malaysia) Berhad (OCBC Bank) saw this opportunity and capitalised on consumers’ newfound appreciation of investing digitally by launching Online Unit Trust, which can be found on their Mobile Banking App. The feature aims to empower consumers to invest in unit trusts on their own terms, ensuring that new investors can easily navigate their first investment journey through a simple risk profiling page.

For their innovative approach to making investing easier for their customers, OCBC Bank received the Banking Award in this year’s Malaysia International Business Awards. The awards programme, presented by Asian Business Review, celebrates the achievements and success of companies in Malaysia in their pursuit of revolutionising their industries and leading amongst their competitors.

During onboarding, customers can find a list of funds that caters to different risk profiles, allowing them to further refine their selection using a user-friendly filtering function. The feature can also cater to the demands of experienced investors as the fund search engine function allows investors to focus on the funds they’re specifically looking for.

Customers can also access funds outside of the Ringgit, being able to access multiple currencies. For every fund online, the feature provides simple yet comprehensive details that help customers get a grasp of the fund that they are browsing and receive deeper insights.

With this, customers have access to the asset allocation of the fund, country diversification, and the top 10 holdings, as well as the prospectus and product highlight sheet. Whilst simple, the tools help customers make informed decisions when it comes to investing.

Getting into investing has never been easier, thanks to OCBC’s efforts to make account opening seamless as it comes integrated with the buying journey. With just a few clicks to confirm details, customers can easily open an account and receive guidance on their portfolio. The portfolio contains a holistic view of their allocations and P&L.

Buying and selling funds as well as navigating through holdings are made easier with the portfolio, and customers can all enjoy the benefits for a minimum investment of just RM10, making investment more accessible. With OCBC’s Online Unit Trust, customers can purchase any fund only starting at a low cost of just RM10.

Making investments accessible has paid dividends to OCBC, as 74% of the buy transactions were under RM1,000 during the first four months since launch, with 28% of Online Unit Trust users who invested under RM1,000 subsequently making larger transactions, representing the successful efforts of OCBC in capturing their customer base into investment.

The Malaysia International Business Awards is presented by Asian Business Review Magazine. To view the full list of winners, click here. If you want to join the 2024 awards programme and be acclaimed for your company's outstanding contributions in your organisation's growth, please contact Danica Avila at [email protected].