United Overseas Bank Limited wins at Asian Experience Awards 2026

The company transformed mandatory compliance training into a digital escape room experience for its regional workforce.

United Overseas Bank Limited (UOB) won Singapore Digital Experience of the Year - Financial Services in the Asian Experience Awards 2026. The financial institution earned the award for its innovative approach to mandatory learning, which redefines how employees engage with compliance and regulatory topics.

Every year, mandatory learning reaches more than 30,000 employees across UOB. Whilst completion rates remain consistently high due to regulatory requirements, traditional e-learning can sometimes be perceived as a routine compliance task, presenting a broader challenge for sustained engagement and knowledge retention.

UOB’s transformation of mandatory learning has evolved across two stages. The first stage was a single, concise e-learning course featuring bite-sized content and an interactive, scenario-based storyline. Building on its existing adaptive and scenario-based approach, UOB further redesigned the annual refresher as a digital escape room. Employees navigate through distinct digital environments focused on key compliance topics. Within each stage, employees investigate realistic situations, discover clues, and complete contextual challenges, with each interaction linked to specific compliance outcomes.

A key feature of the redesigned experience is its adaptive assessment approach. Employees who demonstrate the necessary knowledge can progress more quickly through the annual exercise, whilst those requiring further support receive targeted feedback and reinforcement focused on their knowledge gaps. By embedding evaluation directly into the learning journey, the refresher turns testing into a continuous reinforcement process rather than treating assessment as a separate end-of-course activity.

The scalable learning framework is also designed to support more efficient future updates. Emerging risk and regulatory topics, such as AI governance, can be incorporated more efficiently as requirements evolve. This enables UOB to keep the annual refresher relevant amidst changing operational risks and regulatory requirements, whilst preparing its workforce to respond to new expectations.

The Asian Experience Awards recognises the ingenious initiatives of creative companies delivering meaningful brand experiences. It applauds unique, standout, and innovative experience initiatives launched for clients, potential customers, or employees.

The Asian Experience Awards is presented by Asian Business Review Magazine. To view the full list of winners, click here. If you want to join the 2027 awards programme and be acclaimed for providing meaningful brand experiences to stakeholders, please contact the awards team at +(65) 3158 1386 or [email protected].