OCBC improves cashless payments with new mobile keyboard

Customers can now make e-payments without exiting their current mobile app.

According to a release, OCBC Bank has launched a mobile keyboard that allows customers to make peer-to-peer payments without having to exit their current mobile applications. The OCBC Keyboard can be used within any mobile app or browser – for instance, within Facebook, Whatsapp, Instagram or Chrome – to send money instantly to anyone with a bank account in Singapore, including those who have not yet registered for PayNow. The payment rides on the OCBC Pay Anyone e-payment service and can be done using just the recipient’s mobile number.

The OCBC Keyboard follows on the heels of OCBC Bank’s launch of e-payments integrated with Apple’s Siri and iMessage for iPhone users in 2016, enabling customers to make instant funds transfers with a voice command to Siri or within the iMessage app while engaged in a chat. With the OCBC Keyboard, the convenience of making an e-payment is extended to any app on Android devices running the Android 4.4 KitKat operating system or better. Payments are completely secure as they are authenticated with the sender’s mobile banking credentials.

Making a payment via OCBC Keyboard
Imagine being able to make an e-payment as easily as sending an “emoji” to a friend while chatting on Whatsapp, or while negotiating with a potential seller on the Carousell app. Users can automatically access the OCBC Keyboard on any app on their mobile phones once they have updated the OCBC Mobile Banking app to the latest version. They will need to perform a simple one-time set up to enable the OCBC Keyboard and make it the default keyboard on their phone.

To send money, users simply tap on the OCBC Pay Anyone icon on the keyboard without exiting or switching from their current app activity. Once they select a recipient from their contact list - which is automatically synced with the keyboard - they will be guided to complete the transfer using OCBC Pay Anyone within the keyboard. Once payment is complete, the user can continue accessing the original app.

Boosting cashless payments
In alignment with Singapore’s Smart Nation agenda and its drive to go cashless, the OCBC Keyboard is the latest in a series of OCBC Pay Anyone e-payment services that OCBC Bank has introduced to encourage customers to embrace the move away from cash.

The adoption of the recently launched PayNow service amongst OCBC Bank customers has been exceptionally strong, with over 200,000 signups to date. E-payments done via the OCBC Pay Anyone service have increased 35 per cent since the launch of PayNow, and one in every two PayNow transactions is via OCBC Pay Anyone.

Mr Aditya Gupta, OCBC Bank’s Head of E-Business Singapore, said: “With OCBC Keyboard, we are embedding payments in our customers’ lives and making it completely frictionless for them to pay while they go about everyday tasks like chatting on Whatsapp, sending emails, buying items on Carousell or browsing the Internet. I’m confident that this added convenience will exponentially increase the adoption and usage of e-payments, including PayNow transfers. We will continue to push the boundaries on e-payments and move the needle in driving Singapore towards becoming cashless.”

The OCBC Keyboard is available to all OCBC Bank customers using Android 4.4 KitKat devices with the latest OCBC Mobile Banking app. The app can be downloaded from the Google Play Store.