OCBC Bank Enables Voice Transactions Via Siri

OCBC Bank is claiming to be the first Asian bank to enable voice transactions via Apple’s Siri and in-app with iMessage.

According to a report, OCBC Bank said Siri and iMessage services for OCBC’s Pay Anyone P2P mobile app are available to customers using iPhone devices running the iOS 10 software. To send money using Siri, users have to tell the virtual assistant with a voice command, saying who from the user’s contact list to send money to and the amount to send. On iMessage, sending payments happens in-app through the conversation screen. There is no interruption to the group chat, noted the report.

“We know that customers now prefer their banking to be embedded in other things they do, rather than having to start their interaction journey from a bank’s platform,” said Aditya Gupta, OCBC Bank’s head of eBusiness Singapore, in the report. “We are integrating payments into our customers’ everyday lives and making it completely frictionless for them to engage us via actions that are second nature to them — using messaging and voice commands.”

Last month, OCBC Bank raised the OCBC Pay Anyone daily transfer limit from $100 to $1,000. “Since then, the amount of money being sent via our ePayment service has increased 250 percent,” added Gupta. “We expect ePayments to have a multi-fold increase and will continue to add more payment channels for customers to our suite of digital services.”

With the launch of Apple’s iOS 10, Siri received enhanced functionality. In the summer, Apple said its developers were in the midst of working with Siri to develop functions that will let users book rides and make calls. Apple said in a blog post on its website that, with the debut of iOS 10 and SiriKit, geared toward developers, the new wrinkles allow for what the firm said would foster the ability to help “get even more done.”