OCBC Expands Its Digital Wallet Reach

Singapore-based OCBC has taken a decisive step in the regional payments race, integrating eight major Southeast Asian digital wallets into its banking app and creating what it calls the region’s most comprehensive bank-to-wallet ecosystem. The move – powered by its expanding partnership with Visa – aims to streamline remittances, cut costs, and bring millions of unbanked consumers closer to digital financial services. OCBC customers in Singapore can now transfer money directly to leading wallets in Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines and Vietnam. The newly added wallets – Coins and GCash (Philippines), GoPay, LinkAja and Ovo (Indonesia), Momo (Vietnam), PayMaya (Philippines), and Touch ‘n Go (Malaysia) – build on last year’s integration of Weixin Pay and Alipay, bringing total wallet coverage to ten. These wallets collectively represent a user base of up to 2.72 billion. Targeting a Key Market: Singapore’s Foreign Workforce The enhancement directly addresses the biggest frictions in traditional remittances – speed, cost, and accessibility. OCBC highlights that many foreign workers still rely on cash agents or manual transfers. With bank-to-wallet connectivity, they or their employers can send funds instantly and without fees, even if recipients have no bank account or access to physical branches. OCBC expects strong adoption among Singapore’s 1.6 million foreign workers. Early Success: Fourfold Growth in Transfers to China OCBC launched wallet transfers to China a year ago and has since processed more than S$60 million through the feature. Cross-border transfers to China have quadrupled, with ninety per cent of users avoiding branch visits and three-quarters being PMETs, primarily Chinese nationals sending money home. This traction laid the foundation for today’s wider rollout across Southeast Asia. Strategic Partnership With Visa to Scale Global Reach The expanded capabilities are enabled by Visa Direct, which connects to nearly 11 billion endpoints worldwide, including more than 3.5 billion digital wallets. Visa’s Singapore country manager, Adeline Kim, said that Visa Direct is helping «bridge financial gaps» and that six in ten Singaporean remittance users expect to maintain or increase their overseas transfers this year. She added that Visa aims to extend wallet connectivity further in coming phases. OCBC’s Ambition: Connect to 50 Wallets Worldwide Sunny Quek, OCBC’s head of global consumer financial services, said the bank is delivering on its promise to expand beyond China. «By connecting OCBC accounts to eight of Southeast Asia’s most popular wallets, we are removing friction from cross-border payments and making remittances faster, cheaper and more inclusive,» he said. He added that OCBC’s long-term vision is to link its customers to 50 wallets globally, making its app «the most comprehensive wallet access of any banking app». Strengthening OCBC’s Regional Digital Footprint The development reinforces OCBC’s position as a leading regional financial institution. Already one of the world’s most highly-rated banks and among Southeast Asia’s largest financial groups, OCBC continues to invest in consumer banking innovation as competition intensifies across digital payments and fintech ecosystems.