Singapore’s OCBC Bank now lets you transfer money via Facebook, email, SMS

OCBC Bank has been gaining reputation of late for being perhaps the most innovative among Singapore banks. It drastically revamped its online consumer banking service by introducing a cleaner interface, along with useful features like financial goal setting and money expenditure tracking. It then launched Velocity 2.0, a refresh of its much-loathed online business banking product.

Now, OCBC Bank has unveiled a new feature for its iOS consumer app: instant money transfer via Facebook, email, or SMS within Singapore. Called Pay Anyone, the functionality promises to make inter-bank transfer dead simple. Previously, I’d need to know your bank account details to wire money to you. Now, all I need is your contact information.

Here are screenshots of Pay Anyone in action:

And here’s what the person on the receiving end sees:

My verdict? OCBC has certainly nailed the execution: the app is easy-to-use and worked without hiccups. The question is whether it is really more convenient than existing methods of transferring money. The answer isn’t straightforward.

While Pay Anyone removes the need for users to exchange bank account details with one another, senders need to manually communicate the passcode with the receiver. Further, receivers must key in their bank account details every time they get money.

Although these measures may be put in place for security reasons, it does dampen the convenience factor that’s supposedly the selling point of Pay Anyone.

Not quite disruptive