Singapore-based DBS Bank Ltd (SGX:D05), a multinational banking and financial services corporation with over $330 billion in assets, is reportedly using facial biometrics for handling online corporate account opening processes for small businesses. This should help the bank with speeding up information authentication and verification.
This new feature is being run on the Government Technology Agency of Singapore’s (GovTech) SingPass Face Verification technology. DBS reveals that it’s the first banking institution to be using the technology for the local business community.
DBS had first launched SingPass Face Verification as a test for small business account opening back in November 2020. Since that time, the bank claims that over 100 clients have started usig the new feature.
With the successful launch of the pilot, DBS aims to provide SingPass Face Verification as an authentication option for eligible or qualifying applications.
Coupled with enhancements to the client onboarding process, SME accounts may now be opened in a seamless manner and accessed online within 20 minutes.
Joyce Tee, Group Head of SME Banking at DBS, stated:
“We are pleased to partner GovTech to deploy SingPass Face Verification for the benefit of our SMEs in Singapore. Getting a corporate account opened is the gateway for SMEs to access the critical banking services they need, including working capital support, supply chain financing, digital transformation solutions, property loans and more. That’s why we have doubled down on our digital innovation efforts to make the customer onboarding journey as seamless and intuitive as possible. This in turn enables SMEs to remain focused on their business operations and stay ahead in today’s business environment.”
The recent integration of SingPass Face Verification to streamline corporate account opening has come only 6 months after DBS revealed that it was the first banking institution in Singapore to use the same technology to speed up the opening of DBS digibank accounts for retail clients.
More than 10,000 retail clients have reportedly used SingPass Face Verification in order to sign up for their DBS digibank access.
As reported in January 2021, DBS launched a digitalized audit confirmation solution for both corporate and SME customers. The solution cuts down on the processing time for audit confirmation requests from compared seven-day industry norm to just under 24 hours.
DBS also revealed that the solution is expected to help lower the incidence of rejections from incomplete or incorrect form submissions, which are caused by human errors. Customers are now able to track the statuses of their requests in real-time through DBS IDEAL instead of over the phone.