UOB Malaysia won Best Foreign Retail Bank in Malaysia at The Asian Banker Malaysia Awards 2022 for its achievements in growing its retail and wealth management franchise through digital enhancements amid a challenging operating environment during the period under review. For example, UOB Malaysia was the first bank in Southeast Asia to utilise Virtual Face-to-Face (VF2F) feature[[1]] on a banking app to enable customers to manage their insurance needs conveniently. The Bank is also one of the first in the country to roll out digital account opening service via its Mighty app to enable customers to open a personal bank account anytime, anywhere. The Bank’s balance sheet also surpassed industry’s growth, especially for deposits in 2021.
Ronnie Lim, Managing Director and Country Head of Personal Financial Services, UOB Malaysia said, “We strongly believe in staying attuned to customers’ evolving needs, and are pleased that our efforts were recognised by The Asian Banker Awards, which has a rigorous judging process. As technology continues to influence consumer lifestyles and behaviour, we meld the online and offline worlds seamlessly to engage and to serve our customers through our omni-channel touchpoints, whenever and wherever they want.
“For more than three years, we have been executing our branch transformation strategy to cater to the increasing customer demand for wealth and financial planning services by our UOB Privilege and Wealth Banking relationship programmes. In the next two years, we aim to upgrade and relocate more branches to more convenient and accessible locations for our customers. This award reaffirms our strategy to put customers first, and our vision to build a sustainable business model that emphasises on our employees’ development.”
The Asian Banker also favourably evaluated UOB Malaysia for introducing artificial intelligence (AI)-driven digital banking[[2]] and digital account opening services[[3]] on its mobile banking app, UOB Mighty. Since its inception two years ago, UOB Mighty has seen significantly increased adoption rates, a testament to its capabilities and relevance to customers. At the same time, the Bank has been transforming its nationwide branch network into spaces curated for deeper customer engagement to meet the increasing demand for wealth and financial planning services.
Chris Kapfer, Research Director of TABInsights, The Asian Banker, said, “We liked that UOB Malaysia treated its deposits and wealth management businesses and products not in silos, but as closely interrelated propositions. The Bank excelled in a systematic customer engagement journey from on boarding, engagement to cross-selling over the full life-cycle of a customer’s wealth journey.”
The latest accolade from The Asian Banker comes on top of a hat-trick of awards UOB Malaysia garnered last year. Renowned regional publications Asian Banking and Finance (ABF), Retail Banker International (RBI), and Singapore Business Review had conferred the Bank with the following awards in 2022:
- International Retail Bank of the Year Malaysia Award for the second consecutive year at the ABF Retail Banking Awards 2022,
- Best Retail Bank Malaysia at the RBI Asia Trailblazer Awards 2022, and
- Fintech – Banking for the UOB Intelligent Mortgage Calculator at the Malaysia Technology Excellence Awards 2022 respectively.
Lim said, “For more than seven decades, we have focused on providing the best banking experiences and financial solutions to help our customers grow their wealth. The awards we won ein 2022 are testament to our efforts in putting our customers’ needs at the heart of everything we do. Following the completion of our acquisition of Citigroup’s consumer banking business in Malaysia[[4]], customers can look forward to an expanded range of solutions and privileges as we leverage the synergies of the combined partner ecosystem, touchpoints and product suites.”
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