OCBC customers can now transfer up to $1,000 a day via mobile phone, up from $100; no account number needed

A pedestrian walking past the OCBC Bank logo on the bank's building at Chulia Street on April 1 2014. PHOTO: ST FILE

SINGAPORE - OCBC Bank customers can now send up to S$1,000 a day - up from the previous daily transfer limit of S$100 - to any bank account in Singapore from their mobile phones, the bank announced on Monday (Sept 5).

They can do so on the OCBC Pay Anyone mobile payment app, a service launched in 2014 whereby customers can transfer money using just the recipient's mobile number, e-mail address or Facebook account, without having to add the recipient's bank account number or use a security token.

OCBC Pay Anyone is still the first and only account-to-account mobile micro-payment service offered by any bank in Singapore that does not require the recipient's bank account details to make a transfer, said the bank.

Mr Aditya Gupta, OCBC Bank's head of e-business Singapore, noted that the higher daily transfer limit will facilitate "wider adoption of this payment service and open up more payment categories for customers".

"Whether to split dining bills, or make an e-commerce or small business purchase directly from a seller, or even to pay a friend back for a travel expense, the convenience of the increased daily transfer limit is going to be substantial and will make payments seamless for customers, aligning with the vision of Singapore as an e-payments society," he said.

The bank's move comes amid a rise in mobile banking. In 2014, OCBC Bank customers made just one mobile banking funds transfer every two months on average. Since then, mobile banking usage by its customers has doubled, while the number of users has increased by 50 per cent.

OCBC said the average amount its customers transfer through mobile banking is S$996.

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