DBS Bank, which says a third of its customers had negative cash flow from January to June, is ramping up its digital financial planning solutions and tools to help Singaporeans in retirement planning and boost their financial resilience.
The bank studied its pool of customers who have their salaries credited to DBS/POSB accounts and found that for one-third of them, money flowing out of their accounts on average exceeded the amount going in during the first six months of this year.
The solutions that the bank will launch this week include a Map Your Money interactive dashboard that can project a customer's future retirement needs based on his current finances. It is part of the bank's digital advisory tool NAV Planner, which in turn is within DBS/POSB's mobile and Internet banking service.
DBS will launch on Saturday a retirement planning portal to help customers with estate planning issues. This will offer access to relevant services such as Central Provident Fund (CPF) nomination, will writing and setting up a Lasting Power of Attorney.
The group also announced a first-of-its-kind collaboration between the CPF Board and a bank; they will work together to train the bank's wealth planning managers and loan specialists on CPF schemes.
Noting that CPF is an important foundation of retirement for many Singaporeans, the board's group director of communications Irene Kang said it welcomed similar collaborations with other financial institutions.
DBS said its new solutions will help customers and their wealth planning managers to identify and address blind spots in their retirement planning, whether a customer is accumulating assets or moving into the decumulation phase - when customers begin to convert their savings, investments and other retirement benefits into sustainable income that can fund their requirements after the pay cheques stop.
"While most DBS customers know when they want to retire, they are less certain about how long their nest egg will last. They also do not know how to supplement their cash and CPF savings with investments," the bank said.
The Map Your Money function pulls together customers' assets within and outside DBS, and projects their future income based on pre-defined assumptions, so that they can better visualise their future cash flow situation. It also integrates baseline CPF and Supplementary Retirement Scheme rules to provide a hassle-free experience for customers when assessing their financial future, DBS added.
DBS head of consumer banking Jeremy Soo said: "During these uncertain times when people are worried about declining incomes and outliving their savings, DBS has an even greater responsibility to extend our expertise in managing money and simplifying retirement planning for Singaporeans."
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