Thanks to a digital process incorporating MyInfo and digital KYC, customers can now apply and get approval for car loans in under 60 seconds without any sharing of personal information with a third party

Singapore, 3 March 2020 –  Apply for an OCBC Bank car loan and it could now be approved within 60 seconds, which is faster than what is offered by anyone else in the industry. This is made possible by a digital solution that leverages the national data repository – MyInfo – and OCBC Bank’s proprietary real-time KYC and credit assessment system to simplify a process that traditionally take a few working days.

A total of 11 authorised car distributors, which together account for the majority of car purchases in Singapore, will use the new car loan approval process by March 2020. The car distributorship offering the instant car loan are EuroSports Auto, EuroAutomobile, Inchcape Group (Borneo Motors & Champion Motors), Kah Motor, Premium Automobile, Tan Chong Motors, MotorImage, TransEurokar Group, Vantage Automotive, Vertex Euro Motors and Wearnes Automotive.

In the automotive industry today, 95% of car purchases and car loans are completed with the help of car sales representatives. Customers and sales representatives have to complete a considerable amount of paperwork. Not only is the car loan application process time-consuming, but customers have to share sensitive personal information, such as income details, with the sales representative. On top of that, approval by the financier may take a day or even a few days on a case-to-case basis.

The new OCBC car loan approval process begins by eliminating the tedious filling-up of hard copy forms. It also removes the need to share sensitive details with a third party since customers will input their personal details online using their own devices. On-the-spot approvals are possible, so that a customer – having decided on the car of his dreams – can own and drive off that vehicle literally in minutes.

Mr Sunny Quek, Head of Consumer Financial Services Singapore, OCBC Bank, said: “Once again, we have developed and designed a digital solution with our customers at its centre. That’s why we eliminated all the pain points that apply to most car loan applications: The tedious paperwork, long waiting time and sharing of sensitive information with a third party. We have come up with a customer journey that is fast, seamless and secure. It is in line with the digital application and instant approval processes that we now avail for a wide range of banking products. We will continue to deepen our customers’ relationships with us as we aggressively drive fresh digital initiatives that ensure frictionless access to all our products and services. By the end of this year, one in every two OCBC Bank customers will have been on-boarded digitally.”

Mr Goh Wee Tiong, a customer who recently bought a car from Premium Automobiles – one of OCBC Bank’s car partners, said, “It was a refreshing change from what I am used to when it comes to buying a new car. I was surprised by the ease and speed of my car loan approval; I did not need to provide my NRIC, income and other personal details to the sales representative.”

Mr Kevin Teo, sales executive at Premium Automobiles, said: “We have received very good feedback from both our customers and sales representatives regarding this new loan application process. The time and paperwork needed has been tremendously reduced so that our staff can now spend more time engaging customers.”

How this works

The sales representative logs into an online loan application portal on a mobile device to initiate the loan application process. The sales representative fills up the car details, loan details and customer contact details.

An SMS with an application invite link is then sent to the customer’s mobile device where he or she can complete the loan application; using MyInfo, where personal details such as NRIC and income information can be extracted.

OCBC Bank is then able to authenticate the customers in real time using its proprietary digital KYC process, assess their creditworthiness and then instantly approve the car loan for successful application.