DBS Bank Taiwan said that the number of corporate clients using its online banking service has grown 10% since May.

“The number expanded significantly in the second half of May from the first half of the month, when local COVID-19 infections began to rise. The number continued going up last month and this month,” DBA head of global transactions Sylvia Tao told a videoconference.

The rapid growth could be partly attributed to a low comparison base, general manager Lim Him-chuan said. Prior to the pandemic, a majority of clients preferred to visit physical branches, but have since changed their mindset amid the outbreak, Lim said.

Many clients have found using the digital tool more convenient and efficient than traditional banking, as they no longer need to print out documents or fax them to DBS, and can apply for letters of credit or trade loans by clicking on their devices, Tao said.

An operator of a livestreaming company with a high turnover rate had to revise employee documents and fax the documents to DBS for wage payments, but the digital platform’s self-management service enabled the operator to modify the data without any paperwork, he added.

To meet rising demand, the bank launched its refined online banking platform, DBS IDEAL, which features a new crossborder payment tracking service. No other local banks provide such a service in Taiwan, Lim said.

Corporate clients often have to phone multiple banks to confirm whether their cross-border payments have gone through, but the new service allows them to track the payment process any time on their mobile devices, he said.

The service is available no matter what type of currency the client uses or which region they transfer the money to, as Singapore-based DBS Bank Ltd works with the Belgium-based Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication (SWIFT) to facilitate the new service, the bank said.

Lim said he was confident that DBS Bank Taiwan’s online corporate banking service would outperform many of its peers, as most banks’ digital banking services only focus on consumer banking, which requires less investment than corporate banking.

Taipei Times