FX house of the year, Malaysia: OCBC Bank (Malaysia) Berhad

OCBC Bank Berhad, the Malaysian subsidiary of the second-largest banking group in the region, impressed the judges with its agile and customer-centric multichannel FX offering, which allows clients access to the bank via a treasury dealer, its e-platform or both

OCBC Bank Berhad’s corporate internet banking platform, OCBC Velocity, houses FX Online, which serves Malaysian clients with real-time streaming rates for spots and time option forwards across 29 currency pairs.

With more than 50% of FX transactions in the small to medium-sized enterprise segment now transacted digitally, OCBC Bank (Malaysia) Berhad has witnessed strong growth in the category, with transactions up by 47% and volumes by 26%, further enhancing its offering of accessible digital FX solutions.

One indicator of the bank’s progress is how FX option hedging volumes more than doubled, while the consumer financial services segment showed FX growth of 11%. Overall cross-border renminbi flows increased by 35%. All three metrics topped 2021 volumes and surpassed 2019 pre‑Covid-19 pandemic volumes.

Clients have access to OCBC Bank’s specialised Treasury Research team, which provides macroeconomic analysis across asset classes and geographies. Regular market updates are produced in three languages with topical and thematic coverage, delivering insights via the Telegram messaging service, alongside podcasts and webinars for easy accessibility.

In addition to its onshore treasury hub in Kuala Lumpur, Penang and Johor Bahru, OCBC Bank provides Malaysian ringgit (MYR) market access to its regional clients via appointed overseas offices (AOOs). OCBC Singapore and OCBC branches in Bangkok, London, Shanghai, Seoul, Sydney and Jakarta are AOOs of OCBC Malaysia. Additionally, Hong Kong and Taipei branches will soon also be AOOs.

FX Online has undergone several enhancements over the past 12 months. These include: becoming a dedicated product champion for FX options, resulting in more than double the FX option volumes; FX limit orders for premier banking and private client customers; a reduced turnaround time for the FX conversions process; faster customer account crediting for inward telegraphic transfer; and 24/7 real-time Singapore dollar (SGD)/MYR currency conversion via OCBC OneCollect.

The bank has also built on the success of its low-cost SGD remittance offering and introduced Flash renminbi to further boost cross-border remittance flows.

Over the next 12 months, FX Online will be enhanced with application programming interface offerings, FX alerts and charting capabilities. The bank also plans to introduce new FX options structures and extend currency coverage to include the Vietnamese dong, in addition to existing capabilities in 34 currencies.

In line with Bank Negara Malaysia’s FX policy, OCBC Bank also plans to improve the tracking of individuals’ FX conversion limits – enabling access to more varied investment products. Interdepartmental FX dealing workflows will also be improved via an in-house e-FX system.

Clients have clearly been impressed with the bank’s FX capabilities: “We are thankful to be able to ride this digitalisation wave with OCBC Bank’s support. We’re enjoying a greater level of autonomy in our FX activities, while receiving the same level of assistance experienced in traditional deal-booking,” one client said.

“Through FX Online, we can perform our business transactions seamlessly, from booking to payment. We can book rates instantly, while enjoying competitive pricing for a wide range of currencies, easily obtaining and monitoring live FX rates.”

Winning this prestigious award is testament to OCBC Bank’s position as a leading regional bank. The bank’s head of global treasury, Stantley Tan, says: “It reaffirms our commitment to an empathetic approach in addressing our clients’ needs while recognising our strong treasury solutioning mindset. Through our hedging capabilities, bespoke cross-border solutions and access to the MYR market via our AOOs, we have consistently supported our regional clientele. This award acknowledges the strength of our large capital, robust liquidity management, centralised customer database and well-trained sales team. With this recognition, we are inspired to continue growing and achieving even greater success in the years to come.”

 

OCBC Bank (Malaysia) Berhad was named FX house of the year, Malaysia at the 2023 FX Markets Asia FX Awards.

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