Singapore, 15 March 2018 – OCBC Bank has set up an in-house unit to develop artificial intelligence (AI) capabilities, with an initial investment of S$10 million over three years.
AI Lab@TOV, which operates under OCBC’s fintech and innovation group, aims to drive the adoption of AI across banking services such as wealth advisory and loans financing.
The lab will be headed by Mr Ken Wong – who heads the bank’s analytics department – and consists of a trio of data scientists. The team aims to double its headcount within a year.
In the past two years, OCBC has employed the use of AI in its operations. It launched the AI-powered chatbot “Emma” in 2016, which was developed by start-up Cognicor to respond to customers’ queries on home and renovation loans.
Last year, OCBC partnered another fintech firm, Thetaray, to use its AI solution to identify potential suspicious transactions.
The AI solution has reduced the volume of transactions reviewed by anti-money laundering compliance analysts by 35% and increased the accuracy rate of identifying suspicious transactions by more than four times.
