Kuala Lumpur, 21 October 2020 - United Overseas Bank (Malaysia) Bhd (UOB Malaysia) has launched Mighty Insights, the country’s first artificial intelligence (AI)-based digital banking service to make it simpler and smarter for customers to manage their finances via the Bank’s all-in-one mobile banking app, UOB Mighty. With this latest innovation to UOB Mighty, customers will receive personalised insights based on their banking and spending patterns, empowering them to track and to manage their savings and expenses effortlessly. Mighty Insights will also guide them to relevant financial solutions that can help them meet their financial needs.
Mighty Insights uses advanced data analytics, machine learning and pattern recognition algorithms to determine the best guidance it can provide its customers who span different life stages and have varied financial needs and lifestyle priorities. The service is driven by the same digital capabilities used by UOB’s proprietary AI-driven predictive analytics engine and TMRW[1], ASEAN’s first digital bank designed for the mobile-first, mobile-only generation. Malaysia is the second market to launch Mighty Insights.
Mr Ronnie Lim, Managing Director and Country Head of Personal Financial Services, UOB Malaysia, said that Mighty Insights is yet another example of how the Bank is harnessing technology to make banking more engaging and personalised for its customers.
“As technology continues to improve the way we manage our finances, we designed Mighty Insights to anticipate our customers’ banking needs and to offer them the most suitable financial solutions to help them save and spend wisely. Each insight is personalised based on the customer’s spending habits and banking behaviour.
“Driven by AI and machine learning, Mighty Insights enables customers to track their day-to-day spending conveniently and to view easily the categories they have been spending on the most. With the help of these meaningful insights, customers can track their finances better and learn to anticipate their cash flow needs for the month. Mighty Insights also offers suggestions on how to increase savings and to reduce debt, helping our customers to gain greater control of their finances,” Mr Lim said.
Meaningful prompts make the banking experience mightier
By analysing the way the Bank’s customers use their accounts, UOB Malaysia is able to anticipate their needs and wants more accurately and to serve them “insight cards” that help them to manage their finances better. These “insights” are found within the UOB Mighty home screen and customers can view them immediately upon logging into the app.
For example, through Mighty Insights customers who make regular payments for subscription-based services will be alerted when the upcoming payment is due, if subscription fees have increased or even when their trial subscriptions are ending. This enables them to budget accordingly or to cancel their subscriptions if they wish to do so without incurring additional fees.
Customers can also access a consolidated view of their average monthly expenses made on their cards for different spending categories over the past five months. This helps customers to view and to track their spending easily using UOB Mighty instead of having to search multiple card statements.
In addition, customers will be alerted through Mighty Insights when a payment is made to a new merchant or if their current balance is not able to cover their usual expenses. This helps customers to keep track of their spending activities.
To ensure that the insights displayed are most suited to each individual, the Bank also enables customers to give feedback by rating the insights shown to them. Over time, the insights will adapt to the preferences of the customer and show them insights that are relevant to them.
UOB Malaysia tested and refined the insights harnessed through this AI-driven engine during a two-month pilot with 200 customers. The pilot saw these customers tap the benefits of Mighty Insights to help them manage their finances effortlessly, as Mighty Insights continuously learns from their feedback to understand deeper their needs and to provide relevant insights which matter to each customer.
With Mighty Insights being one of the top five features rated by the Bank’s customers in the pilot programme, UOB will continue to learn and to develop new “insight cards” that meet its customers’ banking and lifestyle priorities.
Providing greater security, convenience and better user experience
UOB Malaysia’s other enhancements to its UOB Mighty app include the incorporation of the DuitNow Quick Response (QR) code payment function so that customers only need to scan a QR code to transfer funds or to make payments simply and safely.
To make it even easier for customers to pay through UOB Mighty, the Bank has redesigned the app’s user interface to ensure that payment-related features are at their fingertips. Customers are able to access the DuitNow payment function or the UOB Mighty Secure[2] digital security token on the home screen once they log into the app.
“At UOB Malaysia, we want to make banking simpler, safer and smarter for our customers. The ongoing pandemic has accelerated the adoption of cashless payments. We’re seeing more of our customers preferring to bank via their mobile devices. With the new DuitNow QR code payment function on UOB Mighty, our customers can just scan the QR code to transfer funds or to make payments, without visiting a branch or an ATM machine to sort out their banking and payment needs,” Mr Lim said.
The Bank has also launched Mighty Coupons on its mobile banking app. It is a new rewards category under the Mighty Lifestyle section that offers dining, shopping and travel deals and cash rebates from various merchants every Friday[3].
“Consumers always love a good bargain and with Mighty Coupons, our customers can search for the latest dining, shopping and travel offers easily. They can then grab their preferred deals with a simple click on the app. The introduction of Mighty Coupons is in line with the Bank’s efforts to create products and services that match the lifestyle choices and preferences of our customers,” Mr Lim said.
The UOB Mighty app can be downloaded from Google Play, the Apple App Store or Huawei AppGallery[4]. For more information, visit uob.my/mighty.
