The mobile generation, while still mindful of the need for security and discipline in banking, is looking for a type of flexibility that we believe is both reasonable and implementable. So, our mantra has become ‘Your Money, Your Rules– Lim Wyson, Head of consumer financial services, OCBC Bank
About FRANK by OCBC
| CEO | Helen Wong |
| Parent company | OCBC Bank |
| Year of launch | 2011 |
| Countries of operation | Singapore and Malaysia |
Revenue Model:
Product stack analysis:
Table 1: Unique value propositions offered by FRANK by OCBC
| Payments | – Personalised card features – Recurring payments – Wearable technology – Personalise the last 6 digits of the card number – A multi-purpose card that customers can use as a transportation card, debit card, or ATM card. – Voice banking |
| Accounts | – Dedicated accounts for students and young executives with personalised features, suiting their needs |
| Expense management | – Account aggregation with financial OneView – Separate savings to achieve goals |
| Wealth management | – Robo-invest – Unit trust funds – Blue-chip investments |
| Rewards and offers | – Refer and earn – Rewards on spending: E-commerce, entertainment, travel, and utilities – Customer-acquisition awards – Other rewards: Cashback for spending SGD 600 (USD 440) for executive account holders |
| Marketplace integrations | – Various e-commerce, entertainment, travel, and investment service providers |
Additional programmes
- FRANKpreneurship: This is a four-month summer internship for undergraduate students who seek to gain experience in the banking industry. The programme educates the interns on how different departments in the bank work together to achieve shared goals and train them to become leaders of the future. OCBC has partnered with Adobe and Google to train the interns.
- Young Investors programme: This programme teaches investors about various investment strategies over two years. Seasoned industry experts and designated trading representatives will guide the young investors throughout their journeys. The investors can put the knowledge gained into practice simultaneously by opening an OCBC securities trading account.
Insurance
OCBC offers its FRANK customers the following in-house insurance plans:
- Family protection
- Medical protection
- Travel insurance
- Home insurance
- Car insurance
- Protection for domestic helpers
Wealth management
- RoboInvest: Robo-advisory is one of the most popular AI trends in the past decade. With access to abundant datasets, algorithms, and data models, robo-advisors have delivered tailor-made investment solutions to customers. RoboInvest from OCBC is one such robo-advisory platform that aims to guide investors through their investment journey by offering personalised insights and recommendations. OCBC partnered with Singapore-based fintech firm- WeInvest to launch RoboInvest in 2016.
Customers have access to 34 thematic portfolios that consist of various exchange-traded funds and equities. They can choose their preferred investment options based on region, risk level, and annualised return.
RoboInvest offers a unique automatic “rebalancing” feature that automatically changes the constituents of the portfolio upon approval every few months to realise maximum benefits. This helps customers keep up with the dynamic financial market.
Table 2: 34 thematic portfolios
| Portfolio | Description |
| Asia Tech | Comprises of giant Asian information technology companies from China, Japan, Taiwan and India. |
| China Growth | Comprises of Chinese Consumers, Chinese Tech sector, China Internet Sector and non-state-owned enterprises’ equities. |
| Gen-Z Winners | Provides diversified exposure to sectors that are likely to grow from spendings by the Gen-Z generation, such as the internet, video gaming, online retail and digital payments. |
| Yummy | Offers well-known US companies that are primarily involved in food production. |
| Stable Aussie Giants | Offers selected Australian high cap stocks with relatively lower volatility. |
| Stable US Giants | Includes high cap US stocks with relatively lower volatility. |
| Singapore Cash is King | Focuses on local dividend-yielding stocks listed on the Singapore Exchange. |
| Growth | Comprises of low volatile portfolios with lower allocation into equities and some allocation into bonds and gold. |
| Defensive | Offers modest capital appreciation with relatively low volatility heavy allocation into fixed income with some allocation into equities. |
| Cautious | Consists of a mix of fixed income instruments with equities for modest capital gains. |
| Balanced | Consists of bonds, equities, and gold to help investors balance between moderate capital gains and some downside-risk mitigation. |
| US Cloud Computing | Offers US stocks that are involved with cloud computing. |
| Future World | Provides exposure to investments in several ETFs and other emerging trends that are likely to develop into major investment options in the future. |
| Precious Metals | Offers precious metals, namely gold, silver, platinum and palladium. |
| Impact Investing | Consists of environmental investment themes with companies screened for economic, social and governance (ESG) characteristics. |
| Singapore Stable REITs | Option to invest in predictable, high dividend-yielding Real Estate Investment Trusts (REITs) listed on the Singapore Exchange. |
| Aggressive | Offers a significant allocation into equities that are diversified globally [AR1] [AM2] with some exposure to gold. |
| All Weather | Provides a balance between capital preservation and capital appreciation through various economic cycles. |
| Dogs of the Dow | The Dogs of the Dow portfolio invests in the 10 highest-dividend-yielding blue-chip stocks in the Dow Jones Industrial Average. |
| Stable US Industrial Giants | Offers stocks of stable US Industrial Giants for long-term growth. |
| Stable US Healthcare Giants | Consists of selected stocks that exhibit relatively lower volatility in the US healthcare sector. |
| Stable US Consumer Giants | Consists of selected US consumer-focused stocks with relatively lower volatility and higher market capitalisation. |
| US Tech Leaders | Offers selected stocks in the US Information Technology sector. |
| US Financials | Comprises of US financial services companies that cater to both retail and corporate clients. |
| Resurgent Industrials | Offers selected stocks of US companies operating in the Industrials. |
| Stable Singapore Giants | Offers selected high cap stocks with relatively lower volatility listed on the Singapore Exchange. |
| Australian REITs | Consists of Australian Real Estate Investment Trusts (REITs). |
| Australian Financials | Consists of selected stocks of financial companies operating in Australia. |
| Mainland European Technology | Includes stocks from France and Germany’s Information Technology (IT) sector. |
| Mainland Europe Financials | Includes stocks from France and Germany’s financial services sector. |
| Mainland Europe Healthcare | Includes stocks from France and Germany’s healthcare sector. |
| UK Financials | Comprises of UK financial companies that cater to both retail and commercial clients. |
| Hong Kong Technology | Consists of stocks from tech companies operating in Hong Kong/China. |
| Hong Kong Consumer | Includes select Hong Kong/China stocks of companies operating in the Consumer Sector. |
- Blue-chip investment: OCBC offers a flexible blue-chip investment plan with a minimum investment of SGD 100 per month. With this plan, customers can invest in blue-chip stocks and ETFs.
Blue chips are stocks of well-reputed companies with long-term profit growth and dividend payments. While a customer can trade an Exchange-traded fund (ETF) on a stock exchange like regular stocks, they will not be investing in a single company but a collection of different stocks or bonds. OCBC facilitates the buying and selling of ETFs over the day.
OCBC customers can choose from 19 top funds, with 15 share counters of the Straits Times Index (STI) and 3 Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs). - Unit trusts: When a customer invests in a Unit Trust, the bank diversifies their money into shares, bonds, debentures and other investments. The bank divides the investment into equal units of the same price. Customers can either invest a lump-sum amount or invest a fixed amount every month. OCBC has five funds that a customer can choose from:
- a. Fidelity Enhanced Reserve Fund
b. Fullerton USD Income Fund
c. Lion-OCBC Global Core Fund (Moderate)
d. BlackRock ESG Multi-Asset Fund
e. Schroder Asian Income Fund
- a. Fidelity Enhanced Reserve Fund
How can you match up with FRANK by OCBC:
- Offer your customers personalised budgeting, savings, and wealth management services as add-on services using AI-ML technologies for an omnichannel banking journey.
- Personalise accounts for each of your target customer segments to add a personal touch.
- Introduce wearable banking to embed yourself in your customers’ day-to-day activities.
Top priorities for FRANK by OCBC:
Leaders of FRANK should focus on the following two areas to improve their product stack:
- While FRANK members have access to QR payments and cardless withdrawals, they have to download the OCBC PayAnyone mobile application to avail themselves of these services. To create a seamless and omnichannel banking experience, you could integrate these services into the main banking application.
- It becomes difficult for customers to keep up with FRANK’s 50+ promotions and offers that change periodically. Following the footsteps of Revolut Shoppers, you could develop a feature that automatically updates your customers about any promotions available in their preferred spending category.