OCBC now pairs with 8 more Southeast Asian e-wallets to support expats away from home

• Malaysia: MYR 960
• Vietnam: VND 5.65 million
• Indonesia: 2.95 million
• Philippines: PHP 9,600
• China: CNY 2,200

Apparently, this is only just the beginning of OCBC’s growing e-wallet support:

“When we launched pay-to-wallet transfers last year, we promised to go beyond China, and we have since delivered. By connecting OCBC accounts to eight of Southeast Asia’s most popular wallets, we are removing friction from cross-border payments and making remittances faster, cheaper and more inclusive. We’re not stopping here – our long-term goal is to connect customers to 50 digital wallets worldwide, giving them the most comprehensive wallet access of any banking app.”

Mr. Sunny Quek, Head of Global Consumer Financial Services, OCBC

For reference, OCBC said the two original Chinese e-wallets supported saw over S$60 million in transfers, a 4x increase compared to typical cross-border transfers to Mainland China. The wider range of digital wallets aims to cater to more foreign talents in Singapore who are looking to send money back home.

The e-wallet support is powered by Visa Direct, which is supported across nearly 11 billion endpoints, including more than 3.5 billion accounts, 4 billion cards, and 3.5 billion digital wallets.

What about travelling Singaporeans?

OCBC’s added e-wallet support is targeted at expats and other workers based in Singapore who need to send money home without incurring excessive costs or delays typically seen in conventional remittance services.

However, a few of those featured e-wallets can support Singaporean users. For example, Malaysian e-wallet Touch ‘n Go already supports QR code payments and top-ups using non-Malaysian credit/debit cards and non-Malaysian phone numbers (similar to Alipay’s support of foreign cards).