The Open Vault, the FinTech and Innovation unit of OCBC Bank has been officially unveiled in Malaysia. Back in its home ground, its Singaporean counterpart has been known to launch several initiatives such as their mortgage loan chatbot EMMA, a dedicated unit for Artificial Intelligence and robo-investment services.

It is unclear whether The Open Vault in Malaysia will pursue similar strategies or the team will focus on issues that are more specific to market conditions in Malaysia. What seems to be clear is however, the launch of OCBC Malaysia’s fintech innovation arm will see the bank forging more partnerships with fintech players locally.

Also present at the launch was Norhizam Kadir, Vice President of Growth Ecosystem Development of MDEC. Commenting on the creation of The Open Vault, he said,

“We are pleased to see OCBC Bank committing itself to an initiative that seeks to engage more deeply with FinTech companies globally,” he said. The move is expected to act as a catalyst for the burgeoning FinTech segment.’

According to OCBC Bank Chief Executive Officer Dato’ Ong Eng Bin, partnership with FinTechs is growing to become an invaluable part of the bank’s problem-solving approach, and the setting up of the physical office will lend impetus to realising its objectives.

“Digitalisation and innovation are not new to us at OCBC Bank. In fact, we have been deepening our digitalisation efforts significantly over the past few years. The Open Vault will be dedicated to activities that engage the expertise of the FinTech community,” he said.

“The Open Vault is now our very own hub for experimentation. It will serve to validate new ideas and shape the Bank of the future with a focus on offering seamless customer experience, harnessing the power of data and establishing an enriched journey for our customers.” he added.

Earlier this year, The Open Vault partnered with two US-based FinTech companies, Ondot Systems Inc and EZMCOM Inc, to explore innovative approaches to tackling two long-standing banking challenges.

OCBC Bank had before that announced it is embarking on a year-long regulatory sandbox testing of a Secure Chat Banking Mobile Application following approval to do so from BNM under the Financial Technology Regulatory Sandbox Framework.

If successful, the OCBC Secure Chat Banking Mobile App will become the country’s first banking solution to enable premier banking customers to communicate with, and give financial transaction instructions to, their relationship managers securely via a mobile app.