OCBC launches cheque encashment service in select ATMs

Customers will be able to encash up to $30,000 in a single cheque in ATMs at 23 branches.

OCBC has rolled out a cheque encashment service across its new ATMs located across 23 branches, the bank announced.

Customers are able to encash up to $30,000 per cheque.

SMEs are expected to mostly benefit from this services, as they make up 95% of the cheques still being encashed by OCBC, the press release said. Meanwhile, one in six cash transactions performed by the bank’s tellers over the counter are still cash cheque encashments.

This is despite the fact that cheque usages by OCBC’s retail customers has fallen by 40% since 2018.

Further, to help speed up digital banking adoption, OCBC has re-skipped and up-skilled its staff so that one in four are now digitally trained. The Digital Ambassadors use mobile tablets to assist customers in their transactions on the newest ATMs. About 20% of the ambassadors are aged in their 40s and 50s.

“We recognise that there are still segments of customers who require services like cheque encashments; it takes up a significant amount of time for a customer and counter teller staff just to fulfil a single such transaction. We have addressed this by enabling transactions such as cheque encashment to be performed seamlessly on our next-generation ATMs instead,” said Sunny Quek, OCBC Bank’s Head of Consumer Financial Services Singapore.