Trouble has been brewing for digital banks in Asia’s leading financial hub, Singapore, which is also home to some of Southeast Asia’s latest financial innovations. Not only did customer satisfaction rates dip by 1.7% between 2019 and 2020, but 34% of Singapore customers do not trust digital banks with personal data security.

In December 2020, the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) granted its first digital full bank licenses to private companies Grab-Singtel consortium and tech giant Sea. The highly anticipated move was aimed at liberalising the financial industry, allowing retail customers to perform physical transactions without opening bank accounts, making deposits at ATMs, or holding onto physical debit or credit cards.

However, the ease of bank transfers has also made it much easier for people to fall victim to online scams. Within the first month of 2022, Singapore banks and police authorities received numerous reports of victims falling prey to phishing scams and losing thousands of dollars.

Eighteen fraud victims in Singapore lost a total of S$120,000 to false claims of credit and debit card suspension in January 2022 (Singapore Police Force).

The prevalence and severity of the scams spurred MAS to release a joint statement with the Association of Banks in Singapore (ABS), where the boards detailed additional compliance measures to guide banks on bolstering the security of their digital banking services.

These new compliance requirements included setting lower transaction thresholds and sending notifications to registered mobile numbers whenever a change in credentials is requested.

However, preventing mobile communication channels from being infiltrated by hackers whilst providing on-demand, two way communication is no doubt a challenge. To address this, 8x8 recommends the simplest, easiest, and most cost effective solution: SMS APIs.

Why SMS remains a reliable communication tool for digital banking

Marketing teams face an uphill battle as they try to engage customers on banking apps, stand out in email communications, and capture interest on social media. That’s why it's important to not discount tried-and-trusted tools like SMS.

In fact, SMS is the most reliable and cost-effective communication source available. As banks are under constant pressure to deliver an efficient and mobile-first customer experience, the high 98% open-rate of SMS is the most effective way to keep customers informed, and in-turn, retain brand loyalty. SMS also plays an important role in the overall mobile banking experience as its use cases span alerts and notifications, as well as account reminders, OTPs, and applications for new accounts, cards, and loans.

The icing on the cake is that SMS runs on traditional phone networks that are still operable even when internet connections are down. Therefore, SMS acts as an additional failsafe method when WiFi and data are unavailable.

Automate and scale your SMS notifications with the help of APIs

With the use of APIs, banks can automate SMS delivery, so that customers can be updated on their account status and transactions even when customer service agents are not available.

In addition, automation via APIs eliminates human errors that can creep in and compromise customer data security and privacy. This is important because delivering messages on time is not only needed for a smooth transaction experience, but also for providing customers with timely alerts on suspicious behaviour in their accounts.

“We have helped prevent more than 200 more customers from falling prey to phishing scams by proactively reaching out to them.” –Helen Wong, Group CEO, OCBC

SMS API integration: Better, faster, stronger with 8x8

With a local presence and direct connections to leading telecommunication providers, 8x8 provides stable connectivity and high SMS deliverability. The automated system also redelivers bounced messages on a bank's behalf via smart retry.

Connectivity aside, 8x8’s analytics will give banks access to critical data on SMS open-rates in real-time so they can serve their customers better. Better yet, 8x8 SMS API offers add-on features to enhance engagement, including OTPs, SMS Engage, 10DLC, Number Lookup, and URL Shortener.

Indeed, one-time passwords are already widely used in Singapore as an extra layer of protection to prevent hackers from accessing accounts that are not their own. 8x8’s voice messaging takes this one step further by reading out the OTP while leaving no digital trail for hackers to hunt down. Supported in over 40 different languages, the voice messaging solution can read out pre-written message templates to ensure that more customers, including the visually impaired, are updated with the latest changes to their banking credentials, and can access banking services themselves.

Probably the best thing about 8x8’s SMS APIs though is that banks can get it all up and running quickly. With low-code installation processes, 8x8 SMS API can be rapidly integrated into pre-existing systems, including legacy systems, with minimal downtime or disruption. All 8x8 solutions are also designed with security in mind: 8x8’s APIs are HIPAA, FISMA, and SOC 2 compliant so banks can double down on fraud detection and minimise the frequency and impact of cyber attacks.

Secure digital banking services with 8x8 APIs

Scale your online banking services securely with plug-and-play APIs that not only improve customer experiences, but also ease internal workflows and provide detailed analytics.

Contact hello-cpaas@8x8.com to refine and secure your communications strategy today.