UOB is tapping into a $10 billion Asean millennial market with a digital bank, the Business Times reported. UOB’s digital-only bank TMRW is executing plans to focus on acquiring good clients. The clients’ value will be measured by their engagement with the bank.
According to UOB, 60 percent of Asean population are under the age group of 35 years. Also, more than 70 percent of Asean consumers show significant ecommerce engagement.
The millennial generation will be the bank’s chief clients in the future. It aims to understand the needs of the digital-savvy population. UOB has studied millennials through ethnographic research in order to understand the market in the digital bank space. The bank even partnered with fintech firms Personetics and Meniga to boost customer engagement.
TMRW was launched in Thailand to help Asean’s digital generation enhance their banking experience. Its unique business model is highly customer-centric.
In UOB’s view, TMRW is the first digital bank in the world to enable a call function within its digital chat service. The chatbot has capabilities to recall old conversations with customers.
TMRW’s other prospective markets will include Indonesia, Singapore, Malaysia and Vietnam comprising a customer base of between three million and five million users in the next five years, a media report said.
Dr Dennis Khoo, head of group retail digital at UOB, told the media that, “Having a mobile-only digital bank enables us to explore new frontiers when it comes to designing a user interface based on customers’ banking behaviour and needs and to be sensitive to the nuances of each market.”