OCBC deploys agentic AI to accelerate wealthy client onboarding

OCBC has deployed an agentic AI platform across Bank of Singapore to halve onboarding time for wealthy clients while enabling compliance teams to identify prospective private banking opportunities.

OCBC is harnessing agentic AI to transform its customer due diligence process as part of its wealth management ambitions under its Next Frontier strategy. With the use of its agentic AI platform HELIOS (Holistic wEalth Lifecycle Insights & Ongoing Surveillance), the bank is accelerating the onboarding of wealthy customers while maintaining stringent risk management and compliance standards.

HELIOS’ extensive intelligence-gathering and sophisticated relationship-network mapping capabilities enhances the accuracy and completeness of customer information needed for onboarding. By front-loading and automating this collection, verification, and assessment of key data, a significant portion of the know-your-customer (KYC) due diligence process is completed before the relationship manager (RM) engages with a prospective customer. This streamlines and speeds up onboarding without compromising regulatory requirements.

In a first for a bank in Southeast Asia, high-quality leads will also be identified and surfaced to RMs by the Compliance function. This serves as an additional lead generation channel for RMs.

RMs in Bank of Singapore, OCBC’s private banking arm, have begun leveraging HELIOS across Singapore, Hong Kong and Dubai, with the roll-out to be completed by the third quarter of 2026. Account opening can now be completed in 15 business days, half the time needed compared to the current industry median of about six weeks, barring delays in the submission of customer documents.

The roll-out is timely as the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) recently announced that it is working with the Private Banking Industry Group to reduce the account opening timeline to within one month by end-2026.

HELIOS will be extended to the OCBC Premier Private Client customer segment in the consumer banking business by the end of the year.

A paradigm shift for compliance

Moving the due diligence process before the start of the customer journey transforms current industry practice where KYC screening and risk assessments are typically conducted only after an RM submits a prospective customer’s Source of Wealth information.

In contrast, HELIOS provides RMs with individuals’ key data and information, and credit risk profile upfront. Information gaps will also be highlighted, enabling RMs to quickly obtain the missing information and data from the customer. This significantly reduces the back-and-forth between the customer, RM and the bank’s Compliance unit.

RMs and the internal review teams maintain ultimate accountability on review, judgment and decision making.

Beyond onboarding, HELIOS will be extended to support the ongoing monitoring of customer activity. This will enable the bank to proactively identify changes in customers' risk profiles, strengthen risk surveillance, and support more timely risk management and compliance reviews.

Loretta Yuen, OCBC’s head of group legal and compliance, said, “We need to identify potential concerns earlier and assess financial crime risks more holistically. By combining agentic AI with the expertise of our compliance professionals, HELIOS enables us to screen prospective customers more thoroughly and earlier in the customer journey, while uncovering connections that may not be obvious. This is a paradigm shift for compliance where we are not just enabling business, but originating opportunities.”

Jason Moo, CEO of Bank of Singapore, said, “HELIOS is a powerful example of how we can leverage agentic AI to combine risk intelligence with business growth. In the industry, it is very rare for compliance partners to provide good quality leads that bankers can prospect with confidence. This will be a compelling differentiator in not only growing the business, but also attracting bankers to join us.”

Justin Ho, a Bank of Singapore Market Head who is already using HELIOS said, “Even before we have onboarded the customer, HELIOS is able to provide an in-depth report on a prospective customer’s source of wealth. This ensures that the compliance and front office teams are on the same page, significantly reducing the need for us to go back-and-forth with customers to clarify documentation details. What I appreciate about this platform is that it also provides an additional avenue for high-quality leads.”

AI, digital and data-driven growth

The rollout of HELIOS is a result of OCBC’s investment in AI, digital and data (ADD), which is at the core of its corporate strategy – the OCBC Next Frontier. In terms of technology spend, OCBC expects to spend more than one billion dollars every year for the next three years.

In July 2026, OCBC deployed the first AI-native bank mobile app in the region incorporating two avatars to offer hyper-personalised wealth management services on a real-time basis, 24/7. Over time, OCBC WoW will leverage its AI-native environment to extend its range of products and services to meet customers’ increasingly sophisticated needs and build deeper and stickier relationships.

Earlier this year, OCBC’s consumer banking unit rolled out a generative AI (GenAI)-powered skills training programme for its wealth advisor force in Singapore. The six-month programme coaches wealth advisors on a full
range of competencies including investment advisory, customer management, product mastery and wealth planning. By incorporating GenAI, the programme helps minimise bias and emotional influence often associated with traditional, supervisor-led coaching, enabling more objective and consistent development outcomes.

Within the first three months of training, wealth advisors demonstrated a high level of customer engagement, securing double the number of weekly customer appointments compared to peers who had not yet completed the programme. There was also a 50 per cent uplift in revenue compared with the previous three months.

Last year, Bank of Singapore, rolled out an agentic AI-powered source of wealth (SOW) tool. Embedded directly into KYC workflows, the AI ‘agent’ independently initiates and coordinates tasks such as extracting, structuring and synthesising information across customer records and supporting documents, identifying data gaps and prompting targeted follow-ups when needed for assessment completion.

This tool helped RMs reduce average preparation time for SOW reports from 10 days to just one hour, accelerating customer onboarding and periodic reviews. The RMs can then channel the gain in productivity into deepening customer relationships and delivering superior experiences.

Re-disseminated by Wealth and Society