OCBC customers in Singapore can now transfer money directly from their OCBC bank accounts to eight leading digital wallets across Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines and Vietnam via the OCBC app.

This expansion builds on last year’s integration of Weixin Pay ( WeChat Pay ) and Alipay, making the OCBC app, the bank says, Southeast Asia’s most connected for wallet payments, with 10 wallets in total.

The new connections are part of the bank’s ongoing strategic partnership with Visa, which began in 2024 to enhance cross-border payment capabilities. This feature, the bank states, “is expected to significantly benefit Singapore’s foreign workforce by simplifying remittances and helping them stay connected with loved ones”.

With this expanded partnership, the bank’s customers can make near-instant, fee-free transfers to Coins ( Philippines ), GCash ( Philippines ), GoPay ( Indonesia ), LinkAja ( Indonesia ), Momo ( Vietnam ), Ovo ( Indonesia ), PayMaya ( Philippines ) and Touch ‘n Go ( Malaysia ). These wallets, in addition to the two Chinese wallets, collectively represent a total user base of up to 2.72 billion.

This pay-to-wallet feature on the OCBC app tackles key remittance challenges – speed, cost and accessibility – especially for the region’s large unbanked population. The foreign workforce in Singapore stand to benefit the most, as many still rely on slower and costlier over-the-counter services, cash agents or manual bank transfers. With the bank’s app, workers or their employers can send money directly to their home country’s wallets, removing the need for recipients to have a bank account or visit a physical location.

The app’s pay-to-wallet capabilities are powered by Visa Direct, which provides access to nearly 11 billion endpoints, including 3.5-plus billion accounts, four billion-plus cards and 3.5-plus billion digital wallets.

Since launching the service with Chinese wallets a year ago, the bank has processed over S$60 million ( US$45.99 million ) in transfers, driving a fourfold increase in cross-border transfers to China, a key market for the bank.

Ninety per cent of users have not visited a branch recently and three-quarters are PMETs ( those in professional, managerial, executive and technical occupations ), mainly Chinese nationals sending money home. With this expansion, the bank expects significant adoption among Singapore’s 1.6 million-strong foreign workforce.

“By connecting OCBC accounts to eight of Southeast Asia’s most popular wallets, we are removing friction from cross-border payments and making remittances faster, cheaper and more inclusive,” adds Sunny Quek, the bank’s head of global consumer financial services. “Our long-term goal is to connect customers to 50 digital wallets worldwide, giving them the most comprehensive wallet access of any banking app.”