The Asian wealth manager has fast-tracked some of its financial integration in response to the lockdown, rolling out online planning tools, which it says are attracting sizable numbers of customers new to online financial planning.

In a move to bolster connectivity and financial control in these digitally reliant times, DBS has announced that all five million of its clients will now be plugged into its digital financial planning solution as part of customers' mobile banking accounts.

The feature-rich service, dubbed Nav Planner, allows customers to plan and monitor their financial goals independently by guiding them through insights and recommendations tailored to their life stages and financial circumstances, the firm said, announcing the enhanced technology yesterday. It includes a personalised balance sheet, where users have a full overview of their cash savings, loans, insurance-protection plans and investments held with the bank. The Singapore-based wealth manager said a digital library of financial literacy programs and other materials are also linked and available through the new planning envronment.

“Technology has helped the insurance, brokerage and wealth management industries scale up and reach more customers with their services. But we've noticed that even with digitalisation, financial information is still held in silos,” Jeremy Soo, head of consumer banking in Singapore for DBS, said.

“Those who wish to review their overall finances either need to manually consolidate their holdings or look to their financial advisors to do so for them", he said, and those who are not subscribed “are inadvertently left out."

DBS said that clients have rightly been concerned over access to financial planning and being adequately protected in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic and the disruption it has caused, with Singapore being no exception. “When most of Singapore is staying home, a ‘contact-less’ financial planning solution will come in handy,” Soo said.

In the first month of release, the group said that more than 300,000 customers have accessed their balance sheets, and over 30 per cent of those were new to digital financial planning.

It also found that among prompts being offered, most popular were those helping customers to stay disciplined with their savings and growing their money through investments. The group said it plans to add a retirement planning tool in the next few months, again based on life-goal objectives.

Its research has shown that most people only engage with their finances on an ‘episodic’ basis, such as when they need to make important money decisions, something the bank said it would like to course-correct.

“Helping our customers review smaller everyday financial decisions will stand them in good stead and protect their finances against a drain from unexpected volatilities, such as the current pandemic,” Soo said.