Singapore-based Oversea-Chinese Banking Corporation (OCBC Bank) and its subsidiary, OCBC Securities (OSPL), are set to launch new banking and securities trading services on iPad with effect from July 23, 2010. The applications will allow customers to perform retail banking and securities trading transactions, anytime and anywhere.

According to OCBC, the features of the mobile banking for iPad include: locating the nearest OCBC branch and ATMs; obtaining a graphical view of bank account transactions and balances; comparing savings balances versus outstanding balances of credit facilities in pie chart form; paying bills online and transferring funds to other bank accounts online and tracking credit card transactions.

OCBC said that with iOCBC TradeMobile iPad application, customers can view 20 of their favorite stocks or market indices at a glance; trade into 14 key local and foreign securities exchanges that include Bursa Malaysia, the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, Nasdaq, NYSE, and Singapore Exchange among others.

The trading application provides access to various market data including the latest prices quotes and various sectorial and market indices in these markets;

The trading application also helps customers to manage and monitor their favourite stocks via the watch-list function, search and locate the various stocks listed in all 14 securities exchanges and check the latest status of trade orders real time.

OCBC Bank has developed robust security features into both applications, including end-to-end encryption of all information transmitted via these platforms, to protect customer data.

Patrick Chew, head of delivery, global consumer financial services at OCBC Bank, said: “Following the increased usage of OCBC Mobile Banking when it was made available on iPhones in 2008, the iPad’s responsive high-resolution multi-touch display has allowed us to create a banking application that will enable users to have an even better banking experience.”

Hui Yew Ping, managing director of OCBC Securities, said: “We have customers who are based outside Singapore who are downloading iOCBC TradeMobile. Correspondingly, we see about 35% of the trading transactions through iOCBC TradeMobile carried out outside the Singapore market. This trend is in line with our global trading value proposition where customers can trade in 14 key global markets anywhere with iOCBC.

“With iPad being both a mobile and powerful platform with highly intuitive user interface, we believe that trading activity will be further integrated into investors’ lifestyles. iOCBC TradeMobile not only provides our customers with a new trading channel, it will also help us reach out to a new market segment.”