BOCHK looks to enhance its fintech services while maintaining physical branch network

Bank of China (Hong Kong), which has the largest branch network in the city, has no plans to scale down its traditional network, even as online banking has cut the need for physical visits to the bank.

The bank now has 1 million customers using its mobile phone platform, helping to propel growth in transactions via mobile phone by 232 per cent in the past three years, according to Rocky Cheng Chung-ngam, general manager of Information Technology of BOCHK.

About 85 per cent of all customer transactions were conducted online, by mobile phone, or automated teller machines.

“We have seen an increasing number of customers using non-branch banking services. This is why we have invested heavily to expand our mobile banking and other financial technology, or fintech system, to meet with the demand of the younger generation of customers,” Cheng said. “However, we do not have any plan to scale down our branch network. BOCHK is a community bank,” he said in an interview with the Post.

BOCHK has 220 branches in Hong Kong and about 1,000 automatic teller machines or other self-services banking machines.

The number of branches has remained the same in the past three years, excluding reductions related to the sale of Nanyang Commercial Bank last year.

Cheng said while they plan to retain traditional branch services, they also plan to expand digital banking and fintech services. This includes having more than 100 staff in technology-related teams to study and promote innovative services such as personal payments, money transfer by mobile phone, and biometric security enhancement such as facial recognition.