Why Banks Aren't Just Places We Visit Save & Take a loan, But To assist Us Make smarter Financial Decisions

In the past, this is a common statement. Nowadays, we do not listen to it often. In all likelihood, we will open a checking account online, instead of to become visiting a bank branch.

If you asked someone what banks were 3 decades ago, the likely answer you're going to get is that they are places people visit deposit and withdraw savings, in order to take credit.

If you ask them the same question today – in 2021 – you will rarely hear this answer. Some people recognise that banks still provide similar financial services for his or her customers, they're merely locations that people go to.

From making a payment via our charge card and transferring money to our friends to buying shares on the stock market and securing a property loan, banks can be seen as entities that support us in financial decisions we make every day, both large and small. They are no more restricted to the physical premises they operate from.

Omnipresent Banking Within the Digital World

Gone are the days whenever a bank's reach is limited towards the working hours at the physical premises they operate from or even the number of ATMs they have. In the digital world that we reside in, banks are around wherever we go at any time we need, be it on our laptops or mobile phones.

For example, we are able to sign up for most new products and services offered by banks via their websites. This can be done anytime, anywhere, on the device connected to the internet. Queuing up in a bank branch during opening hours is not necessary.

Digital adoption is not only restricted to what banks can provide consumers looking to subscribe to a service or product. As consumers, we are able to also decide to (or otherwise to) adopt digital solutions for ourselves to experience greater convenience.

By adopting Google Pay, Samsung Pay or Apple Pay, we are able to buy things or purchase rides without taking out our cards. We only need to add our charge cards towards the mobile payment solution that we are using and tap using our phone to authorise transactions. This is also safer as these mobile payments typically would need you to authenticate the transaction using Face ID or for you to enter your passcode.

Mobile banking apps that people use, such as the Standard Chartered Mobile App that people can download around the App Store or Google Play, let us easily transfer funds to our friends via various cash transfer solutions such as PayNow, remit money overseas at competitive international transfer rates in order to create a service request using the bank.

The Standard Chartered Mobile App also allows us to create a cash withdrawal from your Standard Chartered banking account with participating merchants via SoCash – which means we no longer need to worry about where to find a close ATM.

If we see an excellent Standard Chartered credit card promotion right before we pay, we are able to sign up for an electronic charge card instantly*, without having to wait 5-7 days for a physical card to arrive before using it.

Banks Also Help Us Make Better Financial Decisions To Achieve Our Wealth Goals

While having a mobile app or internet banking access provides us with 24/7 use of traditional banking products and services, we are not fully maximising the various tools that are distributed around us as consumers if that is all we're using our banks for.

By leveraging on data, banks are now able to provide us with valuable insights how we manage our money. For instance, the Standard Chartered Money Manager, which is part of the Standard Chartered Mobile App, can tell us just how much we spend every month, which categories we spend on to ensure that we're conscious of what we tend to spend our cash on and to track and examine our income and spending. We are able to also set automated alerts in the Standard Chartered Money Manager so that we are notified whenever we get close to hitting our pre-set limit, helping us to prevent spending beyond our budget.

The Standard Chartered Locate (SC Locate) function on Standard Chartered Money Manager can even inform us where we are spending our money at to ensure that we can find out the various places where we are making each transaction. So if you tend to spend money on places like McDonald's, you will not only know how much you spend every month, but the outlets that you're spending at.

Using this in the bank, we are able to better understand our spending habits and identify areas that we might be overspending on and to find great ways to curb these spending.

Besides giving you insights to your spending habits, banks today also double as educators with regards to investment solutions. Regardless if you are a self-directed investor or should you prefer a hands-off approach, it's essential to stay on surface of what is happening in the investment world to be able to make informed investment decisions.

Most banks, including Standard Chartered Singapore, provide information for investors to help them make smarter investment decisions. Standard Chartered Singapore includes a Wealth Library that gives extensive content on wealth accumulation and wealth protection.

If you are looking to invest, various investment solutions, including those that allow you to invest in stocks and unit trusts are available (digitally of course!) for you personally at a low cost. For investors who would like to consult with a wealth expert, SC Wealth Connect is really a platform that enables these to link to Relationship Managers and Wealth Management Specialists so that they can receive wealth management advice from the comfort of their homes.

As Singapore continues to embrace digital transformation in all industries, we can continue to look forward to banks offering us more value-added digital solutions beyond just traditional banking services and products – as well as for us to embrace these solutions.