UOB’s digital wealth sales and transactions grew close to 50 per cent year on year in the 12 months up to April, driven by a wider regional roll-out and growing customer comfort with investing online.
UOB is starting to reap the benefits of expanding its digital wealth capabilities in the region, following the integration of the consumer banking businesses it acquired from Citi.
The lender is also handling a growing demand for investment strategies developed by its private bank’s chief investment office (CIO), which it has made available to its broader retail customer base.
Jacquelyn Tan, the lender’s head of group personal finances, told The Business Times in a recent interview that assets under management (AUM) in these CIO fund offerings grew about 60 per cent year on year in the first quarter of 2026, and surpassed S$2 billion in May.
Its CIO income and growth funds are among the five most popular funds bought digitally by customers, she noted.
For UOB, digital wealth encompasses customers investing and managing their portfolios through its “UOB TMRW” banking app for activities ranging from buying investment products to setting up regular investments.
The bank’s wealthier customers also use these capabilities along with the recommendations they get from their wealth advisers.
The bank also notes that customers are now committing larger sums as they become more comfortable investing online.
The average lump-sum investment among young adults in Singapore has risen to about S$4,000; among young professionals, the figure is close to S$8,000, Tan said.
Average ticket sizes for overall digital investments have grown about 20 per cent year on year, and customers making recurring investments are putting in nearly S$450 a month on average.
Digital wealth to play ‘meaningful’ role
UOB is looking to digital wealth to deepen relationships with its retail customers and support its broader target of doubling wealth income by 2030.
Its latest results showed continued momentum in the business. Wealth management income rose 16 per cent year on year to S$717 million in the first half of 2026; high-net-worth AUM grew 7 per cent to S$204 billion.
Growth was stronger outside Singapore, with wealth income from Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand and Vietnam rising 30 per cent over the same period.
More than half the customers who are new to wealth now make their first investments digitally in the four markets where UOB offers its digital wealth capabilities.
Digital adoption is not limited to younger investors. While customers aged 25 to 54 make up close to 80 per cent of those investing digitally, the number of pre-retirees almost doubled in the 12 months up to April, though this was from a smaller base.
Tan said digital wealth would play a “meaningful” role in UOB’s wealth growth, both by bringing emerging-affluent customers into investing, and by enabling its advisers serving wealthier clients to focus more on advice than on transactions.
Asked whether the shift towards digital investing could cannibalise UOB’s higher-end wealth businesses, she said the bank does not see the two as competing channels.
Instead, it looks at customers based on their overall relationship with UOB.
Those who accumulate more wealth can move into more sophisticated products and advisory services as their needs become more complex. “If a customer has sufficient AUM, needs a deeper access into a more complex wealth solution – by all means, they should be served on the private banking platform,” she said.
UOB’s Privilege Banking segment serves customers with investable assets of between S$350,000 and S$5 million; those with more than S$5 million are served by its private bank.
AI to take on more routine work
Artificial intelligence has been incorporated into UOB’s push to deepen its wealth relationships, with the bank using customer activity to determine when an investment prompt may be relevant.
Its app can, for instance, prompt customers to consider investing after their salary is credited, or reinvesting after having received dividend income.
Tan said UOB uses transaction data and machine-learning models to better anticipate customers’ needs and determine when to send out such prompts.
The lender is also experimenting with generative AI to improve the productivity of its staff.
It has piloted an AI sales coach for its younger employees and built a generative AI chatbot that enables front-line staff to retrieve product, process and compliance information more quickly. Generative AI is also being piloted to create client pitch books.
But Tan does not expect the technology to replace wealth advisers.
“I think it will probably reimagine the way we advise. However, it will not replace advisers,” she said.
Instead, she envisages AI taking on more of the information gathering, preparation and routine work done by these advisers, freeing them to spend more time on client relationships and more complex financial decisions.
Self-service for simpler transactions
That shift mirrors the role the bank sees for digital wealth more broadly: making simpler transactions increasingly self-service, while reserving human advice for customers and decisions that require greater expertise.
As the bank works towards its 2030 wealth target, Tan said that the aim is ultimately to combine the scale of digital distribution with the judgment and relationship-building of its advisers – rather than have one replace the other.
