Bank of East Asia forges digital banking partnership with five firms

Customers can apply for loans and purchase products online in these platforms.

The Bank of East Asia (BEA) has formed an alliance with five Hong Kong companies to allow its customers to access digital banking through application programming interface (API).

In January, BEA was announced as one of the 13 banks providing the APIs for theJoint Electronic Teller Services Limited (JETCO)’s APIX system. BEA’s said that it is expanding on this through its collaborations with Mastercard, Blue Cross (Asia-Pacific) Insurance, smart card payments system operator Octopus Holdings, mortgage and brokerage firm mReferral Corporation (HK), and price reviews and outsourced online selling platform Price.com.hk Limited.

Mastercard holders may now settle transactions using bonus points, and may also settle individual transactions with bonus points manually. Additionally, a special bonus point conversion ratio by BEA is available to customers based on their spending behaviour.BEA SupremeGold World Mastercard customers will also receive priority access.

BEA credit card holders may also use their bonus points to buy Blue Cross travel insurance; and can pay their Blue Cross insurance in full or in part using Bonus Points.

Customers can also now add value to their Octopus cards using bonus points for easier travel and subway access, and may apply for Automatic Add Value Service through API referral.

They can now also access mRefferal’sonline mortgage loan referral through API: applicants can receive preliminary approval within one working day, according to the press release. Service will be extended to include instant online approval for mortgage loans. Further, online referral through API will be extended to credit cards and personal loans.

BEA’s customers can also now buy products directly from Price.com.hk using bonus points.

“In the past two years, the number of BEA’s Mobile Banking customers has increased more than 40% year on year. Digital customers now make up 50% of our overall customer base and over 80% of financial transactions are made through automated services channels,” said Adrian Li, co-chief executive of BEA.