What AI research, patents and partnerships does OCBC have?
OCBC builds most of its AI itself and names few outside partners. The Group Data Office, which began as an AI unit in 2018, says all its AI tools are built in-house with open-source tools; its Wingman coding assistant ran on an open-source model and was live in under two weeks, and the team was using Google's BERT and FinBERT language models in 2019 and 2020 to read news for early signs of corporate default. The main model partner is Microsoft: OCBC GPT runs in the bank's private Azure environment with access to OpenAI models and is embedded in Microsoft Teams (November 2023). Bank of Singapore signed Arta's conversational AI platform for external asset managers and family offices in November 2025, and OCBC's finance function runs on Oracle Cloud ERP with embedded AI (March 2025). Its research ties are regulator- and university-led: it was in the 31-member MAS consortium behind the Veritas responsible-AI toolkit (2023), IMDA's generative AI evaluation sandbox (2023), MAS's MindForge toolkit (March 2026) and the SAFR agent-safeguards paper (July 2026), and in July 2025 it began 12-month quantum research projects with NUS, NTU and SMU, including quantum machine learning for fraud detection. No AI patent assigned to OCBC is public.[1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12]
Data as of Oct 16, 2026 · OCBC profile updated Oct 13, 2026 · 17 sources cited on this page · 140 banks profiled on this site · Markdown
Which technology companies does OCBC work with on AI?
Vendors and model sources named on the record. OCBC has not named the large language models behind OCBC WoW.
| Partner | Type | What it is | Since |
|---|---|---|---|
| Microsoft (Azure OpenAI) | Model and cloud provider | OCBC GPT built in OCBC's private Azure environment with access to OpenAI's models, embedded in Teams; rolled out to 30,000 staff in 19 countries after a trial of about 1,000 | Built from March 2023; rolled out November 2023[4][13][14] |
| Open-source models | Model source | OCBC Wingman coding assistant was based on an open-source model and running in under two weeks; MacDonald says all AI tools are built in-house with open-source tools | May 2023[3][2][4] |
| Google (BERT, FinBERT) | Early language models | Used to read the news, detect early signs of corporate credit default and recommend stocks | 2019-2020[2] |
| Arta | Wealth AI platform | Conversational AI platform deployed by Bank of Singapore for external asset managers and family offices | November 6, 2025[5] |
| Oracle | Enterprise software | Oracle Fusion Cloud ERP and EPM for group finance; the CFO said it lets finance 'harness the power of data analytics and artificial intelligence' | March 13, 2025[6] |
| Singtel | Telecoms | Quantum key distribution over Singtel's quantum-safe network, which OCBC calls a first for a financial institution | Before July 2025[11] |
What AI research and industry programs is OCBC part of?
Academic projects, regulator-led consortia and the patent record.
| Item | What it is | Date |
|---|---|---|
| MAS Veritas consortium | One of 31 industry members of the MAS-led consortium behind the Veritas toolkit 2.0 for assessing fairness, ethics, accountability and transparency (FEAT) | June 27, 2023[7] |
| IMDA generative AI sandbox | One of 15 initial participants, as an application developer, in the IMDA and AI Verify Foundation sandbox to create baselines for evaluating generative AI applications | November 1, 2023[8] |
| MAS MindForge | One of 24 consortium members behind the MAS AI risk-management toolkit covering traditional, generative and agentic AI | March 20, 2026[9] |
| MAS SAFR white paper | Case study in Safeguards for Agentic Finance at Runtime, on checkpoints that verify an agent's proposed actions before execution | July 3, 2026[10] |
| NUS, NTU and SMU quantum research | 12-month projects: quantum Monte Carlo for derivative pricing (NUS Centre for Quantum Technologies), quantum machine learning for fraud detection (SMU), post-quantum cryptography (NTU) | July 17, 2025[11] |
| Quantum skills | Goal of more than 100 employees trained to intermediate quantum proficiency by 2026; about 50 by end-2024; quantum roadmap since 2021 | July 2025[11] |
| Data talent pipeline | Data Certification Pathway with Ngee Ann Polytechnic since 2019 (more than 300 staff completed) and AI scholarships for postgraduate students; 300 data professionals share source code with the industry | November 2023[3] |
| Patents | A Google Patents search under Oversea Chinese Banking Corp Ltd returned one document, a 2014 Singapore application for a cheque deposit box; no AI patent is public | Searched October 2026[12] |
What does the OCBC profile record on this topic?
The rows below are the entries of the OCBC Bank AI strategy profile that bear on this page, as of Oct 13, 2026; the profile holds the full record of 24 dated moves, 14 use cases and 32 sources.
| Use case | What the record shows | Status | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Arta AI for external asset managers and family offices | Bank of Singapore is deploying Arta's conversational AI platform, which handles portfolio data, market information and research and runs Monte Carlo risk modelling, for its financial-intermediary and family-office clients. | Rolling out | [5][15] |
| FEAT-based AI governance and MAS toolkit participation | Regular model reviews for accuracy and bias, tested against fairness, ethics, accountability and transparency (FEAT) principles; OCBC took part in MAS's MindForge toolkit and the SAFR agent-safeguards paper. | In production | [16][9][10][15] |
| Date | Move | Detail | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Jul 3, 2026 | MAS publishes SAFR white paper with an OCBC case study | Safeguards for Agentic Finance at Runtime proposes governance checkpoints that verify and record an AI agent's proposed actions before execution; OCBC is among the firms whose case studies it contains. | [10] |
| Mar 20, 2026 | MAS AI risk-management toolkit includes OCBC as a participant | OCBC is among 24 consortium members, with DBS, UOB, Standard Chartered and others, behind the MindForge toolkit covering traditional, generative and agentic AI. | [9] |
| Nov 6, 2025 | Bank of Singapore signs on to Arta AI | Wealth-technology company Arta said Bank of Singapore would deploy its conversational Arta AI platform for external asset managers and family offices, through the unit headed by Leong Guan Lim. | [5] |
| Jan 31, 2025 | OCBC hires Carlos Queiroz as managing director for AI | eFinancialCareers reported that Queiroz, previously global head of data science engineering for Standard Chartered's corporate, commercial and institutional bank and earlier lead of the technology data platform at DBS, joined as a managing director for AI. The report describes OCBC's proprietary coding assistant and staff chatbot as available to all of its 30,000-plus employees. | [17] |
| Oct 24, 2023 | OCBC GPT announced for all 30,000 employees | A chatbot built with Microsoft's Azure OpenAI, hosted in a controlled environment, rolled out in November 2023 after a six-month trial of about 1,000 staff who finished tasks about 50% faster; OCBC said more than four million decisions a day were already made by AI. | [14] |
Does OCBC use OpenAI or Microsoft models?
Yes, through Microsoft. OCBC GPT, rolled out to all 30,000 staff in November 2023, was built in OCBC's private Microsoft Azure environment, which gives access to OpenAI's models, and is embedded in Microsoft Teams. OCBC has not announced a direct agreement with OpenAI, Anthropic or Google for its production models, and has not named the models behind its OCBC WoW avatars.
Does OCBC build its own AI?
Mostly. Group Data Office head Donald MacDonald said in 2024 that all of OCBC's AI tools are built in-house by its data platform team using open-source tools, which he said makes decisions easier to explain to regulators and customers. The Wingman coding assistant was based on an open-source model and running in under two weeks; Bank of Singapore's Source of Wealth Assistant was co-developed with OCBC.
Does OCBC have AI patents?
None are public. A Google Patents search under Oversea Chinese Banking Corp Ltd returned one document, a 2014 Singapore application for a cheque deposit box. OCBC's research output instead runs through regulator-led consortia such as MAS's Veritas and MindForge toolkits and university projects such as its 2025 quantum research with NUS, NTU and SMU.
Which universities does OCBC work with on AI and advanced technology?
In July 2025 OCBC began 12-month research collaborations with the National University of Singapore (quantum Monte Carlo for derivative pricing), Singapore Management University (quantum machine learning for fraud detection) and Nanyang Technological University (post-quantum cryptography). Since 2019 it has run a Data Certification Pathway with Ngee Ann Polytechnic, completed by more than 300 staff, and it offers AI scholarships for postgraduates.
- Inside local bank's AI engine: From smarter security to personalised banking, at scale (OCBC branded content)
- Transforming the banking experience with generative AI (Future of Finance 2024)
- Generative AI, the buddy that OCBC taps to deliver better experiences for customers and employees (Future of Finance 2023)
- OCBC's new generative AI chatbot is boosting the bank's productivity across departments and locations
- Arta expands AI wealth platform globally, onboards Bank of Singapore and Hong Leong Bank
- OCBC Unifies Global Finance with Oracle Fusion Cloud ERP
- AI ethics toolkit updated to include more assessment components
- Global players look to create baseline to evaluate generative AI applications
- MAS launches AI risk toolkit for financial institutions with case studies from DBS, peers
- MAS partners finance industry players to develop safeguards for AI agents
- OCBC deepens research in Quantum Technology with NUS, NTU and SMU
- SG196702A1 - A deposit box
- OCBC to deploy generative AI bot for all 30,000 staff globally
- OCBC is first Singapore bank to roll out generative AI chatbot to all employees globally
- OCBC Annual Report 2025
- Annual Report 2024 | Creating Value Through AI, Transforming for the Future (undated page, retrieved 2026-10-05)
- Singaporean bank growing its AI team with Standard Chartered MDs
When OCBC moves on AI, you'll read it here first.
when one of the banks we cover moves on AI, it is in the next morning's brief · six sourced stories · 7 am ET · free
plus every tracker, bank and agent page update, the morning after · leave any morning