Local banks moving beyond physical dongles to implement digital tokens

Say goodbye to your physical dongles from DBS and UOB — the two local banks are going digital, and it’s a timely move that comes more than a decade after those hardware tokens were issued. Come next year, you’ll no longer have to carry the dongles around for banking transactions ‘cuz they will be replaced by digital tokens that are a whole lot more fuss-free and convenient.

Over 200,000 DBS and 7,000 UOB customers underwent a successful trial run for the digital tokens since last December — as such, DBS will stop issuing physical dongles in the second quarter of next year. Its new digital token will act as a security enhancement on its digibank mobile app, and it will be issued to DBS’ wealth customers by next month, before gradually be given to regular online banking users. The hassle-free change requires customers to simply log into their digibank app and do a one-time set-up of the digital token using the physical dongle for authentication.

In case you lose your phone and start to freak out about your bank details being stolen, just download the digibank app on a new device and remove the access for your previous phone. Plus, the app is accessible only with a user ID or PIN or fingerprint, so it’s pretty safe. We think.

As for UOB, the bank will implement digital tokens beyond its Mighty app to its Internet banking platform by year-end. Singapore’s third local bank, OCBC, is looking at biometrics technology for customer authentication.