Bloomberg is reporting that Overseas-Chinese Banking Corporation (OCBC) has delayed the start of trading at its stand-alone Internet bank finatiQ, as the Singaporean bank scales back a S$1 billion Internet investment strategy.
OCBC's standalone bank finatiQ was founded in April 2000, employing about 60 staff. Although it was to have rolled out a new product every six to eight weeks, the unit has been quiet for the past six months, reports Bloomberg, and is behind schedule in introducing online share trading, third-party mortgages and credit cards.
In a written response to Bloomberg queries, OCBC insisted that finatiQ remains an integral part of its business and will roll out new products and services in due course.
The bank, which offers Web banking to current account customers, recently wound up finixis, an online service for corporate customers, and Internet investment business eVentures. Last year, it pulled out of a A$100 million investment in a joint venture pan-Asian Internet bank with ANZ.