Why Singaporeans are okay with locking away over $4b of their money

Customers can only access locked’ money with a physical card or by visiting a branch.

- Frances Gagua

With the number of financial scams on the rise, banks have rolled out a feature enabling their customers to “lock” their money via the Money Lock Feature, barring the funds from being used, withdrawn, or transferred online. Some banks–notably OCBC– took the extra step to not allow funds to be unlocked via their apps.

This comes after a series of phishing scams rocked one of Singapore's largest banks by assets, leading for rules on clickable links and transfer notifications to be revised. Default fund transfer values were made even smaller at just S$200.

Locked money also cannot be withdrawn or transferred via the online banking portal or through ATMs. Unlocking can only be done via ATM with a physical card, or via visiting a physical branch.

Over $4b locked up

The extra friction may be the “harshest” yet in terms of accessibility, but if reception was any indication, Singaporeans are more than willing to take on the extra friction for protection.Just three months into its launch, the feature has been activated by 38,000 accounts in Singapore, with a total value S$3.2b locked up, according to data gathered by the Association of Banks in Singapore (ABS).