SAN DIEGO, Calif. - The ATM Industry Association honored Oversea-Chinese Banking Corporation Limited (OCBC Bank) with its Best Practice ATM Deployment Award in the financial institution category at its annual industry awards, given earlier this week at the ATMIA Self-Service Summit in San Diego.

This is the first time that am Asian bank has received the award. The Singapore-based financial services group has assets of S$118 billion (U.S. $69.8 billion) and operations in 14 countries and territories, including Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, China, Hong Kong SAR, Japan, Australia, the United Kingdom and United States.

ATMIA assessed OCBC Bank and other nominees based on the following criteria: long-term positive influence on improving the industry; excellence in technology or levels of service; leader in applying best practice; and measurable achievements producing tangible results.

The winning vote was cast by ATMIA's body of members from the U.S., Canada, Europe, Africa and Australia, who were "impressed by OCBC Bank's technologically progressive self-service strategy in linking its ATM network with its Customer Relationship Management ("CRM") strategy to deliver customised marketing messages and personalised customer experience on the ATM channel," said Mike Lee, ATMIA's CEO.

OCBC's targeted marketing efforts are made possible by NCR and its APTRA Relate software, an application designed to provide full integration between ATMs and CRM systems and deliver customized services. The ATM-based CRM approach taken by OCBC Bank enables customers to respond instantaneously at the ATM to marketing messages.

To further augment its ATM service offerings, OCBC Bank has made available the option for customers to customize and pre-set their frequent and usual ATM transaction choices such as the dollar amount and receipt option. With this personalized ATM feature, customers' transaction time can be reduced by up to 75 percent, according to a news release.

YY Chin, OCBC Bank's executive vice president and group head of Consumer Financial Services, said, "Winning this award is an independent reaffirmation of our efforts toward achieving business excellence and sustaining our competitive advantage through the use of technology. It is also a testimony of our ability to meet customers' needs and expectations. We are honored to win this award, and will continue our focus on delivering excellent product offerings and service to our customers, locally and regionally."

"We are proud to recognise for the first time ATM industry achievements in Asia. We look forward to deepening our involvement in Asian markets in future," said ATMIA's Lee. "ATMIA believes strongly that the ATM is a great CRM tool and OCBC has once again shown this to be true."