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Published June 1, 2011

At OCBC, HDB loan documents are Crystal Mark clear

Bank is now refining e-mail messages, letters, SMS as well

By MAXIE AW YEONG


FORGET about confusing, jargon-filled HDB mortgage application documents - OCBC Bank recently attained the Crystal Mark for making its HDB Home Loan documents clear and understandable for customers.

The Singapore bank is the first financial institution in South-east Asia to receive the Crystal Mark of Approval from Plain English Campaign, a global leader in advocating plain English. This is in line with the bank's goals to help customers in financial decisions with clear, relevant and timely information.

Banks have been criticised for their formal style and use of jargon, which often confuse customers. The call for clearer and simpler documents heightened during the recent financial crisis, where many retail investors suffered losses from buying financial products that they did not fully understand.

OCBC started with its home mortgage loan documents, as getting a mortgage is monumental and once-in-a-lifetime for most people, according to head of group customer service at OCBC David McQuillen.

The bank has received six Crystal Marks for its set of HDB mortgage documents, which include the Letter of Declaration, Variable Letter of Offer, and the Terms and Conditions. With this set of documents accredited, it has become the first company worldwide to receive the Crystal Mark for all the documents of the mortgage process.

To attain that, a clause like 'subject to CPF Board's approval, your CPF usage shall be as follows', for example, was changed to 'as long as the CPF board approves, you may use your CPF funds as follows'.

Mr McQuillen said that while the original clause may already be quite straightforward, 'we're looking at everything and saying, 'Can we make this easier to understand?'

OCBC is happy to have set the benchmark for others to follow, with Mr McQuillen saying that being accredited with the Crystal Mark is 'a defining moment for us'.

With the Crystal Mark in place on the HDB Home Loan documents, OCBC is looking to put more documents through the Crystal Mark process. Currently, it is refining its e-mail messages, letters and Short Message Service texts to customers.

'We will continue to build on this and continue to work on creating documents that are easy to understand,' Mr McQuillen said.