The adoption numbers behind the phase-out
As MAS and the Association of Banks in Singapore continue the phased replacement of SMS OTP with digital tokens — following the login phase-out in Q3 2025 and the transaction-authorisation phase-out now underway — adoption of digital tokens is already reported at 60% to 90% among customers of DBS, OCBC, and UOB. That's a majority of active banking customers at the three largest local banks already using app-based token authentication rather than SMS.
This adoption curve is the reason the phase-out has been able to move as fast as it has: MAS isn't withdrawing SMS OTP from a customer base that's unprepared for the alternative — it's withdrawing it from a base where the alternative is already the norm.
Singapore also has five fully digital banks with no phone branch network at all
It's worth noting this shift is happening alongside a parallel structural trend: Singapore now has five MAS-licensed digital banks — Trust Bank, GXS Bank, MariBank, ANEXT Bank, and Green Link Digital Bank — none of which were built around a traditional phone banking channel in the first place. GXS and MariBank operate as full digital banks serving both retail and business customers; Trust Bank holds a full bank licence. All deposits at these institutions remain protected up to S$100,000 under the Singapore Deposit Insurance Corporation scheme, same as the incumbents.
These banks were digital-native from day one, so the "phase-out" story doesn't apply to them in the same way — there was no SMS OTP-based phone channel to begin with. Their existence does, however, reinforce the direction the whole sector is moving: app-first authentication as the default, not the fallback.
What this means if you still prefer calling your bank
None of this eliminates phone banking. What it changes is the authentication layer underneath it. If you're one of the roughly 10-40% of customers at the major banks who haven't activated a digital token yet, expect more prompts — and eventually requirements — to do so before your next phone-based request, including an annual fee waiver call.
The practical takeaway: activating your digital token now, before you need to make a call, removes a friction point at the exact moment you're trying to reach a retention agent. Doing it in advance, rather than being walked through activation live on a call, also tends to be faster.
Phone-based waiver requests aren't going away — the authentication under them is changing
It's worth restating a distinction that gets lost in coverage of this shift: the retention pathway, the TRV-based approval logic, and the ability to call in and ask for a fee waiver are not being retired. What's changing is purely the identity verification step. A well-prepared customer — token activated, mobile number current — experiences essentially no friction from this transition.
The clawbacks.ai approach
Our AI voice agent adapts to each bank's current authentication requirements automatically, whether that's a legacy PIN-based flow or an app-based token confirmation. You register your card and mobile number once; we handle whatever the bank's IVR asks for on the day of the call.