All articles by Duygu Tavan
Duygu Tavan
BBVA goes live with m-payments for iPhone
BBVA has joined the ranks of banks who offer mobile banking apps with the introduction of a native iPhone and iPod touch app in its home market. The Mobile BBVA app will enable users to transfer money to another person by just using the receivers mobile phone number. The receive will get a text message with a code, which they can type into a BBVA ATM in Spain to withdraw the fund.
Thai state banks pool ATM network
ATM pooling has become the latest trend as banks try to curb operating costs at banks and three Thai banks have now teamed up to offer free ATM services in the country. Government Savings Bank, Government Housing Bank and Islamic Bank of Thailand commenced the free ATM service on 31 May, but insisted that they had no intention of enticing other banks customers to swap banks. The deal between the state-owned banks, who have a 2,700 units strong ATM network between them, now enables all bank customers to transfer funds for free between accounts held at any of the three banks and offers free cash withdrawals.
Scotiabank H111 net income up 30%
Scotiabank, Canada’s third largest bank by assets, has posted positive and strong results for the first half of the year: Scotias net income in the second quarter was C$1.54bn ($1.59bn) a 40% increase over the same period a year ago. Cumulative net income for the six months to end-April was C$2.6bn, 30% higher than the corresponding period a year ago.
Bank Austria launches three websites for disabled people
Bank Austria, the Austrian unit of Italian UniCredit Group, has gone live with three individual websites specifically build for the visually impaired, deaf people and those with learning difficulties. Bank Austria called the three news websites barrier-free and said that each provided information on all the banks products and services. Bank Austrias traditional website now includes a barrier-free link that will take people to the audio website, the website which supports sign language and to the website in simple German.
Banks still not get it right: customer dissatisfaction rises
Yet another survey is highlighting the dissatisfaction levels of customers with their banks and urging the institutions to finally get the message: listen to your customer and enhance your service and product offering. This time, a survey by global management consulting, technology services and outsourcing company Accenture focused on the UK and Ireland, home to banking heavy-weights Barclays, Lloyds TSB and Royal Bank of Scotland and the results are nothing new, actually: The gist was that UK and Irish banks continue to dissatisfy their customers, with almost a fifth of retail banking customers (17%) reporting a complaint in 2010, compared with 14% in 2007.
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Germany’s Sparkassen take on retailers
Heinrich Haasis, president of the German Savings Bank Association, the umbrella organisation compromising 429 autonomous Sparkassen and 192 other institutions, tells Duygu Tavan about the groups investment strategies to maintain its mighty status in Germanys increasingly competitive retail banking space. They have a branch network of 15,700 units across Germany, serve 50 million customers and, with a de-centralised banking approach via 429 autonomous savings banks, are physically closer to their customers than rivals such as Commerzbank and Deutsche Bank.
New generation of innovation at Ziraat
In the second part of RBIs series of interviews with senior Turkish bankers, Soner Canko, assistant general manager of the countrys biggest lender, Ziraat Bank, outlines the banks investment strategies and discusses with Duygu Tavan how the bank will differentiate itself in Turkeys cut-throat banking sector.
Multichannel distribution key to growth
Five reports published since the last time RBI went to press consider and analyse different aspects of the changing landscape of retail banking, with particular focus on the growing importance and influence of alternative delivery channels for banks retail banking operations May has been an insightful month for banks: five reports, three of them by the European Financial Marketing Association (EFMA), one by TNS and another by First Data and Market Strategies provide perceptive statistics on the market conditions both in Europe and worldwide.
Bridging the value propositions gap
In the complex and fast-evolving world of mobile payments, it can be hard for vendors to differentiate themselves from competitors vying to get a slice of the lucrative market. From a banks perspective, the biggest challenges are meeting customer requirements and figuring out whether to build relevant software in-house or turn to a vendor to capture customer satisfaction when demands and attitudes are still evolving
PayPal not worried about Wells Fargo, BofA, JPMorgan Chase JV
Following the news that three of America’s biggest banks – Wells Fargo, Bank of America, JPMorgan Chase – have gone live with a joint online payments venture, one of the biggest rivals for the joint venture, PayPal, remains confident.