All articles by Meghna Mukerjee
Meghna Mukerjee
Citi Foundation to offer financial literacy course in Australia
Citibanks Citi Foundation has partnered with Australian non-profit childrens charity The Smith Family to deliver the first accredited course in financial literacy to students in Australia, with the aim of improving financial literacy outcomes for disadvantaged children. The course will be rolled out in 2012 to 470 students aged 15-18 years across 16 communities in Victoria and in New South Wales in Australia, as part of the new Money for Life initiative. This is the only financial literacy course in Australia that can be used as a credit towards a students standard 12 school qualification. The US-based Citi Foundation made a 10 year, $200m global commitment to financial education in 2004, and the Money for Life initiative is a perfect fit for Citi Foundat support, according to the lender.
SunGard launches integrated online and mobile banking platform Ambit MyMoney
Pennsylvania-headquartered software and technology services company SunGard has launched Ambit MyMoney, an integrated online and mobile banking platform, to help banks capitalise on the increasing global adoption of smart mobile devices by creating a consistent and customisable mobile banking experience. Launched on 23 November, Ambit MyMoney aims to help banks provide seamless online and mobile banking services to retail and business customers through a variety of channels, alongside including integration to social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter. SunGards Ambit solution offers personal financial management (PFM) tools that aim to enable bank customers to share financial savings goals over social media channels with selected friend groups. The Ambit tools also include modules for secure feedback and a centralised message centre that is accessible across all channels.
Halifax launches mobile banking app
Lloyds Banking Group subsidiary Halifax has launched its mobile banking app that has already gained the number one position under Finance apps on the iTunes App Store, according to the lender. David Nicholson, group director for Halifax Community Bank, said, that apps that provide customers with everything they need in one place are more popular than ever now. This is another example of Halifax delivering new and innovative ways to support our customers, ensuring advancements in technology can be used to improve our customers experience. According to Halifax, the new mobile banking app has been launched in response to the fast-growing use of Smartphone across the UK as current research shows that more than 36% of UK consumers use a smartphone compared to less than one in 10 (9%) two years ago.
Small banks and building societies outperform big retail lenders on NCSI-UK
Customer satisfaction with retail banks in the UK has risen by 1% to 72%, and the aggregate of smaller banks and building societies has outperformed the industry average with 75%, according to the latest National Customer Satisfaction Index (NCSI-UK), in partnership with American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI) and CFI. James Rudd, managing director of CFI Group UK, said, Smaller institutions and new entrants havent been able to compete with the big banks in the past, but the current climate may be creating a perfect storm. HSBC including its first direct subsidiary has the highest customer satisfaction score of the major high street banks. This is the fourth consecutive year that HSBC ranked on top, however the customer satisfaction levels have lessened from 78% in 2010 to 74% in 2011.
BankMuscat plans to launch sharia-compliant banking arm in Oman
Omans largest bank by assets, BankMuscat, plans to set up a sharia-compliant banking arm, and operate under the Meethaq brand name. BankMuscats sharia-compliant banking arm will function independently from its conventional banking arm. A three-member sharia board has already been appointed by BankMuscat. Oman open dorrs to Islamic banking in May for the first time, in an attempt to keep investment funds in the Gulf state and grab a share of the rapidly growing industry.
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Out of thin air
It aims to infuse an air of freshness to the banking sector in the Czech Republic, and having adopted bright green as its signature colour, the newly launched Air Bank seems set, quite visibly, to do exactly that. On 22 November, Air Bank, a new retail bank that is owned by PPF Group, launched operations in the Czech Republic. Already, the Prague-headquartered retail bank has introduced 12 branches across seven cities. Air Bank has 5,000 active users, as of 15 December. Like most things about Air Bank, the branches, in terms of both design and ideology,are novel.
CBA launches mobile banking app Commbank Kaching
Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CBA) has launched its latest mobile banking app Commbank Kaching, that aims to enable CBA customers to make peer-to-peer payments using a persons mobile phone number or email address. CBAs also plans to extend the functionality of Commbank Kaching to social networks through a users Facebook friends The Commbank Kaching app also allows users to pay using contactless technology at MasterCard PayPass terminals. Executive general manager cards, payments and retail strategy, David Lindberg, said the arrival of Commbank Kaching heralds the beginning of a new and exciting journey in mobile payments and NFC technology.
Fraud prevention measures key focus for banks in 2012
A greater take up of electronic identity verification can be expected across Europe in 2012, according to Tony Connell, head of identity and fraud at Experian data and decision support company. Connell told RBI at Experians 11th International Credit Risk Forum 2011 in Berlin, held on 24 November, that UK and Germany are hosting the highest proportion of phishing outside of the US, followed by Italy. This is happening on an increasingly global basis, adds Connell. According to Connell, there is less of an issue in the application side of fraud, particularly for internet banking. However, there is a lot we see around the identity aspect, says Connell. Currently, one of the big factors, from a customer perspective, around ID verifications is convenience, according to Connell.
HDFC Bank targets women with two new credit cards
If diamonds are a girls best friend, credit cards are not far behind. HDFC Bank, Indias second-largest private sector lender by market value after ICICI and the countrys largest issuer of credit cards, has launched two credit cards Solitaire Premium and Solitaire targeting women.HDFC Banks Solitaire Premium is the first premium womens card in the country.Parag Rao, business head for credit cards and merchant acquiring at HDFC Bank, says the lender identified a lack of any focused products in the womens segment. A lot of women are bread earners there is a penetration of more women in corporates, women entrepreneurs are coming up. This is a segment of the future, where if you focus well and have the right kind of proposition, we do believe, we can become dominant, says Rao.
Future of bank branches
Now more than ever, banks must recognise how to get value from their branch networks. Consumers in mature banking markets are visiting branches less frequently and when they do, it is to conduct low margin transactions. The number of in-branch transactions in mature markets has declined by a quarter over the last four years, from roughly 11,400 transactions per day (on average) in 2006 to 8,550 in 2010. The biggest obstacle facing retail banks is their underlying reluctance to rejuvenate the bedrock of their back-office operations. Innovations inevitably involve high costs and disruptions to customer service, and this is something banks are sensibly trying to avoid. When the current infrastructure was devised and rolled out, the banking habits of consumers were vastly different.