All articles by Ronan Mccaughey
Ronan Mccaughey
CBA launches m-banking app
Commonwealth Bank of Australia launched its peer-to-peer mobile banking and payments platform, Commbank Kaching, in December 2011, and the app has already been downloaded 75,000 times In December 2011, Commonwealth bank of Australia (CBA) one of Australias Big Four lenders entered new territory by launching its first peer-to-peer mobile banking and payments platform, Commbank Kaching.
OCBC unveils intuitive account opening
OCBC has revised its account opening system and process in a S$20m ($15.5m) investment to make banking easier and more intuitive. The development is based on findings of consumer insight studies and cross-industry mystery shopping exercises. The study found that speedy account opening is not the most striking differentiator for customers. More important is the customers feeling that their time is used efficiently. As a result, OCBCs new system is designed to minimise the time spend on form filling, KYC and other formalities, while at the same time maximising customer interaction and customer engagement.
Russia’s Sberbank sees opportunities in Asia
Sberbanks deputy chairman Sergey Gorkov has emphasised the Russian banks interest in expanding its operations into Asia, and particularly India.
Game on’ for Kiwibank’s YouTube campaign
New Zealands Kiwibank has launched a gaming-styled online campaign that is hosted on a bespoke YouTube channel and is likened to a spy film to encourage consumers to switch to the bank. The campaign is built around a loose narrative of an elite team within Kiwibank called Green Ops whose mission is to help rescue customers from bad banking experiences.
Crisis? What crisis?!
Citis head of consumer banking for Asia-Pacific, Jonathan Larsen, is relatively sanguine about the myriad of risks facing the retail banking industry in Asia-Pacific He tells Ronan McCaughey why Citi believes its share of the total revenue available in Asia-Pacific is merely a starting point. Listening to Jonathan Larsen, Citis head of consumer banking for Asia-Pacific, it is easy to forget that stock markets around the world have been in panic mode for much of August, with banking stocks badly-hit.
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Frank talk on innovation
Kenneth Tan, head of debit cards, tells Ronan McCaughey about the banks potential foray into mobile payments and the strategy behind its newly launched programme targeting the youth sector.
ANZ sets out technology focus
Connectivity, customer-centricity and standardisation are key technology principles driving ANZs strategy as a super regional player, said the banks chief information officer and deputy CEO. Anne Weatherston, chief information officer at ANZ, and Graham Hodges, deputy CEO at the bank, said the business and IT benefits of connectivity, customer centricity and standardisation include a joined-up ANZ customer experience and real-time business analytics. RBI’s sister publication BPA reports that overthe past 18 months Weatherston and Hodges said ANZs technology strategy has been focused on facilitating its transition from a domestic to regional player in Asia-Pacific.
Thai banking sector branches out
Senior banking executives in Thailand have revealed that a key theme for the sector in 2011 is to expand the number of bank branches in the country. Karen Campbell, executive vice-president and head of retail product distribution at Bangkok Bank, told Banking & Payments Asia that the time is right for the financial institution to expand its branch network in order to service the needs of the countrys emerging middle-class segment.
Oracle: make ‘smarter’ use of social media
Banks should avoid using websites like Facebook to befriend customers and instead exploit social media to proactively monitor and respond to customers feedback, Oracle urged. Thesenior director for Oracles financial service and global business unit in Asia-Pacific and Japan, Lance Tay, argued that such a strategy would help banks to manage their reputation and improve the level of customer service they provide. Speaking to RBI’s sister title Banking & Payments Asia(BPA), Tay said one bank in Singapore, which he declined to name, is an active user of social media, but in his view that banks social media strategy is probably misplaced investment.
DBS targets Indian expansion
Singapore-based lenderDBS has applied to the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) to increase its number of branches in India from 12 to 16 by the end of 2011. DBS is alreadythe largest Singaporean bank in the Indian market and DBS’s subsidiary in India has been the third largest revenue contributor to DBS Group, after Singapore and Hong Kong for the past few years.