ABSA will go live with its mobile application, Hello Money, on smartphone devices within the next 30 days as it tries to open up “more channels” for its customers.
Speaking at the Future Banking Africa 2013 conference in Sandton, Johannesburg, Evans Munyuki, head of IT: retail and business bank (RBB) in architecture and innovationof ABSA and Barclays Africa, presented the bank’s theories on managing the different channels customers come into contact with their services.
Munyuki said: “The internet is the cheapest channel for the bank to render services to the client. The branch is the most expensive.
“The mobile app is right around the corner, within the next 30 days.”
Research shows internet banking can cost the merchant up to 43 per cent less than doing it through the branch.
Little more information was given regarding Hello Money, other than it will be available on all smartphone platforms.
The motivation for the application was highlighted when Munyuki said only 20 per cent of an African population of almost one billion has a bank account. Seven hundred million people, however, have a SIM card, 100 million of which are tablets or smartphones.
Munyuki said: “When I see a mobile I see a personal bank account in someone’s pocket.”
As well as the imminent mobile application, Munyuki said its staff were able to access those users who are more remote by heading into the field with an iPad.
“An ABSA agent can go sit under a tree and open their iPad and open an account for a customer.”
Technology implementation is not being restricted just to remote or mobile users however. It is also being used, through devices such as biometric registering, to quicken the experience in branch.
“Anything that we do in the branch, for it to be much more efficient needs to have technology enablement,” Munyuki said.
