20Twenty preparing to re-open

By Paul Vecchiatto, ITWeb Cape Town correspondent

Cape Town, 26 Feb 2004

Online bank 20Twenty has doubled its staff complement to 150 over the past three months as it prepares to re-open its portal and launch new products.

The bank, which has an online presence and a single product, will also revamp its computer systems, as they have not had a significant upgrade since its original parent Saambou went under two years ago.

British bank Standard Chartered bought 20Twenty in August for $10 million from the curator of Saambou.

20Twenty has developed cult-like following, with its 40 000 customers remaining loyal despite it being in the hands of liquidators for some time.

Christo Davel, head of 20Twenty and Standard Chartered`s SA retail operations, says his bank is still coping with the huge intake of staff, most of whom were recruited locally.

"Our systems are based on Microsoft products, and so finding the necessary skills has not been that difficult. What we really looked for were people who could think 'out of the box`."

Davel says 20Twenty has warded off a number of hack attacks, none of which managed to penetrate the bank`s security systems. "The banks co-operate well with each other on this and we have had no breach of our security."

20Twenty says it received 4 000 job applications once its recruitment campaign got under way in October.

Davel says the bank is on track to open its doors to new customers in late April or early May. However, there will be no celebratory fireworks.

"We are adopting a gradual approach to giving our customers what they want and we are encouraging them to tell us what they want," he says.

20Twenty has opened a "how banking should be done" section on its site in order to solicit its customers` views on what they want from a bank.

"This part of the site is also open to suggestions and also to fostering the community spirit that has built up. This could also extend to future considerations of the software and systems we will use," Davel says.