It is important not to compromise normal banking practices as banking goes digital, says Standard Bank's Pat Thompson-Crawley.
Security should remain a top priority in electronic banking, as banks simply cannot risk the millions of rands being processed over their digital networks.
Technology should also be in place to alert banks about unusual movements of money, which can be indications of criminal activity.
Thompson-Crawley, Standard Bank's senior manager commercial banking (Virtual Bank), was formerly the head of electronic banking services.
The division was responsible for moving the bank's 15 000 personal clients on Telkom's Beltel network, as well as its corporate clients on the Corporate Access Terminal System, to Internet-based systems - Best 2000 and CATS 3.
Thompson-Crawley says that after it was intimated that Beltel was closing down, a team went overseas to investigate available platforms. However, no program suited Standard's needs, so the IT staff developed a new system.
"It was quite a huge task," says Thompson-Crawley. "It took a year to develop. We had to have it done by October and it was completed successfully.
"We underestimated the user-friendliness of Beltel so it was quite a challenge dealing with different browsers and different ISPs [Internet service providers] when Beltel was in essence a dedicated network.
"One of the challenges was that Java programming was still new, so the developers had to learn as they went along."
She says the bank was careful to make the system secure, using 128-bit encryption as well as Standard's own firewalls.
Thompson-Crawley says the high incidence of crime is driving companies into online banking more quickly as they do not want cash on their premises.
Standard will also look at Wireless Application Protocol for its electronic banking clients. "We want our clients to be able to access us as easily as possible, of course without compromising normal banking practices."
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