Standard Bank and MultiChoice have announced a new data and teletext channel on the DStv service that is a first step toward true Internet banking.
The service provides current DStv users with basic content focused on car and home finance and calculators that allow financing repayments to be determined. Standard Bank admits it is not the most impressive service around, but stresses that this is only phase one.
"We will start small, learn about the environment and expand our offering," says Carol Milemar, the bank's Internet channel manager.
The limited functionality, which allows only interaction with data transmitted to the decoder, is forced because there is no return path for data yet. MultiChoice plans to change that soon.
"We will have a return path by the fourth quarter this year and we will be launching new decoders in the second half of next year," says Ken Jarvis, MultiChoice's chief technology officer.
The company prefers the term "return path" because it is still considering different options. One is using Telkom fixed telephone lines, much like the Siyanda Internet service does. But Jarvis says MultiChoice has also been talking to cellular providers. "We will probably give users the choice between fixed or cellular return paths, because of the cost factor."
Existing M-Web infrastructure will be used to process and relay returning data, he says. This will put MultiChoice in a position to offer television Internet browsing, which Jarvis admits is a logical step. The processing power needed for decoders to also act as Web access devices will only become cost-effective by the middle of next year, he says. That coincides with the planned launch of a new decoder range.
However, Standard Bank is not waiting for interactive data in order to expand its services. Milemar says phase two, which is to include foreign exchange currency converters and share price bulletins, will be rolled out by July. Phase three is scheduled for the end of the year and will include full banking services, such as online finance applications and approval.
Peter Wharton-Hood, Standard Bank's director of global technology and e-commerce, says the TV banking service will have a limited audience. The bank has an Internet banking client base of less than 200 000 clients and he estimates growth at 7 000 users a month. TV banking will be smaller, but the possibilities are enticing and the costs are low. "The entire project costs us less than a million rand," says Wharton-Hood.
A completed data-loop opens the door for television shopping, or t-commerce. "There will be six times more buying through t-commerce than e-commerce," Jarvis predicts.
Standard Bank has a limited period of exclusivity for television banking services from MultiChoice, but neither party would quantify the period, describing it only as "short".
The service is available on DStv channel 142.
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