Standard Bank's aggressive marketing of its online banking services seems to be paying off, with the value of transactions surging by 164% to R11 billion last year.
The bank says that growth in online applications for the bank's products and services was up 120% and on average 126 000 unique users visited the site every month, representing an almost 40% growth from the previous year. The site served up just over 27 million page impressions.
"We have worked very hard to market the Web site as a simple, cost-effective alternative to having to go into a branch to apply for the bank's products and services," says Anthony Solomon, head of online business strategy for the Internet channel. "Our challenge is to ensure that we continue to meet our customers' needs."
During 2003, the online application forms were reconfigured to make them simpler and user-friendly. Further enhancements will be introduced this year.
Following the case of 10 Absa accounts being compromised to the tune of R600 000, Standard Bank issued its online clients free anti-virus and firewall software. It also recently launched a new home page to the Web site, which is user-friendly, enabling users to find information quicker.
Herman Singh, Standard Bank's director of direct channels, says the subscriber base grew 28% over the past year. "Approximately a third of our Internet banking base are MasterCard holders, ie they have used their credit card to register for our Internet banking facilities."
He says volumes are also up significantly on Standard Bank's online payment solution, Autopay, "by a few orders of magnitude".
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