Westpac is tipped to launch a new mobile banking platform in the Solomon Islands in October, fulfilling its strategy to make banking easier by using best-in-kind technology that runs easily on all mobile handsets, regardless of their make or model.
“There's nothing more powerful than an idea whose time has arrived. For the Pacific, the big idea is mobile banking and the time is now,” said Kutila Pinto, General Manager, Westpac Solomon Islands.
“We’ re incredibly excited about unveiling our mobile banking service in the Solomon Islands and know our customers will benefit from having banking delivered to their fingertips on a platform that’s both convenient and secure,” Mr Pinto added.
Gary Collins, Head of Mobile Banking for Westpac Pacific, said Westpac has taken its time to get the product absolutely right.
“Our team has working hard to ensure our mobile banking platform uses more adaptable technology than our competitors and delivers the kind of features and services that will delight our customers, without compromising on security,” said Mr Collins.
“Specifically, we are building our product on Unstructured Supplementary Service Data (USSD), which can work easily across all mobile phone handsets and needs no additional downloads or 3G data to work. Essentially, if you can make a phone call you can also access these great mobile banking features!”
Westpac’s new mobile banking platform is also highly secure and features a PIN-controlled access to all functions, Mr Collins added. “We knew our customers would value security so we made this a priority,” he said. The product will also offer easy to use self help functions for customers wishing to make small alterations like PIN changes.”
Westpac’s mobile banking product will provide the following features:
Ability to view all personal accounts and conduct balance enquiries
Ability to view detailed mini- statements available for all accounts
Ability to pay other Westpac account holders
Ability to pay customer s of other banks
Ability to top up your mobile phone or your friend or family’s mobile phone directly from your bank account
Ability to change your PIN
Added security with the ability to call Westpac’s call centre for support.
In addition, customers won’t have to wait to access all functions, nor will they need to fill out any forms or visit any branches to sign up to use the service, and users can also choose whether they would prefer to do their banking in English or Tok Pisin.
“We want to ensure our new mobile banking product is as easy to use as possible, so we’re giving customers the opportunity to sign up simply by registering their mobile phone with us and ‘opting in’ when they receive a text message inviting them to use mobile banking,” Mr Collins said.
Westpac plans to launch mobile banking platform in the Solomon Islands next month before rolling out the product in PNG, Fiji, Vanuatu, Tonga and Samoa.
Solomon Star