Banking Goes Mobile

Westpac Simon PomeroySimon Pomeroy, head of digital and customer experience at Westpac NZ, looks at the changing landscape of consumer banking.

Consumer uptake of new technology is impacting traditional business models around the world, and banking is no exception. The United Kingdom is renowned internationally as an innovative digital hub, and during a visit to London in October this year, I met with a number of banks about the technical challenges the industry is facing. No matter where you live in the developed world, the issues customers have with banks are common and research shows that 71 per cent of people want to be able to do everything on a mobile device that they can on a personal computer.

The challenge UK banks face is how they move from a branch to a digital environment, while at the same time keeping the customer experience seamless. At Westpac, we follow a strategy that is based on the premise that the customer is mobile and technology is the enabler. We still believe banking is about relationships and people, so everything we do is personalised, relevant, targeted, and always human-backed.

Responsive platform
To ensure Westpac delivers the best digital banking experience in New Zealand, we are rolling out a new fully responsive online banking platform, meaning that no matter what internet enabled device customers use – desktop, smartphone or tablet – they will have access to full online banking capabilities, including being able to acquire and amend products and services. What this means is that the vast majority of customer needs can be met online via any smart device eliminating “app fever” or the need to create apps for the most basic of tasks.

Westpac is recognised for its approach and performance internationally, and our Cash Tank app has been replicated by banks in the US, Asia and Europe. We were the first bank to deliver this app which gives your account balance at the touch of a button without needing to log in to your bank account.

In New Zealand, Cash Tank gets 3.7m balance requests each month, and has reduced the amount of calls to our contact centre. This has allowed us to redirect staff to more proactive outbound calling. Cash Tank is also available on the Sony SmartWatch, a device that is fast becoming the next frontier of app development.

Last year, we embarked on a crowdsourced app campaign. Three New Zealanders were chosen to work with Westpac and their apps will go to market in early 2014. We are currently crowdsourcing mobile apps by developers and designers in UK via The Westpac Global App Challenge – UK, tapping into the innovation in the UK that is gaining global attention.

The winner will receive NZD$20,000 (£10,000) and a contribution of up to NZD$20,000 towards an adventure holiday in New Zealand. In addition, the winner will retain intellectual property rights to the completed app and be able to commercialise it outside of Australasia.

Mobile banking boom
It’s predicted that within three years, over 1bn people world-wide will use their smartphone to do their mobile banking, and 200m people will use a tablet. In New Zealand, innovation is part of the Kiwi DNA and we’ve adopted mobile banking seven times faster than online banking at a similar stage. We get more customer visits to online banking in a day than we get calls to our contact centre in a month, and visits to our busiest branch in a year. Now, 35 per cent of our active online customers are accessing banking via mobile, and we’ve seen a 457 per cent increase in mobile logins over last 12 months.

So, with all this digital and mobile innovation, what is the future of the branch? Well, one thing is for certain – the branch will always have a role to play in banking, although the type of service that is provided will evolve. Already, we are seeing branches transform from transaction hubs to advisory centres, and that trend appears likely to continue.

The change that is occurring in banking, as in the other traditional big models, is being driven by the customer, and decisions in meeting that challenge will have flow-on effects for years to come. It’s an exciting and challenging time, not to be feared, but embraced. For Westpac, through our Global App Challenge we’re interested in seeing how innovation here might help us Down-Under.

Simon Pomeroy is head of digital and customer experience at Westpac NZ