{"id":27023,"date":"2012-11-21T11:11:43","date_gmt":"2012-11-21T09:11:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=27023"},"modified":"2012-11-21T13:30:38","modified_gmt":"2012-11-21T11:30:38","slug":"absa-treading-the-digital-path","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/banking\/27023\/absa-treading-the-digital-path\/","title":{"rendered":"Absa treading the digital path"},"content":{"rendered":"

Absa<\/a> will launch its first banking application early next year and has laid out its vision of using innovation as a weapon to grow and defend market share.<\/p>\n

The banking application is currently being tested by about 100 staff before its launch in the first quarter of next year\u201a said Adrian Vermooten<\/a>\u201a head of digital banking at Absa.<\/p>\n

Vermooten and the head of the consumer banking unit\u201a Simon Just<\/a>\u201a met the media in Cape Town to brief them on Absa\u2019s innovations. These innovations include the launch of a new transactional banking product\u201a targeted at entry level career graduates and professionals\u201a called Potentiate.<\/p>\n

Absa estimated that up to 250\u201a000 of its 12 million customers can potentially be migrated to Potentiate. The bank is planning to target the more than 150\u201a000 graduates entering the job market annually.<\/p>\n

Potentiate has a first-to-market Titanium MasterCard embedded with the tap-and-go payment technology that allows a customer to pay for low-value transactions\u201a and an LCD display providing a one-time PIN for added security when shopping on-line.<\/p>\n

Just said that this is merely the start of a \u201cfive-year journey\u201d by Absa to introduce innovations and ensure the Barclays<\/a>-owned group is not left behind by rivals\u201a some of whom where first to market with banking applications.<\/p>\n

Absa said it will announce at the end of the month (November) a strategic partnership with an unnamed organisation to introduce \u201ca South African first\u201d in mobile payment acceptance technology.<\/p>\n

It said that the \u201cgame changing\u201d technology will create new opportunities in the payments acceptance space and \u201cis set to fundamentally change the way that merchants in the commercial and enterprise segments make payments.\u201d<\/p>\n

Heated competition<\/h3>\n

Just said that Absa has never felt pressurised to follow rivals despite perceptions that it has been a laggard in introducing a banking application.<\/p>\n

Rather\u201a he said that Absa has been quietly implementing an integrated digital strategy that includes mobile and online banking and introducing a new generation of ATMs with enhanced cash acceptance and security features.<\/p>\n

“Throughout 2013 we will begin to roll out a lot of value-added products. For us it\u2019s a five-year journey and Absa is starting to convey we are bringing value and choice\u201a” said Just.<\/p>\n

Absa\u2019s innovation strategy proves the war for customers among the big banks has gone beyond them claiming the supremacy of their products or of their customer service. The banks are embracing the increasing convergence between mobile and banking technology to innovate.<\/p>\n

First National Bank (FNB) was first to market with its banking application in July last year (2011). It has also since introduced other digital and mobile banking products\u201a and has a three-year pipeline of more innovations\u201a according to FNB CEO, Michael Jordaan.<\/p>\n

Standard Bank and Nedbank have also launched banking applications. Like FNB\u201a Standard Bank is now also selling smart phones.<\/p>\n

Just said that Absa is investing in mobile payment solutions which bankers see as the future for banking. Insiders say that Absa is working with Barclays to extend the Pingit international mobile money transfer service recently launched in Kenya.<\/p>\n

Vermooten said further that Absa will build a new payment ecosystem in partnership with local mobile phone companies to ensure customers will be gradually migrated to payment technologies such as the tap-and-go method.<\/p>\n

Just admitted that rivals could easily launch their own version of innovations, but he believes differentiation is key so that customers can see value which will make it harder for rivals to poach them.<\/p>\n

Vermooten said that Absa is also revamping its over 8\u201a500 ATMs in a three-year programme, costing more than R450 million.<\/p>\n

More than 1\u201a000 ATMs have been installed and Absa is also installing units to provide three-month bank-stamped statements, amongst other services.<\/p>\n

Absa is also migrating customers to digital channels such as mobile and online banking. The bank has more than four-million mobile bank customers.<\/p>\n

Related articles<\/h3>\n

Absa intros LCD, NFC card<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

Absa mobile banking a hit<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

No Absa app this year<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

We lead in online banking: Absa<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

Absa banking app \u2013 last out the door<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

Absa Internet banking downtime: there and back again<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

Absa online banking services down<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Absa will launch its first banking application early next year and has laid out its vision of using innovation as a weapon to grow and defend market share.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":15479,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_sma_x_autopost_status":"idle","_sma_x_autopost_error":"","_sma_x_post_id":"","_sma_x_attempts":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[961],"tags":[29,3912,2003,26,773,1230,4655],"class_list":["post-27023","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-banking","tag-absa","tag-adrian-vermooten","tag-banking-app","tag-headline","tag-mobile-banking","tag-online-banking","tag-simon-just"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27023","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=27023"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27023\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":27035,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27023\/revisions\/27035"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15479"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27023"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27023"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27023"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}