Absa has extended its mobile banking service NotifyMe, as customers can now use their cellphones to request balance enquires and purchase prepaid cellular airtime.
Absa launched its cellphone banking capability in 2000 and, eight years later, the financial services giant has seen over 3.5 million customers interacting with NotifyMe.
Christo Vrey, managing executive of Absa Digital Channels, says the solution enables users to receive their bank statements and conveniently top-up their airtime using their cellphones whenever they want. Vrey claims the global market is seeing a high demand for this service, which improves control and ease-of-use in banking.
Adrian Vermooten, head of Absa's mobile channel, notes that balance enquiries, mini-bank statements and pre-paid cellular airtime are the most in-demand transactions in the financial market and Absa wanted to expand and simplify the service.
“Absa is taking its customers on a step-by-step journey, from receiving simple balance enquires to complete cellphone banking. Customers who are not normally accustomed to interacting with technology can slowly gain trust and become familiar with the service.”
Vermooten adds that 650 000 of Absa's customers use full-blown Absa mobile banking with full functionality, such as the ability to pay beneficiaries and make and receive transactions.
“Sixty percent of Absa's customers are mass-market flexi-base type customers who want to be in control of their finances through their mobile devices. The service is a strong value proposition and we're seeing the benefits and demands of this service as its Absa's largest selling product. We have sales peaking at 200 000 new subscribers per month for the service.”
No fixed monthly fee
The service is available immediately and works through any handset and over any network. Vermooten says the only prerequisite is that the user needs to be an Absa NotifyMe customer. The customer would need to physically go to a branch and register for the primary service, which is configurable. NotifyMe does not have a fixed monthly fee, but rather operates as a pay-as-you-go service.
The technology used to implement the service is USSD - unstructured supplementary service data. This means that once users are registered as NotifyMe customers they then need to dial *120*2272# and register for the new service. There is an account activation delay of 24 hours for security purposes. Users can sign in with their PIN code and the requested information will be sent immediately to them via SMS, at a cost of 45c per transaction. There is a cap on airtime of R60 for a single transaction and R300 a month.
Vermooten says: “USSD technology is globally becoming a more acceptable form of securing mobile banking. It also has an encrypted network barrier. The cellphone will never show the user's account number. Enquiries can only be done through the user's cellphone.”
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