STANDARD BANK
1. Instant messaging via WeChat and Facebook Messenger In an endeavour to provide an unmatched level of personal service, Standard Bank offers an instant messaging service – 24 hours a day, seven days a week – to Private and Prestige customers. “This enables us to support our customers in all banking circumstances, any time of the day, anywhere they are. Instant messaging volumes around the world have surpassed SMS usage and are continuing to grow. Within a few years, it will probably overtake many of today’s key communication mediums, and Standard Bank plans to be at the forefront of this technology trend,” Vuyo Mpako, the head of digital channels and eCommerce at Standard Bank, says. 2. Kidz Banking app The soon-to-be-launched Standard Bank Kidz Banking app is a first-ofits kind smartphone and tablet app: a game-like, vividly animated banking app designed for children between the ages of six and 11. Engaging and entertaining, the app guides users on money-management concepts such as earning, saving and spending. Integration into the parent’s banking app gives an adult ultimate control over the transactions that the child user can make. 3. Banking app Standard Bank’s app includes biometric identification, and with the most recent updates, customers can now:
• Make global payments via their smartphone – functionality which represents the ultimate in flexibility and convenience by providing customers in any region who would previously have had to visit a branch and complete vast amounts of paperwork, with instant access to, and absolute control over, their entire financial portfolio. They can make payments to individual recipients in almost 200 countries from the convenience of their smartphone.
• Adjust daily and monthly ATM limits.
• Remotely turn cards on and off, and control where (in which countries) and when the card may be used.
• Submit homeowner’s insurance claims via the app – with the ability to upload photographs when lodging a claim. 4. Shepherd Shepherd was launched to provide a secure and seamless online purchasing experience. Powered by Standard Bank and in partnership with RAM Couriers, Shepherd holds payments for online purchases in a trust, delivers the goods from the seller to the prospective buyer, and only when all parties are satisfied that the terms of the deal have been met is the money released to the seller, thus greatly reducing the risk of fraud and scams. 5. SnapScan This is an app that enables you to make payments with your cellphone. Paying by SnapScan is not only safer than carrying cash, it’s also convenient (less to carry; it doesn’t cost you anything but a little data).
A collaboration between FireID and Standard Bank, SnapScan is constantly finding ways to make the payment process even simpler and easier, Mpako says. For example, instead of using your phone’s camera to scan the merchant’s code when making a payment, you can now simply click “Pay here” in the app to initiate the transaction. This is thanks to the use of Bluetoothenabled beacons, which detect your location.