Digital by design
Access to online accounts has become an integral part of the banking spectrum. Shehzad Hameed, Head of Retail Banking, UAE shares how Standard Chartered keeps up with trends. Excerpts from the interview:
Tell us about the features of Standard Chartered banking app, including mobile bill pay and deposits
Standard Chartered Bank’s goal is to be digital by design. We are passionate about customer experience and have developed one of the most user-friendly and featurerich online and mobile banking platforms in the market.
Using an award-winning mobile banking platform allows our clients to have access to a host of products and banking services online (financial and non-financial). Some of the key features include local and international fund transfers, bill payments, availability of Account, Credit Card, Loan and Mortgage details, global link, customisation features, and the option to bank conveniently anytime, anywhere. Through our Online banking platforms we offer one of the best online “Personal Loan top-up” facilities, where our pre-approved clients can get a personal loan top-up in less than five minutes.
We have moved away from using complex banking terms and followed a simple and personalised approach. Moreover, clients can keep an eye on their transaction trends by plotting their financial activities on a calendar with red and green dots, which signify debits and credits. We invest in these small things that set our clients’ interaction apart and creates a wow experience. We have recently enabled biometric login so clients can sign in with a simple touch within seconds, making access more convenient.
As an international bank operating in 70 markets globally, we identified the need for our clients in different markets to be able to have a single and holistic view of their relationships. This is exactly what ‘Global Link’ achieves. It is a service we provide through online banking that allows clients to ‘pull’ information on their relationship with Standard Chartered in different markets through a unified online banking access. It also allows clients to easily transfer funds from one market to another.
Our award-winning digital platforms have also been recognised by the industry via multiple awards from Global Finance magazine and other reputable entities. To sustain the momentum, we are currently working on some exciting digital projects that will be rolled out this year. These include the introduction of disruptive technology in enhancing client experience and platform enrichment.
Tell us about your App store rating, compared to those of your competitors, and presence in social media networks
We monitor our app ratings and stand amongst the best digital banking services, not just in the market, but also globally. We have been named “The World’s Best Consumer Digital Bank” by Global Finance for the sixth consecutive year, beating competition from 261 banks from around the world and dominating the Global Sub-category Awards. The Bank also won “The Best Regional Consumer Digital Bank for Middle East and Africa” by the same magazine for the fifth consecutive year, sweeping up awards for “The Best Global Consumer Mobile Banking App” and “The Best Global Information Security Initiatives.”
This industry recognition is a testament to our continued focus in developing market-leading online and mobile channels that deliver easy, convenient banking to all our clients.
Client insights are at the heart of our conception and construct. We focus heavily on data mining and client analytics that drive our strategic initiatives. We continuously monitor and analyse clients’ behaviours and work on delivering tailored solutions based on the trends and patterns we observe in their interactions. At the same time, we study global market best practices and trends to ensure a delivery of a world-class solutions.
What people say about a brand or our products has become more important than what the brand says about itself. With this in mind, social media represents a huge opportunity for us to engage with our clients.
We have significant presence on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Our effort to utilise social media as engagement tool has also been recognised by the industry. An example would be the “Best use of social media in sport” award by SPIA sports Industry Awards 2016, where we have been chosen as the bronze winner for our flagship sport event, Standard Chartered Dubai Marathon 2016.
How does your website serve as an information hub for new technology products?
Our website has one of the best User Experience/ User Interface (UX/UI) globally. It works on the principles of responsive framework and is deviceagnostic, giving our clients a superior experience no matter which device they originate from. It is being revamped constantly based on global best practices. We believe that in today’s life and age the website is as important as the branch, as a matter of fact it is even more important and hence it must always contain adequate information to suit our clients’ needs.
Whenever we launch an innovative new product we try to match them with an introductory video tutorial for easier and better understanding and usage.
How do you plan to transition from operating and staffing branches to invest in Internet, social networking and mobile?
The Bank of the future is a digital bank with a human touch. Being digital is about looking at the processes from the client’s perspective. So at the touch of a button, the transaction goes straight through into our system, with as little human intervention as possible. Agile is where we work in project teams with product owners, coders, testers, compliance at a common table to develop solutions much more quickly. Lean is all about making our processes simpler by streamlining and taking away unnecessary waste during production. We have been investing in developing our digital banking solutions, not only to transform client experience, but also to provide them with the highest levels of security. We continue to invest for longterm growth were digital technologies will shape the future of banking. In 2015, the Group announced that it would invest about $3 billion in technology and systems over the next three years, including investments in global shared service centres to transform its digital capabilities.
We are now executing that strategy where our focus is on shifting clients from branch and physical channels to digital interactions. We strongly believe that clients who are active on digital carry low operational costs. We have also noticed that these clients are more loyal to the Bank, have higher balances and use a wider range of products compared to clients who are not active on digital. These analogies are supported by exhaustive data analysis performed by the Bank.
How do you reach out to customers regarding the latest banking technology implemented by your bank?
We take pride in the fact that our digital offerings provide unmatched experience to clients, and ensure that they are aware of existing and new functionalities available on our digital platforms. For any new launch, we have a 360-degree communication plan where we load information on our website, send EDMs and SMS, update our social platforms such as Facebook, Twitter and Instagram and update other offline channels. We ensure that our frontline teams proactively inform clients of the digital services available and help them use these services.
For all the digital services we provide, we have demos available on the website so that our clients can refer to them for help, in addition to the staff assistance that is accessible at all times. Our branches are facilitated by digital champions who are available to assist clients with all queries. All branches are equipped with ATM / CDMs, and at some locations, we have iPads where clients can view product catalogues, watch product videos on our video walls, drop product requests and perform online and mobile banking transactions on our dedicated mobile devices. Increasingly, many of our outlets are being designed with self-service capabilities that are activated through digital channels.
Can customers confidently manage transactions through online banking; what security features are in place?
As the digital landscape is evolving, so are online frauds and incidents. We take client security very seriously and have world-class protection standards built into our platforms. We protect transactions with OTP and SMS alerts and ensure that clients are provided with continuous education on how to protect themselves against online frauds. In line with our digital security view, voice biometrics and biometric log-in are new security features that we have launched. It is because of our robust security practices that we recently won the award for “Best Global Consumer Information Security Initiative” by Global Finance. Tell us your plans in line with the future of banking in the UAE
The UAE banking industry, in line with the country’s vision of positioning itself as leader in innovation, has embarked on its digital journey for quite some time now. Operating against a backdrop of a stateof-the-art 4G infrastructure, initiation of a countrywide mobile wallet project and plans to leverage Emirates ID, the banking industry has evolved and offers unmatched digital capabilities across most banks.
We currently have excellent digital capabilities available on our online/mobile banking platforms and plan to continue to expand in this direction. Our global presence and understanding of cross market best practices equip us with the edge we need to ensure that we lead in terms of unmatched digital capabilities, ranging from real-time payments, wallets, video/mobile and online banking, and many more. We have a lot planned for 2017/18 and are looking forward to making this year digitally exciting.