SA banks' online services are improving

The industry SITEisfaction online banking score has increased steadily in the last four years, achieving 61 (out of a possible 100), the highest rating yet. In this same time the overall banking experience score amongst internet bankers has remained stable at 64 (out of 100).

The study has put questions to over 5,000 internet banking users, focusing on the trends that shape the digital banking industry. Chief executive of Columinate, Dr. Henk Pretorius, comments on this year's findings as largely positive, while cautioning that the widespread nature of fraud evident in the results taints this picture somewhat.

The generally positive findings of the report are somewhat offset by the continued rise in digital banking crimes. In 2014 there was a large increase in the number of attempted and successful fraud attempts in this area. The 2015 survey has shown that the number of people targeted for any type of fraud is at 55% (62% in 2014), while 12% (19% in 2014) fell victim to a successful attempt, and incurred some sort of financial loss.

Top service provider

FNB has emerged as the top internet banking service provider, with Standard Bank in second place. This is the third year that FNB has come out on top, matching the highest ever score in this survey of 75, same score as 2013. Standard Bank's large improvement (10 points since last year to 66) earns it the title of fastest riser in this year's survey. This is the highest ever rating for Standard Bank in this survey. Capitec (62) has fallen into third position, while Nedbank (50) and ABSA (39) remain fixed for the fourth year running in the lowest two positions.

This year's findings show the importance that users attach to ease of banking across multiple devices. Amongst bankers who make use of the traditional internet banking website, the favoured combination to access accounts is computer and cell phone (38%), followed by computer, cell phone and tablet (30%), with a smaller proportion using a computer only (24%).

Personal financial management tools help consumers better control their finances, often by integrating information from internet banking statements. Until this year, the awareness and usage of these services was very low amongst internet bankers in this survey. This year has seen an increase in both people aware of these facilities (30% in 2015 vs. 14% in 2014) and in the incidence of those who use them (9% in 2015 vs. 2% in 2014).

Other devices

There are currently four ways that banking consumers can access accounts via devices other than computers by using tablets and mobile phones and accessing either via mobile browsers or apps. This year's survey assessed how satisfied users were with their bank's mobile facilities. FNB came up tops with the highest scores across all mobile platforms, scoring 77, with Capitec in second place (71), Standard Bank in third (68). ABSA (62) and Nedbank (61) achieved the lowest ratings.

"It is interesting that the top three places in mobile and tablet banking are again taken up by the same banks, with FNB still on top. For ABSA and Nedbank they also retain the last two positions. Collectively, this shows how a comprehensive digital strategy should account for access across all devices, especially considering how mobile and tablet access is increasing," concludes Pretorius.

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