By Gareth Vaughan
ANZ New Zealand says it's trialling and/or looking to introduce some of the retail banking innovations unveiled by its parent in Australia late last week.
As part of an up to A$1.5 billion "Banking on Australia" investment programme, ANZ in Australia said:
1) It would be the first Australian bank to conduct a major roll-out of Cisco videoconferencing within 43 remote branches, giving regional customers greater access to specialist advice.
2) It was launching the first Australian banking app that processes same day credit and debit card transactions - every day of the year - using an iPhone or iPad.
3) It would trial an ANZ mobile wallet using NFC technology on Android devices.
4) It was launching a mobile banking app, ANZ Transactive for Mobile, which allows businesses to quickly and securely approve large payments while on the move.
5) It was introducing 800 "next generation" ATMs into branches, allowing 24-hour access to many traditional teller services.
Via a spokesman, Kerri Thompson, ANZ New Zealand retail managing director, told interest.co.nz the bank - which is phasing the National Bank brand out over the next two years - was constantly looking at new technologies that could make it easier and more convenient for people to bank with ANZ.
"Many of the innovations announced in Australia this week are either being trialled or are already being rolled out in this country, meaning the benefits will soon flow through to our customers in New Zealand."
On video conferencing Thompson said ANZ NZ was looking at video conferencing capability and evaluating the customer benefit. It was also looking at the banking app that processes same day credit and debit card transactions for the New Zealand market. The ANZ mobile wallet was part of ANZ NZ's "wider plans for mobile innovation," but Thompson said there was no firm timeframe yet for bringing a wallet into production.
Meanwhile, ANZ Transactive for Mobile was being piloted in New Zealand this month, she said.
"If the pilot is a success, we expect to roll this out to customers in coming months."
And as for the next generation ATMs, Thompson said ANZ NZ already has a number of them in operation, with the first one having been deployed in 2009, and was continuing to install them as part of a branch redesign programme.
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