Banking in a cloud of electrons

Regional E-Banking Scene
The pro-technology sentiment of the local governments (especially in the UAE) is helping feed e-banking growth that is evident by the mushrooming of numerous electronic service providers. This ongoing Internet development growth phase augers well for e-banking to mature into a way of life.

Internet Channel and E-Adoption
Online banking and the web channel are here to stay. Financial services rely on multiple distribution channels and e-banking represents the channel of the future. Success stories around e-banking have taken shape through a mix of innovation and experience.

The financial services sector needs to apply both these factors to their advantage to produce the desired results. Win-win implementation of e-banking not only requires high Internet penetration rates and stable infrastructures, but more importantly, for companies to realize the powerful revenue opportunity of this business arm vis-à-vis the traditional brick and mortar system of operation.

Therefore, it is imperative that all e-banking implementations are seamlessly integrated with the core "traditional" services thereby making the online experience truly holistic for the customer.

Best Practices
Web channels need to market the bank's products and services, present corporate information about their global businesses and provide customers with personal financial management tools and banking platforms. In a nutshell, core online offerings should provide customers to:

• Access their financial information anytime, anywhere,

• Transact real-time

• Make empowered online financial decisions

Additionally, value-add extensions of e-banking services should be offered to compliment the bank's core online services. For example, functionalities like Alerts offer customers to schedule notifications (like account balances) or self-select specific account related events (like credit card due date).

Based on the preferences, customers are notified as and when the alerts are triggered. Such services help ensure higher levels of customer satisfaction and open other relationship building opportunities.

E-Banking Is No Rocket Science
The ideal bank should position the online channel as an acquisition, cross sell and retention business and with a clear strategy to proactively deliver the "best-in-class" products and services through all business channels.