48.49% of Counter Transactions Substituted by E-banking
30 April 2010 Source: 21st Century Business Herald
With over 40 million transactions representing a combined total in excess of 10 trillion, e-banking has become one of the Industrial Bank's main service channels following a decade of growth.
In an interview with a reporter from 21st Century Business Herald, Mr. Yang Zhong, GM of the e-banking Department of Industrial Bank, stated that 48.49% of counter transactions were substituted by e-banking in 2009 (calculated according to number of transactions), with the number of transactions in e-banking nearing the total number of transactions in all of the bank's outlets combined. Moreover, intermediate business income from e-banking has accounted for 5% of the bank's total intermediate business income.
Mr. Yang believes that internet, e-commerce and 3G commercial promotion will be the next major area of development for e-banking. IB's next focus will be on broader marketing promotion, continuous business innovation, enhanced service quality and reinforcement of security. The aim is to establish a comprehensive and industry leading e-banking service based on bank payment.
A decade of intangible services
The e-banking Department of the Industrial Bank was formerly known as the Foreground Business Department. In 2001, IB proposed the operational tenet of “Govern the bank strictly, run the bank with experts and let the bank prosper through science and technology”. Under the guidance of this tenet, the bank confirmed a strategy of pursuing the development of both tangible and intangible services, and united counter services, ATM, POS, online banking and telephone banking under the Foreground Business Department.
The following year, as approved by the Ministry of Information Industry, IB officially opened its National Service Hotline“ 95561”. In the same year, IB's Phase II e-banking system was launched and certified by the CNITSEC, paving the way for market access. Subsequently, IB obtained official approval from the People's Bank of China, becoming the second commercial bank in China to operate online banking business with the approval of the People's Bank of China.
2006 was a milestone year for the Industrial Bank. In August 2006, in order to promote the transformation of operation modes more effectively and to establish a professional supporting platform for the operation of intangible networks, IB reassigned key functions and separated tangible channels such as network outlets and ATM from the main body to the Retail Bank Management Headquarters in Shanghai and integrated intangible service channels such as telephone-banking and internet banking to establish the e-Banking Department on the basis of the Foreground Business Department.
Three months later, the integrated Mobile Banking Service was launched, which combined real-time online WAP mobile bank, an SMS platform, KJAVA mobile bank client and mobile trader platform. The launch of the mobile phone banking service marked the bank's establishment of a comprehensive e-banking service platform integrating the brands of internet banking “Online IB”, telephone-banking, “Hotline IB” and mobile banking “Wireless IB”.
Yet, IB did not stop its innovation in e-banking there. The bank has conducted several major overhauls and continued routine development, and the bank's e-banking products and services have taken the lead domestically.
“Online CIB” has become a comprehensive service platform with a complete range of functions. As for enterprises, in addition to standard functions such as payment, financing management and group services, the corporate internet banking service also offers a range of distinctive services such as batch payment, capital management for group clients, virtual sub-accounts, inter-bank fund management, agent loans, e-commerce, EasyTrade, custody service, precious metal exchange and fund investment. These services enable enterprises to accomplish various fund management and transactions at the utmost convenience.
As for individual customers, IB's personal internet banking service offers complete services including fund management, money transfer, investment and financing, e-Mall, financial information channel, Bank-UnionPay Link Online Fund Trade, IB e-Card, one-stop payment, air-tickets, e-Housing, e-Travel, and e-Insurance, not only meeting the demands for financial services, but also providing convenience for clients seeking a fashionable online-shopping lifestylr.
The Industrial Bank's “Hotline IB” telephone banking service stated as a simple customer service hotline. Today, it is a comprehensive service platform combining product enquiries, transactions and financing plans, covering personal business, credit business, corporate business and banking information. At present, IB' Customer Service Center has established a Six Sigma telephone quality control system, and has passed the Five A certification of the CCCS Standard System, being one of the few Customer Service Centers to have passed this certification.
The “Wireless CIB”, offers more than 300 comprehensive mobile financial services for customers, such as web information, mobile mall, assets inquiry service, bill payment service and wealth management services. The mobile investment and financing functions, which require real-time, are especially impressive.
Mr. Yang stated that IB is one of the few commercial banks in the country capable of offering overall mobile financial services at present. In terms of security management, IB offers ten kinds of security protection for its mobile banking service, including identification of mobile phone number, authorization of passwords for mobile banking and bank cards and image verification code to ensure security.
While continuously improving the product system, IB has also realized the necessity of service integration across the three channels. This has led to the establishment of an integrated brand for e-banking: the Five-star Navigation Service System.
From a professional banking payment website to a commercialized website
Mr. Yang stated that “in recent years, facing fierce competition in the e-banking sector, IB has adopted a new approach: to achieve a breakthrough transformation from a professional banking payment website to a commercialized website.”
Guided by this thinking, IB has conducted initiatives to move beyond banking and pursue comprehensive operation in e-banking. To do this, it has joined forces with leading companies such as domestic e-commerce websites, commercial websites, industrial websites, professional software companies and large-scale shopping malls.
IB has launched a unique brand “e-Mall” that includes more than ten sections, including air tickets, hotels, insurance, top-up, payment, digital, home furnishing in a bid to take on the e-commerce market.
For example, IB has established a strategic alliance with UFIDA Software, the largest financial software company in the country, to promote IB-UFIDA's Bank-Enterprise products to large, medium and small enterprises and thereby increase value-added capacity for enterprise clients; it has integrated and launched the e-finance Information Channel, which is comprised of a number of sub-channels including Stocks, Security, Bonds, Gold, Insurance and monetary management so to provide clients with the latest financial information; it has cooperated with Beijing Rising Technology, a renowned domestic antivirus software company, the Central Meteorological Observatory and other renowned websites to offer a range of services such as “Rising virus scanner”, “Weather Forecast”, “Housing Provident Fund Enquiries”, “e-Housing”, “e-Insurance”, “Stocks today” and “Industrial Websites”.
In addition, IB has joined forces with partners such as www. 9588.com, Jinjiang Inn, Suning Appliance, www.bookan.com.cn, www.ejsino.com, HOBA Life and Sou Fun to establish a one–stop online comprehensive service platform: Colorful e-Life.
IB has made key efforts to develop financing, travel and personal loan services through its telephone banking service. It has established a certified team of professional financial planners for telephone banking that can offer customers one-to-one wealth analysis and professional advice on financing planning; IB also offers complete personal loans service and can effectively meet the fast-pace requirements of credit fund operation of clients, allowing for instant borrowing and repayment.
IB has also launched a new and upgraded version of its mobile phone bank for the 3G age: “ 3G-Bank, Smart IB”, through which customers can handle almost all non-cash transactions via a phone directly, especially investment and financing business, overall wealth management fixed/current deposit, fixed deposits, smart fixed deposits, treasury bond investment, self-service pledge loans, gold spot and deferred transactions, fund transaction, foreign currency trading and bank securities.
Clients and the market have affirmed the IB's e-banking service: in an appraisal of the internet banking services of 16 domestic commercial banks held by renowned financial website Hexun.com, “Online IB”, ranked among the top three overall and first in terms of performance (function and security). The bank's e-banking services have also scooped a series of honors including “Top 100 China Commercial Website”, “Best E-Bank Prize”, “Best Personalized Service Website”, “ Best Website for Growth”, “Best e-Bank Customer Satisfaction”, “Best Customer Service Center in Asia-Pacific Region”, “Best Customer Service Center in China”, and “Best Mobile Bank”.
Next target: build up the first class e-bank
Currently, the world economy is on course to a full recovery and the domestic economy is set to continue to grow steadily. Therefore, internet and e-commerce will still be huge areas for potential growth. According to statistics, the scale of the Chinese network economy increased by 30.7 percent year-on-year in 2009, far beyond the 8% increase of the GDP, of which the most robust development momentum is e-payment, with a year-on-year increase of 100%; It is estimated that the transaction scale of e-payment will exceed 2 trillion Yuan by 2012.
Commercial 3G will promote the fast increase of the mobile internet industry over the next few years, and wireless e-commerce has been listed among the priority projects in national e-commerce under the Eleventh Five-year plan. Due to the commercial promotion of 3G, there were 120 million new mobile internet users in 2009, and 230 million users all, equating to a market scope of 15 billion Yuan in the mobile internet industry. With the development of mobile internet terminals, the decrease in internet fees and the implementation of the mobile phone identification policy, it is estimated that mobile internet will experience explosive growth in the future.
Under such a backdrop, IB's e-banking business is sure to usher in a new phase of development. Mr. Yang Zhong, GM of the e-banking Department of Industrial Bank, pointed out that the bank will take four approaches in order to achieve first class e-banking”, namely:
The first is to enhance marketing and promotion. IB will integrate counter service, ATM, e-banking, telephone-bank and mobile phone bank; integrate social resources, conduct joint marketing together with internet enterprises, leading enterprises and mobile operators, carry out cross sales aiming at different client bases such as companies, banks, retailers and credit cards so as to actualize differential product marketing strategies.
The second is to forge ahead with business innovation. IB will promote the electronization of conventional banking business; make the best of IT to achieve the innovation of business through combination of the internet and banking; establish a multifunctional e-banking platform, increase the individualized and customized service capacity of the e-banking platform and offer clients tailor-made total e-banking solutions to meet the diversified demands of clients.
The third is to promote service quality. High-quality services are particularly important in a time when the homogenization of products is becoming increasingly serious. IB will deepen the “e-banking Five-star Navigation Service System”, which is an industry leading service standard; fulfill standardized and differential services, where standardized services are applicable to medium and lower-end customers while differential one-to-one services are applicable to high-end customers; further deepen the service system of cash management and e-commerce for enterprise e-banking and the service system of retail e-banking and e-commerce; give full play to the superiority of IB's flexible system and mechanisms as a midsized bank.
The fourth is to enhance security. Security is the biggest concern of users of e-banking. In addition to protection by means of digital certificates, net shields and SMS notification, users of IB's e-banking services can also use prefabricated NetShields, which were first launched by the Industrial Bank . In the future, IB will continue to research and develop new security products for e-banking and prevent and control risks through the standardization and soundness of processes.
Mr. Yang stated that the Industrial Bank is committed to “establishing a comprehensive and industry leading e-banking service based on bank payment, so as to meet any and all demands that clients have”.