Above, Stephen Bagnarol, Vice President and Managing Director, Scotiabank TT at the launch event for the new services. Photo by Mark Lyndersay.
Scotiabank announced upgrades to its online payment and banking systems today.
The bank reiterated a focus on becoming the number one digital bank and will be investing more than TT$16.5 billion in technology annually across its banking network, representing more than 10 percent of the company’s revenues.
The announcements this evening focused on improvements to security alerts, which will notify users when they sign into a new device and make any critical changes to their account, normally the first point of weakness for hacking or social engineering efforts designed to compromise user accounts.
Transaction alerts will warn customers about when the card is used at an ATM, accessed for purchases, used for bill payments and third party transfers.
Users can also check their account balances and set reminders for future transactions.
App users can choose which alerts they are interested in receiving and the new services come at no additional cost to customers.
“It’s free,” Bagnarol said, “it’s costing us money, but we see this as necessary for building a quality customer relationship.”
Scotiabank also introduced the new Scotia Visa Debit Card, a chip-enabled debit card which replaces the company’s standard debit card.
The new card encrypts its enabling identification data which is meant to stymie card forgers who had become adept at cloning the information held on the older magnetic stripe system.
Corporate customers got an upgrade with the new Digital Token Application, an app for iOS and Android which replaces the USB based physical token system which was previously required to access the company’s cash management portal.
Accompanying this upgrade is a new point of sale software and hardware system for enabling card payments.
The new Quick Sale app links to a small card reader via Bluetooth and allows payments that aren’t tethered to a single payment station.
These service enhancements were said to be part of an effort to “deepen the bank’s relationship with its customers.”
According to Senior Vice-President aand Managing Director Stephen Bagnarol, the company has seen a 13 percent increase in digital banking customers in the last year.
Scotiabank will also introduce new ATMs, replacing them with Intelligent Deposit Machines, which will also experience the customer experience with these devices.
The IDM devices will scan a deposited check and immediately credit it to the customer’s account.
The bank is also overhauling its internal infrastructure with an initiative it’s dubbed QFlow, a mix of improved internal systems and customer focused adjustments meant to improve the in-branch customer experience.
The bank claims leadership in the local space for its digital branch initiative and believes these new enhancements will solidify its position in the local banking sector.
Damian Jones, General Manager, Corporate and Commercial banking demonstrates the Scotiabank app with Stephen Bagnarol, Senior Vice President and Managing Director, Scotiabank TT. Photo by Mark Lyndersay.
