30% of customers to go digital: Emirates NBD

Dubai: Emirates NBD is looking to increase the number of its internet and mobile banking customers by 4 per cent this year, a company official told Gulf News yesterday.

Suvo Sarkar, general manager for retail banking and wealth management at Emirates NBD, said about a quarter of its customers are now using their smartphones and other devices to check balances, pay bills or keep track of purchases. By the end of the year, the percentage of customers using digital banking services will reach 30 per cent.

Sarkar said mobile banking is one of the fastest growing segments of their business. “Customers increasingly adopt technologies that enable them to conduct faster, more cost-efficient and secure financial transactions using a mobile device.” Mobile active customers represent 10 per cent of the bank’s customer base.

“Emirates NBD has now reached about 26 of its customer base banking via online and mobile. We expect our mobile banking customers to continue to grow by double digit through 2014,” he added.

The forecast is on the back of the UAE’s high mobile phone and internet usage. The UAE has one of the world’s highest mobile phone penetration ratio (number of users to population), which is estimated at 171.8 per cent.

Emirates NBD’s mobile and internet banking platforms appeal to all segments of customers. “Clearly, we see all spectrum of the population progressively using these services. However, not surprisingly, we see faster rates of adoption in financially independent and technologically-savvy individuals,” added Sarkar.

Sarkar said customer convenience and growing confidence in the security of e-banking transactions are two of the key drivers for the growth in digital banking customers.

Innovative products

“The introduction of innovative products, such as the mobile-only savings product we recently launched, called Shake n’Save, also contributes towards driving the adoption, and we have had some interesting results in a matter of a couple of weeks.”

The bank has recently equipped a number of its branches with iPads to educate customers on digital banking services. It has also created a library of “how-to videos” as part of the bank’s broader approach to multichannel banking.

According to an AT Kearney report, however, digital banking in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries has yet to reach a level of maturity. About a third of all bank customers in the GCC have signed up for online services. Active online users account for 18 per cent, compared to 50 per cent in other markets.