Mr. Alhassan Andani
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20th August, 2010
Ghanaians Urged To Embrace e-Banking
An electronic banking expert at Stanbic Bank Ghana has urged Ghanaians to overcome the fear of banking electronically and rather embrace “this easier and more convenient way of banking.”
Mr. Michael Charway, Head of Product and Channel Management of the Transactional Products and Services department of the bank, says that electronic banking, although easily accessible and reliable, has not been the Ghanaian customer’s first choice in banking because of the difficulty to embrace change.
“Ghanaians like to stick to familiar ways of doing business, there is a huge challenge in persuading customers to use electronic banking”, he told the Ghana News Agency in an interview.
Mr. Charway said the world is fast coming smaller through technology and people will gradually not have time to enter into banking halls to transact business hence the need for people to embrace electronic banking to be in tune with the times.
“The world is now a global village. Many people in varied businesses and trades have access to the internet through their computers or Blackberry most of the time and can literally bank 24 hours in a day.
“This is one of the biggest advantages of electronic banking. One doesn't have to go to the bank's branch to request a financial statement. You can download it from your online bank account, which shows you up-to-the-minute updated figures”, he said.
Mr. Charway explained that banking electronically has so many advantages that banks should consistently encourage their customers to embrace the technology to bring banking in Ghana to a world class status.
“Thousands of transactions can be dealt with in a day and there is absolutely no delay in your transactions. As far as customers are concerned, their account information is available round the clock, regardless of their location. They can reschedule their future payments from their bank account while sitting thousands of miles away.
They can electronically transfer money from their bank accounts or receive money in their bank accounts within seconds”, he said.
He noted that the fear of hackers hacking into the system, discovering people’s passwords and manipulating their accounts has put off several customers from using e-banking, adding, “in these times when internet fraud is on the increase, people who stand close to you during an E- banking transaction might read your fingers and know the password.”
But Mr. Charway explained that banks providing the electronic banking service have sufficient security features to safeguard the customer’s account from hackers.
“At Stanbic Bank for instance, we have a product called New Business Online (nBol) which provides you the opportunity to transact on your pc all the time. This product has a unique security feature known as the second factor authentication.
As the name suggests, it is the second level of identification to check and confirm that whoever logged-in is indeed the same person”, he explained further.
He said nBol gives the customer a feature called a token which ensures that clients on the platform are given a pass code anytime they access their accounts.
“Even if you press it 100 times a day, you will get 100 different pass codes for all the 100 transactions made. Therefore no one can have access to the security code as it changes with every transaction,” he said adding that this is one of the several assurances customers can get to encourage them to embrace electronic banking as the new order in banking.
Mr. Michael Charway, Head of Product and Channel Management of the Transactional Products and Services department of the bank, says that electronic banking, although easily accessible and reliable, has not been the Ghanaian customer’s first choice in banking because of the difficulty to embrace change.
“Ghanaians like to stick to familiar ways of doing business, there is a huge challenge in persuading customers to use electronic banking”, he told the Ghana News Agency in an interview.
Mr. Charway said the world is fast coming smaller through technology and people will gradually not have time to enter into banking halls to transact business hence the need for people to embrace electronic banking to be in tune with the times.
“The world is now a global village. Many people in varied businesses and trades have access to the internet through their computers or Blackberry most of the time and can literally bank 24 hours in a day.
“This is one of the biggest advantages of electronic banking. One doesn't have to go to the bank's branch to request a financial statement. You can download it from your online bank account, which shows you up-to-the-minute updated figures”, he said.
Mr. Charway explained that banking electronically has so many advantages that banks should consistently encourage their customers to embrace the technology to bring banking in Ghana to a world class status.
“Thousands of transactions can be dealt with in a day and there is absolutely no delay in your transactions. As far as customers are concerned, their account information is available round the clock, regardless of their location. They can reschedule their future payments from their bank account while sitting thousands of miles away.
They can electronically transfer money from their bank accounts or receive money in their bank accounts within seconds”, he said.
He noted that the fear of hackers hacking into the system, discovering people’s passwords and manipulating their accounts has put off several customers from using e-banking, adding, “in these times when internet fraud is on the increase, people who stand close to you during an E- banking transaction might read your fingers and know the password.”
But Mr. Charway explained that banks providing the electronic banking service have sufficient security features to safeguard the customer’s account from hackers.
“At Stanbic Bank for instance, we have a product called New Business Online (nBol) which provides you the opportunity to transact on your pc all the time. This product has a unique security feature known as the second factor authentication.
As the name suggests, it is the second level of identification to check and confirm that whoever logged-in is indeed the same person”, he explained further.
He said nBol gives the customer a feature called a token which ensures that clients on the platform are given a pass code anytime they access their accounts.
“Even if you press it 100 times a day, you will get 100 different pass codes for all the 100 transactions made. Therefore no one can have access to the security code as it changes with every transaction,” he said adding that this is one of the several assurances customers can get to encourage them to embrace electronic banking as the new order in banking.
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