Caption: Moses Liu
(centre) flanked by his executives.
By MATTHEW VARI
THE National Development Bank officially announced the launch
of an SMS service for its customers nationwide to access details of their loan repayments
via SMS alerts and other information, last week at their Head Office at
Waigani, Port Moresby.
Its free SMS banking service will add value to both existing
and new customers of the bank- as they can easily obtain their current loan
account balance, the next payment amount, and will be notified of when their
next payment is due.
The service will also include free text reminders and details
of new product offers.
NDB Managing Director Moses Liu, pointed out the shift in
portability mobile communications has in being used as a platform to conduct
services, especially in the banking sector.
“SMS banking
has gained great interest in the world, with over 70% of the world population
now having access to this service via the mobile phone; therefore, NDB would
like to bring this service to our customers so that they can easy access to banking
services,” he said.
With 20 branches nationwide, and expansion to four other
provincial centers in 2014, accessibility has been a major focal point for the
State owned bank- with a target to capture the unbanked citizens on the
country.
“Currently we have got 20 branches, and this year we will be
rolling out another 4 branches and we want to have our services to the rural
people as much as possible,” Liu said.
“The country has two million bankable people in the country
based on a recent household survey, indicating that there are a lot of young
people who have been exposed to electronic banking, and they have to be
serviced by being brought into the formal banking sector.”
The SMS will be the first of other electronic platforms the
bank is to bring online- with its subsidiary Peoples Micro Bank to offer SMS
and other mobile services soon, according to the bank’s Electronic Banking
Manager Nathan Dingu.
“It is a
text based service that can be used on any mobile phone, not just a smart
phone, but any Digicel mobile device,” he said.
“To check
your balance you have to send a message to 16632; to check next repayment
amount and due date, the customer is to text ‘next pay’ to 16632 followed by
the last four digits of their account number.”
When asked why it had taken the bank long to roll out an SMS
service, Dingu said that because of the many changes the bank had gone to be
where it was today, the services are now only being realized and being rolled
out.
“NDB has gone through a phase
of changes, so because of this it has taken a bit of time to realize, but it has
now being kicked off with other project set to follow like direct top up for
power, Digicel credits, card systems, ATMs and the whole lot.”
“Once you register with the service, a message will be sent
to your phone where you will have to confirm and be added in for the service.”
Customers of
Digicel mobiles are able to use the service- with Bemobile users to be added
later on, with already 200 customers registered already.
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