By Kofi Ahovi
HFC Bank Ghana Limited believes that e-banking would be the next revolution in the country’s banking sector. Accordingly,the bank is keenly positioning itself to leverage on its electronic platform to provide customers with good and reliable quality services that meet their demands.
Speaking in an interview with Business Week on e-banking services offered by the bank, Joseph Acquah, Head of e-banking department of HFC Bank, observed that the service would decongest the banking halls and provides efficiency and comfort to customers when fully utilized. “Customers would have a certain level of control of their accounts using internet or mobile phone banking,” he stated.
According to him the state of e-banking in Ghana is quiet encouraging even though more can be done to improve it by way of innovation. He therefore urged customers to make use of the services to transform their banking experience not only for convenience but also to save time.
“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,” he advised.
The bank currently offers Fast Pay, a school payment platform, Fast Cash, Fast Net and Fast Alert as its electronic products. The Fast Pay service, he explained, allows students of universities, which are hooked to the platform, to pay their fees through the Bank. Once the payment is made it is immediately reflect in the accounts of the school. This service to a large extent had prevented fraud in the schools and presented a great opportunity to parents, since they now have the convenience of paying monies on behalf of their wards from any HFC branch across the country.
So far Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, Regent University and All Nations University have signed on to the school payment platform.
With the Fast Cash service, clients are permitted the use of Automated Teller Machines (ATMs), to check their balance, transfer monies, make request for cheque books and to buy mobile top ups. He said customers nonetheless are able to block their ATM cards via their mobile phones in cases of theft or misplacement, to prevent unauthorized persons from accessing their accounts.
The Fast Text and Fast Alert services provide information by e-mail or phone to alert clients of any transactions on their accounts. Acquah emphasised the speed with which the Fast Text and Fast Alert services are carried through, saying delivery is done in real time and is therefore a very important service.
He hinted that the bank would soon come out with an e-banking service which would enable customers transfer cash to non-customers with relative ease.
Acquah urged Ghanaians to overcome the fear of banking electronically and rather embrace “this easier and more convenient way of banking.”
He noted 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 stated.
“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.
Acquah was of the view 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 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.
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, advising against using e-banking service in the open particularly at internet cafes to avoid hackers from hacking into client’s accounts.
He explained HFC Bank has sufficient security features to safeguard customer’s account from hackers. “We have first and second level authorization security measures which ensure safety. With the second level authorization, we have additional encrypted hardware security which handles the double and triple decks respectively.
HFC Bank currently has about 25 branches and 25 ATMs spread across the country.
HFC Bank Ghana Limited believes that e-banking would be the next revolution in the country’s banking sector. Accordingly,the bank is keenly positioning itself to leverage on its electronic platform to provide customers with good and reliable quality services that meet their demands.
Speaking in an interview with Business Week on e-banking services offered by the bank, Joseph Acquah, Head of e-banking department of HFC Bank, observed that the service would decongest the banking halls and provides efficiency and comfort to customers when fully utilized. “Customers would have a certain level of control of their accounts using internet or mobile phone banking,” he stated.
According to him the state of e-banking in Ghana is quiet encouraging even though more can be done to improve it by way of innovation. He therefore urged customers to make use of the services to transform their banking experience not only for convenience but also to save time.
“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,” he advised.
The bank currently offers Fast Pay, a school payment platform, Fast Cash, Fast Net and Fast Alert as its electronic products. The Fast Pay service, he explained, allows students of universities, which are hooked to the platform, to pay their fees through the Bank. Once the payment is made it is immediately reflect in the accounts of the school. This service to a large extent had prevented fraud in the schools and presented a great opportunity to parents, since they now have the convenience of paying monies on behalf of their wards from any HFC branch across the country.
So far Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, Regent University and All Nations University have signed on to the school payment platform.
With the Fast Cash service, clients are permitted the use of Automated Teller Machines (ATMs), to check their balance, transfer monies, make request for cheque books and to buy mobile top ups. He said customers nonetheless are able to block their ATM cards via their mobile phones in cases of theft or misplacement, to prevent unauthorized persons from accessing their accounts.
The Fast Text and Fast Alert services provide information by e-mail or phone to alert clients of any transactions on their accounts. Acquah emphasised the speed with which the Fast Text and Fast Alert services are carried through, saying delivery is done in real time and is therefore a very important service.
He hinted that the bank would soon come out with an e-banking service which would enable customers transfer cash to non-customers with relative ease.
Acquah urged Ghanaians to overcome the fear of banking electronically and rather embrace “this easier and more convenient way of banking.”
He noted 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 stated.
“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.
Acquah was of the view 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 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.
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, advising against using e-banking service in the open particularly at internet cafes to avoid hackers from hacking into client’s accounts.
He explained HFC Bank has sufficient security features to safeguard customer’s account from hackers. “We have first and second level authorization security measures which ensure safety. With the second level authorization, we have additional encrypted hardware security which handles the double and triple decks respectively.
HFC Bank currently has about 25 branches and 25 ATMs spread across the country.
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