ANZ banks on iPhone to bring new business

David M Williams
Thursday, 09 October 2008 15:32

IT Industry - Market

The ANZ Bank has developed its own iPhone friendly online banking site. It is the first bank in Australia to do so, and joins a very select group of banks worldwide who offer such a service. Here's how it works and how the ANZ hope to win your banking.

There’s a legend that no matter what new media formats come out there will be a demand for Pink Floyd’s “Dark Side of the Moon” album. Record, cassette, CD, DVD, BluRay, you name it.

In a similar vein, it seems for any new emerging technology there will be people lining up to see how it can help them keep their finger on their bank account pulse and this has seen phone banking and Internet banking come about.

It was therefore a sure thing that demand for online banking through the iPhone would arise. In fact, I’ve used my bank’s web-based banking site to transfer money while out shopping.

It wasn’t a painful affair but it wasn’t a snap, either. The page displayed fine in Safari but I had to squint, rotate the device back and forth, pinch and flick to zoom in and out, pan around and all sorts of actions to achieve my objective.

The Australia and New Zealand Banking Group Limited – or ANZ to its friends – have made the task so much simpler by providing a specially-customised version of their existing online banking facility.

Visit the ANZ’s web site using your iPhone (or iPod Touch) and it will automatically redirect you to the specifically-formatted set of pages. For best results, bookmark the page and then add the bookmark as an icon on your iPhone’s home screen so you can hop in anytime with a minimum of fuss.

This brings the ANZ into an elite group of just a few banks who have delivered this option for their iPhone-wielding customers, such as the Bank of America and Westminster Savings Credit Union.

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