NAB nabs new Apple app

Alex Zaharov-Reutt
Thursday, 24 March 2011 14:56

Your IT - Mobility

NAB, the bank with a name that is a little word for National Australia Bank, says 'mobile banking' is its 'fastest growing channel' - and has launched a fresh new app, just in time for the iPad 2, while still working on the iPad 1, iPhones and even the Android.

Keen to be hip, although not as hip as the Commonwealth Bank with its flagship Brisbane branch that looks like a cross between an Apple Store, a 5-star hotel lobby and a super chic shopping centre, NAB has nabbed itself an update to its mobile banking app.

NAB first nabbed itself an iPad app way back in March 2010, and initially delivered such predictables as a branch and ATM locator, mobile Internet banking facilities and a bunch o' calculators for you to crunch ye olde numbers with.

But with the passage of time and customer feedback comes the new, with NAB's new app, set to be 'available in the Apple App Store in the coming weeks', will boost the app's capabilities, nabbing the feature of 'improved location search' which 'deciphers misspellings to make it easier to find NAB ATMs and [branches]', although stubbornly NAB prefers to call them 'stores'.

I don't know if I'd call a bank branch a store. I'd be more likely to call it a bloody nuisance, unless it was like the Commonwealth Bank's new Brisbane branch that looks like it has come from a parallel universe where banks are universally loved, instead of, well, you know.

If there are any more new features in NAB's updated banking app, it hasn't mentioned them, so presumably an 'improved location search' was enough to warrant a huge pre-iPad 2 announcement over something relatively minor.

Still, we can't decry banks from trumpeting their advances and developments - it's a tiny sliver of good publicity in a torrential downpour of normally pretty blah publicity for the 'we all love to bash 'em' banks.

Despite only seemingly ONE new feature for its app, NAB nevertheless notes some positive news: a 250% growth in mobile banking over the past 12 months, with 'millions of log-ins to NAB Internet Banking done via mobile devices every month - now reaching 12.5 per cent of NAB's total internet banking traffic.'

Let's hope no-one finds an easy way to hack Internet phone banking sessions via iPhones or Androids then - so far, end-users seem safe enough, but with cybercriminals ever vigilant for new opportunities, 2011 might well be the year of the iPad 2, and the year of banking cybercrime on a level that we've never seen before.

 

Continued on page two, please read on!