Source: CR2
CR2, a global provider of channel banking and card payment software solutions, announced the results of its annual banking survey at its User Conference held in Cairo on 1-2 June. 50 customers from over 20 banks attended this annual event.
All survey respondents are from financial organisations that use vendor banking software with 39% from Africa, 25% Middle East and 14% from India. As in last year's results, Channel Management and CRM are the two key drivers for financial institutions.
Channel integration
A higher number of banks intend to implement channel management in the next 18 months than was found in last year's results. 36% will be deploying a custom solution, leaving 64% to deploy a package or outsourced system.
"Operational efficiency and automated services are considered the key drivers for implementing a channel management system with targeting new markets following a close third," said Sean Jevens, Head of Product Management. "CR2 has detected a strong emphasis within our customers to harmonise the delivery infrastructure and Channel Management is instrumental in meeting that objective. CR2's BankWorld software has positioned a number of our key customers to now deliver on their investment."
Internet and mobile
69% of respondents either agreed or strongly agreed that security concerns are restricting the rollout of online services. 65% believe that security concerns are restricting the customer adoption of online services although 59% already provide an Internet banking channel.
35% of respondents plan to add an SMS facility to their channel mix in the next 18 months with 58% already providing this service.
Other interesting results
Despite many great debates on the benefits of J2EE versus .NET, banks are clearly indifferent as to which underlying architecture is used. When asked, 65% specifically expressed no preference.
30% of respondents admitted they had no plans to implement EMV compliance projects and only 4% are already EMV issuing and acquiring compliant.
Building on the experience of the more developed channel banking markets in US and Western Europe where call centre usage is being replaced by a migration to Internet and mobile, it is clear that banks in MEA and India are unlikely to implement a Call Centre channel. 44% of respondents have no plans to implement call centres or telephone banking.