BankWest, part of the HBOS Australia group, is continuing its push into the national business banking market with the launch of a new online international trade system that will significantly enhance its international trade products products and servicing offering to customers.
The new facility which is called online international trade will be available to BankWest customers via its online banking system from 6th March 2007.
Announcing the launch, Paul Clark, Chief Executive for BankWest Business said the introduction of the new system which would enhance the core offering to BankWest business customers was one of a number of initiatives planned to assist BankWest in its continued onslaught into the highly competitive SME market.
"Our goal is to grow our business by offering customers leading edge transactional banking products products so they can concentrate on the day to day running of their business," he said.
"Feedback from customers increasingly focuses on a need for fast, reliable online transactional banking services with expanded functionality across trade, payments, and other financial transactions.
"In 2007 we intend to accelerate our growth and will invest in new systems and infrastructure that provide customers with better services consistent with our strong focus on personalised customer service and emphasis on building in-house industry specialisation.
"online international trade cuts across a number of key customer segments and the new system will allow us to build an enhanced offering across our customer base"
An East & Partners' Australian SME Banking Markets Report conducted in October 2006 confirmed that 26.9% of SMEs are involved in importing or exporting with almost 60% concluding trade transactions with their primary bank.
Carl Favaloro, National Manager for International Trade Banking said that the new system uses latest technology and was simple and easy-to-use.
"Customers can access online international trade via BankWest Online Business Banking (OBB). It is completely web-enabled, with no dial-up required and fully integrated into OBB, conforming to the BankWest look and feel for a seamless customer experience.
"It is robust and very fast even over slower networks, and because it is integrated into OBB there is full security through our second factor authentification process.
"CFOs or authorisors can authorise their transactions at anytime, anywhere and because it is also fully integrated into our back-office it uses real time processing."
online international trade uses a solution called Customer Enterprise (CE) supplied by China systems, and has a number of key benefits such as direct data entry by the customer, simplifying the process and reducing potential for data entry errors. Technically, CE is based on latest technology J2EE or Java 2 Enterprise Edition.
"Most importantly from the customer's perspective it is easy to use with good help functions and easy settlement instructions, said Mr Favaloro.
"Data is captured at source with straight-through processing from the front end to the back end, with no rekeying required which will benefit our customers as it means faster processing times as well as increased accuracy.
"It also has other features that make it attractive, such as the ability to save frequently used transactions and use them to create templates for future use," he said.
International Trade is a rapidly growing division of BankWest. From April 2005 to December 2006 grew significantly and was rated no 1 in Trade - Overall Satisfaction in East & Partners' Australian SME Banking Markets Report for October 2006.
Mr Clark said that a strong International Trade Banking division was integral to BankWest's strategy of providing specialised banking solutions to customers and full service offering to customers.
"We are determined to win marketshare and attract customers by continuing to build internal expertise in specialised areas so we can focus on understanding our customers and helping them grow their business," he said.
"Customers told us a good trade finance offering is fundamental to their needs and we will continue to listen to our customers and develop products and services that they tell us are important to them."
Ends
For further information please contact:
Sally-ann Parker
Media Relations Manager
HBOS Australia Corporate Affairs
(02) 8299 8453
0439 938 935
About BankWest Business
BankWest Business provides a full range of core and specialist business banking products and services to all business market segments from small business to large corporates. From market leading transaction and investment accounts through to flexible business loans and sophisticated Financial Market and International Trade products, we are an organisation committed to making a meaningful difference in the financial services marketplace with our simple and straightforward products. Our energetic approach and attitude aims to reject the status quo and present a significant challenge to the conventions and the competition.
BankWest Business has a presence in capital cities, rural areas and regional locations throughout Australia. We focus on key markets including Property Finance, Small Business, Commercial, Rural and Regional and Corporate.
We also offer a flexible range of products and competitive lending guidelines across specialist industries such as Aged Care, Childcare, Hotels/Accommodation, Franchise and Pharmacy. We recognise the value of the going concern of a business, along with the value of its people and brand, not just its fixed assets or balance sheet.
Our business banking managers have been selected for their industry knowledge and experience and take the time to get to know their customers' business to find the best products and services to meet their needs.
BankWest has been around for more than 100 years and is now part of the HBOS Australia group with assets of over $39 billion. Backed by our parent company HBOS plc, one of the world's largest financial services groups, we are providing a fresh customer experience and challenging the Australian market. BankWest is the fastest growing business bank in Australia*, and because we are growing, we will try harder to help grow your business.
*Measured by market share growth, number of new managers hired and number of new Business Banking Centres opened.
