ANZ Bank goes mobile with banking app

ANZ Bank will launch a mobile banking app for its corporate customers developed by Bottomline Technologies.

The app, which so far only supports Apple devices, allows businesses to access the ANZ Transactive service on the go.

Customers can check account balances, view transactions and approve or reject payments. Planned enhancements down the road include “richer security, payments and FX rates functionality,” Bottomline said.

The app is compatible with the Apple iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch, but later will support “non-Apple devices,” Bottomline said.

ANZ plans to release the app in Q4 2012 in Australia and New Zealand, Bottomline said. The app will launch later in other Asia-Pacific markets, the bank said.

The app launch reflects a recognition at ANZ that CFOs and treasurers are increasingly working outside the office, said ANZ global head of payments and cash management, Anne Collard.

Banks are facing increasing competitive pressure to make their services mobile. Commonwealth Bank chief information officer Michael Harte recently said that the future of banking lies in recreating the 'old fashioned' banking experience of personalised service using the potential of mobile devices, whole-of-life customer data and real-time transactions.

"What people want is to be able to be at home or in the office or traveling overseas, any time, anywhere real-time richness and be able to increasingly do that through an interface that's rich and mimics or re-presents the intimacy of what you once had [with] face-to-face banking and insurance and brokerage," Harte said.

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