In 2013 FUIB pleased the users of its remote banking systems with a number of interesting services and options, in particular, has significantly extended the quantity of supported platforms for mobile banking.

Roomian.org project has contacted the Executive Director of First Ukrainian International Bank Stephan Guglieri to learn more about the performance results of PUMB Online Internet banking, its functional peculiarities and further development plans for 2014.

– Stephan, which of the latest technological developments of your bank in online and mobile banking you can be proud of?

This year, FUIB has devoted much attention to the further development of its multifunctional mobile banking. To the already existing at the bank mobile platforms in January 2013 the banking application especially developed for iPad was added; and in the autumn, the application for Android. Another interesting novelty is the sale of tickets to football matches at Donbass Arena, with user friendly intuitive interface for choosing, paying for and receiving tickets.

– Which new features of Internet banking you plan to present to your customers in 2014?

We plan to extend the possibilities of person-to-person transfers via Internet banking, offering a service of quick card-to-card transfers, including transfers by cards issued by other banks (service, enabling to transfer the money fr om your card to the card of another person, wh ere you know only the card number).

We also plan to widen the list of payment recipients, adding both new service sellers and payment to tax authorities, traffic inspection, and the sale of tickets to various events, railway and air tickets. We are guided by the opinion that each customer should have the possibility to pay for the service that he exactly needs.

– What are you planning to do towards improving the user experience? How so you work on the user friendliness and usability of your online solutions for retail customers?

FUIB constantly improves its Internet banking system, by adding new features, always maintaining the balance: new functionality must not deteriorate the user friendliness and usability. For this purpose, we constantly analyse our customers’ propositions that we receive through various channels involving experts in user interfaces.

Moreover, before the new function is made available to new customers, we obligatory conduct its pilot implementation. Thus, a small group of customers explores, how understandable and convenient its use will be.

– Please, outline the current trends in remote banking services, which, in your opinion, will be determining for the online banking development in 2014?

The current remote banking development trends, in my opinion, are as follows.

First, in the Ukrainian market there exist good Internet banking services with a large number of functions, this is why banks will be involving customers in the active use of the service and work towards strengthening the financial literacy of customers – a customer should understand, why and what for he needs Internet banking.

Second, the growth in the Internet activity from mobile devices and constant increase in the sales of smartphones leads to the fact that the availability of mobile banking turns into the obligatory requirement of a customer when choosing a modern bank.

Third, the simplification of connecting to Internet banking and ease of making operations. The modern “advanced” user wants maximally quickly and easily (in one or two clicks) to make banking operations from any device.

I would like to single out the security issue. Banks will be consistently enhancing the security systems, anticipating fraudulent activities in order not to lose the trust of customers and broaden the popularity of systems.

– How the development of remote banking, in your opinion, will impact the traditional banking retail with the services rendering at outlets?

The main purpose of Internet banking is the maximum adaptation of operations made at outlets to their remote use and increase in the quantity of active users. This, in the course of time, will lead to the reduction in the number of customer visits to outlets, which, in its turn, will decrease the queues at outlets and will enable to concentrate on consultations to customers and sales of new services.

Source: Roomian.org