Absa has assured customers of the safety of its new ChatBanking platform that enables banking via social network Twitter.
The Barclays-owned banking group launched the platform for customers who wish to transact while they are engaged on the social network.
“Registration is done via your existing Absa Online logon details and is protected with your Pin, password and a SureCheck,” said Liezl Squier, Absa’s media relations and marketing and corporate relations executive.
“Once you are registered you simply follow @AbsaChatBanking to start using the service. All conversations will be just between us as they take place in the private direct messages space,” Squier added.
In order to use the service, you have to add your Twitter profile to your online banking settings, followed by a direct message to @AbsaChatBanking and simply saying: “hi”.
However, Absa has offered advice on how to protect your bank account should your Twitter profile be compromised.
“If your Twitter account is compromised, simply logon to Absa Online and de-link your Twitter profile. We don’t include your account number in our Twitter messages with you and you can only purchase airtime and data for your own cellphone number,” said Squier.
Beyond airtime or data for the registered account phone number, Absa ChatBanking clients may also retrieve account balances.
The launch of ChatBanking is part of a drive to deliver an increasingly digital banking experience.
Absa, which had 9,4m customers as at December 2015, recently introduced data reverse billing for mobile app customers and an Apple Watch application.
“As technology advances and more customers become connected, bringing banking to where our customers are is important to us. The launch of ChatBanking follows the momentum created by recent digital innovations such as the ability to do online debit order reversals, our online Fica document upload service as well as reverse billing for customers who interact with our banking app,” said Ashley Veasey, group chief information officer and chief digital officer at Barclays Africa.
Absa said it would expand the platform to other social networks in the future.
