St George pioneers Windows Phone 7 app

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St George Bank yesterday revealed it had developed what it claimed to be Australia’s first banking application for Windows Phone 7 smartphones.

The application is called Mobile Banking Lite and allows St George customers to access their account balance and transaction history while being out and about. In a media release, St George said the application featured a simplified log-in process to ensure clients a better service while they are “on the go”. Through the application customers can also locate St George branches and ATMs.

St George had previously developed similar applications for the Apple iPhone, BlackBerry and Android platforms. Yesterday, the bank’s chief executive Rob Chapman said the application was the first of its kind to be released by an Australian bank on the Windows Phone 7 platform. “St.George Mobile Banking Lite has been designed for customers who just need to check their account balance when they’re out and about, without having to complete the full mobile banking log-in process,” he said.

Chapman added the app was easy to use and that although it aimed at simplifying the log-in process, it would nevertheless ensure customers security through authentication. “It’s easy to use. Once a customer downloads the app from the Windows Market Place on their mobile phone, they enter all of their log-in details, including their customer number, security number and password,” he said. “From then on, subsequent logons only require customers to enter their internet password.”

The bank’s chief information officer Dhiren Kulkharmi said the launch of the application was part of a continued roll-out of new banking solutions which included the update of the bank’s website earlier this month. “It’s the latest development in St.George’s continued roll-out of innovative mobile banking solutions based on feedback from our customers,” he said.

Currently, the Mobile Banking Lite application can be downloaded from the Windows Market Place for Windows Phont 7 devices; however St George said in a statement it would also be made available for iPhone and Android users in April. “This is a very exciting new app designed to make banking even easier for our customer,” CEO Chapman said.

Image credit: HTC