A smart watch will tell you the time, it’ll track your heart rate, but it also has apps. It’s important for Apple to attract new apps their the new Apple Watch platform. Two Australian banks are getting on-board, namely Westpac and St.George who are putting banking on your wrist. The Westpac Group including St.George today announced that its customers will be among the first in the world to use mobile banking at the touch of the wrist, through Apple’s Apple Watch which launches today in Australia, followed by the rest of the world.
The latest offering will provide ease and convenience for the increasing number of customers who are now banking on the go on ‘smart’ devices. Customers will have access to a range of mobile banking services on their Apple Watch including quick and easy access to account balances, finding their nearest ATM or branch, and receiving travel notifications at the airport to advise the bank of their travel plans.
Westpac Mobile Banking on Apple Watch will provide customers with access to:
- Find your nearest ATM or branch
- Receive a Get Cash code on your watch, requested via the app on your iPhone
- Receive Travel Notifications at the airport to advise Westpac of your travel plans prior to travelling overseas.
St.George mobile banking on Apple Watch will provide customers with access to:
- View up to 2 account balances (Quick Balance)
- Find your nearest ATM or branch
Westpac’s General Manager Digital, Harry Wendt, said:
“Providing customers with a variety of ways to manage their money, whenever and however they want is a priority for us, and the latest iteration of that is Apple Watch.”
“Around 370,000 smart watches were purchased by Australians last year, highlighting the voracious appetite for new technology devices. By offering secure banking on the latest Apple device we are giving our customers even more choice in how they want to interact with us.”
St.George’s CIO Dhiren Kulkarni, said:
“We know our customers like being first with the latest technology and we’re extremely excited to be first to market with rolling out our mobile banking app at release of the Apple Watch. “The St.George app brings pleasure to banking and makes banking tasks simple and convenient with features like Quick Balance, where customers can quickly view their account balances directly from their wrist watch.
“We will be enhancing the app on an ongoing basis, and following the success of our Android smartwatch app, we’re confident the Apple Watch app will be a big hit for our growing number of customers banking on the go.”
Today’s announcement follows a year of innovations at Westpac Group including; Fingerprint Logon on Android and iPhone, Westpac Get Cash which enables customers to withdraw cash from a Westpac ATM without a card by having a code sent to their phone; Westpac contactless payments; overseas travel notifications and Global Alliance overseas alerts to notify customers of their nearest Global Alliance partner ATM. St.George’s Australian-first smartwatch mobile banking app for Android, biometric logon capability and the introduction of iBeacon technology, which delivers a personalised experience every time a customer enters a branch.
Keep in mind, you will need Apple Watch and an iPhone 5 or above running iOS 8.2. Customers will also need to grab the latest version of their Westpac or St.George Mobile Banking app for their iPhone.
Unfortunately there’s no support for Apple Pay, something Tim Cook showed off as a key feature of the watch.
