Bank apologises for frustrating customers

In its continuous pursuit to offer its customers the best banking facilities in the country, Standard Bank  migrated to a new Core Banking system (Finacle) on Monday, 6 February 2012 at a substantial investment.
The bank had to replace the old South African System with the new system (Finacle) not only as part of the Bank of Namibia’s (BON) localisation drive, but as a business imperative aimed at enhancing customer service.
The new core banking system will enable customer centricity by allowing it to respond to its customers’ needs promptly and therefore enhance a consistent customer experience at all levels.
“The objectives we set ourselves to switch from a legacy core banking platform to an advanced and new age technology solution were largely achieved.  The improvement to SBN’s core banking system will ensure that customers enjoy the best possible delivery of products and services well into the future.  However, with the switch over we are experiencing difficulties inevitable to a change of this magnitude” said Baronice Hans, executive director at Standard Bank Namibia.
Apologising for the inconvenience caused by this exercise, she said, the frustrations currently experienced by the bank’s customers with the new Internet Banking are well understood and appreciated. The bank is confident that these difficulties will improve rapidly as the customers get familiarised to the new Internet Banking.
“We are encouraging our customers to please visit our Internet Banking Website to familiarise themselves with the new Internet Banking terms and features. We recommend that they take a moment to read through the Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs), use the Online Internet Banking Demo and Internet Banking Easy Aid to further improve their navigation process on the new Internet Banking,” she said.
Hans further said that with the transition, the bank also perfected its amortization logic in its Home Loan Book and this resulted in customer current accounts being debited where the old system logic was out of sync. However, all impacted customers have been contacted and the issue has been rectified.
“We once again apologise to our customers and assure them that we are committed to resolving all identified issues. Our aim is to resolve any issue within 24 hours and thus we encourage customers to continue contacting us for feedback on their experience to raise any concerns or problems experienced.  All in all the system is working and customer are able to do their banking as normal,” said Hans.
“For security reasons we would like to caution our customers that Standard Bank will never contact them telephonically or via email to request for their card number and PIN. We thank our customers for their understanding and support during the transition period,” she added.