PSBank unveils double security online banking

MANILA, Philippines –  The Philippine Savings Bank (PSBank) is installing not one, but two levels of security measures to ensure that its online clientele base is safe from fraud.

PSBank, a subsidiary of the Metropolitan Bank & Trust Co. (Metrobank), presently serves nearly 40,000 bank clients enrolled in its online or Internet-based banking services. The second largest thrift bank in the country has a deposit and borrower base of over 350,000.

PSBank senior vice president and E-banking head Jaime L. Araneta said that it has applied the so-called two-factor authentification system to secure its online banking users.

Aside from the standard personal identification number (PIN), password or code, and repetition of procedures demanded entering the online site, PSBank has given a device to each online user for additional security.

Araneta explained that the two-factor authentification gadget looks like a USB or keyholder. It will generate random codes every time the user makes a transaction.

After making the standard entry process, the user simply presses a button and the gadget generates a random code.

“It is really an additional layer for security. Our system is very secure for the peace of mind of PSBank’s online users,” Araneta said.

He added that should anyone other than the authorized user get hold of the gadget, that person cannot access the online account since the two-factor authentification gadget does not have the original details.

PSBank is the only thrift bank that offers the additional security feature. It is also the only thrift bank independently offering online banking services, and it widely believed to approximate the online banking services of commercial banks.

ATM-service provider BancNet offers online banking services to its member banks, but these are limited to plain-vanilla services like balance inquiries.

PSBank officials are happy with the level of acquisition achieved in terms of online banking users from its individual accounts. Electronic banking (e-banking) is still in its early days but already users are demanding.

But one particular group that the bank “pampers” is the overseas Filipinos and their beneficiaries in the Philippines.

Araneta stressed that overseas Filipinos are major users of e-banking services, especially are it has reached mature levels overseas.

“It keeps them in touch with their finances, especially the spending habits of their beneficiairies in the Philippines,” the bank senior executive said.

He added: “It is their only link to their accounts backbone. They practically demand to get online.”

PSBank offers to individual clients the ability to access their bank accounts activities in the past six months to a maximum of two years. “We are the only thrift bank doing it,” he added.

Online banking is a service that can only grow what with the technology available in the market today, and the speed by which it is utilized in the banking community. Also taken in consideration is the mobility of the market.

The general profile of online banking users are concentrated with the 20- to 40-year old individuals. But that is slowly expanding.

A study conducted by AC Nielsen indicates that online Filipinos are young and single. The largest group of Internet users are aged 10 to19 years, followed by the age group of 20 to 29 years, and the next are in the 30 to 39 age group.

“You cannot make the young ones go to a bank branch because they’ll want to do their banking from the Internet or from their mobile phones,” bank executives said.

The level of technology today dictates that banking institutions learn to adapt, and thus offer banking services taking advantage of such technological advancements.

It is now common to find households with a desktop computer at home, more individuals are getting laptops, notebooks, and netbooks, and the mobile phone technology have become very sophisticated.

The annual growth of broadband technology is 30 percent, and the penetration rate for online banking is practically the same.

In fact, the uptake for online banking have reached equal footing in Metro Manila and Metro Cebu. “We have online clients as far as Tuguegarao and Dumaguete,” Araneta added.

Some of the services offered by online banking are: account information (balance inquiry, view account statement, download, view summary of transactions), view statement (view/download transactions in past two months), bill payments (immediate or advanced payments to accredited billers or merchants), fund transfer (move PSBank funds from one branch to another under the same name, or to family with PSBank accounts), manage accounts (enroll or un-enroll account, assign nicknames to the account, modify functionalities of enrolled accounts as bills payment source, fund transfer, funds transfer target), customer service (feedback on inquiry with customer service associates), customer feedback (helps the bank improve/expand services), online loan application (apply for auto, business, home or personal loans, get updates via SMS or email regarding application status), and online tools.