KUALA LUMPUR: Citibank customers nationwide can now access their online banking services right from their smartphones and other portable devices such as PDAs and iPads.
Through the newly-launched Citibank Mobile service, the customers can view account summaries and perform detailed transactions.
The experience will be just like what you have when you access your account from a desktop computer, but you’ll be able to do this on a smartphone from anywhere you are, said Roy Heong, head of alternate channels and e-business at Citibank Malaysia.
Citibank Mobile users can also use the service to pay bills electronically; there are more than 50 merchants partnering with the bank on this already.
They can also top up their mobile phone prepaid account, locate the nearest ATM or Citibank branch to whichever location they happen to be in, and transfer funds between a Citibank account and that of a local bank.
Citibank announced that it is constantly innovating to make banking simpler, faster and more convenient for its customers.
In keeping with this, customer access to the Citibank Mobile service is easy and seamless — no additional registration is required, no activation process, and no application needs to be downloaded to the smartphone or other portable devices.
Its customers need only go to the bank’s website from their mobile devices, and log in using their existing Citibank Online username and password. That’s all.
“Essentially, Citibank Mobile is a customised version of Citibank Online that has been optimised for mobile devices,” Heong said.
And it’s secure. The bank said transactions over Citibank Mobile are encrypted, similar to the standard online banking service.
Transactions are also monitored by Citibank’s in-house fraud monitoring system (known as the Banking Advanced Fraud Early Warning Services, or AFEWS).
Also, a yearly vulnerability assessment is conducted on the mobile banking service to ensure up-to-date security parameters, according to Heong.
In addition to all that, Citibank sends out SMS spending alerts its customers to minimise any incidence of fraud. Everyday, more than 5,000 phone calls are also made to verify whether customers’ online transactions are genuine.
Citibank plans to introduce a mobile client later on, that users can download and install on their mobile devices for more immediate access to their banking account.
It has submitted an application for the iPhone to Apple Inc for approval, and users will probably start to see it on iTunes for download in the next three to six months, Heong said.
A similar application for the other mobile platforms, such as BlackBerry and Android, will also be made available in due time.
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www.citibank.com.my/mobile
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