In an Australian first, National Australia Bank has offered a digital option to restrict gambling transactions via its app. Although the feature was available to iOS Users in December 2019, the option is now extended to Android as well.
NAB said all retail banking customers with NAB Visa Credit or NAB Visa Debit cards can restrict most gambling transactions with immediate effect – with just one touch. It is not clear why only “most gambling transactions”. Nevertheless, a welcome feature.
Ever since the feature was offered by NAB in December last year, over 10,000 customers have turned on the restriction. The restriction can be removed via the NAB App or by calling NAB Customer Support, but there will be a delayed reactivation of 48 hours during which time the request to reactivate can be cancelled.
NAB Chief Customer Experience Officer Rachel Slade said “the tool is designed to put the choice in the hands of our customers. We also recognise problem gambling remains a major challenge affecting the community and one that requires organisations, governments, and the community to work together to effectively address.”
Value-added services
With the neobanks offering attractive interest rates and ‘bigtech’ spreading tentacles across financial services, it’s imperative the established players do more to improve brand loyalty and retain customers.
Although big banks have huge customer deposits running into hundreds of billions, the established players are cognizant of the speed at which the challenger banks are growing their deposits with attractive interest rates on offer. Australian neobanks 86400 and Xinja offer 2.25% interest rate which is far higher compared to NAB’s offers.
Offering existing customers with personal finance management tools is one growing trend. Money management features with the added convenience of controlling finances via the app are in demand. NAB’s latest feature empowering customers to control their finances is a step in that direction.
In addition, NAB has provided offers including a free credit health check, ‘My Goals’ to track progress on personal savings ambitions and providing text reminders for credit card payments. Other banks have similar personal finance management features helping customers to have better control over their finances.
Adding new and helpful features to existing customers is one step in what could be a long and difficult journey for the big banks.
The last year was a horrendous period for NAB due to the scathing remarks by the Banking Royal Commission and the subsequent leadership exits. However, NAB stood out for technology and digital reasons beyond business. The technology issues resulted in a series of outages and there was the embarrassing data breach in July 2019. In his recent message, the new boss Ross McEwan has called for “getting the basics right”.
