Wearable banking: Standard Bank will launch an Apple Watch app

[TeamSouthAfrica]

The future is now and technology enriches our lives in a way never thought possible. Smartphones aren’t really phones- they are devices that connect us to our everyday happenings; they just happen to have a telephony system. It then comes as no surprise that wearables (wearable technology) will complement our smart devices to provide an even richer experience to our connected lives.

Standard Bank today announced plans to embrace wearable technology, with the forthcoming release of its Apple Watch banking app. With consumers embracing technology and wearables, Standard Bank looked at how to integrate banking services into this new technology.

An Apple Watch app is currently being tested with pilot users and will be available to customers by the end of September 2015. This follows Standard Bank’s recent launch of SA’s first biometric-enabled banking app by giving users access to smartphone banking using Apple’s Touch ID technology.

Standard Bank is continuously looking for ways to make the lives of the customer easier by making banking a seamless part of their daily lives.  The smart watch app will provide greater choice to customers about how they would like to stay in control of their finances. 

The first version of the Standard Bank’s Apple Watch app will contain a Balance Peek feature – allowing users to check their latest account balances without having to log into online banking or their smartphone app.

 Already on the agenda are smart watch services that allow share trading clients to track indices and shares, see the biggest market movers and track changes in their share portfolios.

The safety of customers remains a top priority and users are able to de-link their Apple Watch from their iPhone, as well as to toggle the Balance Peek feature on or off from the main banking app.

The Apple Watch app will be followed by similar rollouts for Android Wear-enabled watches towards the latter part of 2015.