Commonwealth Bank records huge take-up of online COVID measures
The Commonwealth Bank says customers have enthusiastically embraced its online support measures rolled out during the pandemic.
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Chris Griffith 11am: More than 400,000 take up CBA money management plan during pandemic
The Commonwealth Bank has detailed the take-up of online support measures it has rolled out for customers during the pandemic. The bank today released the details as part of its 2021 half yearly results.
The bank now has 7.5 million digitally active customers, a 10 per cent rise compared to 2018. Some 6.3 million customers use the CommBank app, which is up 400,000 compared to a year ago.
Some 70 per cent of all transactions are now conducted digitally.
The bank said logins to its CommBank app peaked at more than 10 million daily during 2020. The Bill Sense capability within the app which predicts upcoming bills has produced 60 million predictions for customers.
The bank had sought to be an accredited recipient of data under the Consumer Data Right.
Measures included a COVID-related money management feature in the CommBank app – Coronavirus Money Plan. It said more than 400,000 customers used the app feature.
It said 615,000 claims were made by customers using the Benefits Finder feature since the start of COVID-19. The feature helps customers reduce utility costs and access government payments.
Commonwealth Bank also rolled out an online version of its BizExpress product that helps small businesses obtain quick access to funding. BizExpress Online supports lending requests up to $1m.
There’s the bank’s Customer Engagement Engine which suggests the next conversation the bank should have with each customer. It’s a way for services to be relevant to the individual needs of customers.
Chief executive Matt Comyn said the engine ran around 400 machine-learning models and ingested about 157 billion data points in real time, in order to make 35 million decisions per day.
“The scale of that is impressive but what’s most important is the value we can serve to our customers in terms of relevance, in terms of personalised experience, and making sure we are the trusted financial partner for our customers at the centre of their financial lives.
Mr Comyn said the bank was committed to best-in-class technological solutions for customers to ensure their needs are met. He said the bank was determined “to remain the clear leader in digital banking”.
“We recognise customers are no longer just benchmarking us against other financial institutions. They compare us with the best digital experiences they get from any business in the world.
“We intend to be at the global forefront of the digital experience, and be the trusted partner at the centre of our customers’ financial lives,” Mr Comyn said.
“Our investment in technology including data, machine learning and artificial intelligence is giving us unique insights into each customer’s individual needs.
“Customers want more control over their financial affairs, more confidence they can achieve financial goals, and an ability to manage all of their financial life in one place.”
Mr Comyn said CommBank Neo was more than a bank version of a buy-now, pay-later service. Neo is a credit card where users pay a monthly fee. No interest or late fees apply.
“It‘s much more around a broader investment in continuing to innovate in payments. Some of that we’ll do directly in the CommBank app, some of that we’ll do through x15ventures and either integrate that into the app, some of them we might have as stand-alone propositions.”
The bank’s venture building company x15ventures also reported on its progress in the digital space. Its first four ventures Credit Savvy, Home-in, Vonto, and Backr were up and running, and x15ventures had acquired Doshii, a cloud platform that includes a point-of-sale system that at this stage connects food apps with a hospitality venue’s point of sale system. It is its first acquisition.
X15ventures managing director Toby Norton-Smith said Doshii represented the evolution of the company’s strategic direction.
“The acquisition of Doshii is an exciting moment for us at the one year mark, because I think it is a real maturation of our strategy. We have proven that we can build quality ventures,” he said.
“The next step for me is let’s have more impact. Let’s actually bring ventures that have been in the market for a few years, and bring them on the journey with us.”
Mr Comyn said the bank is continuing its migration to the cloud. “We’re continuing with our multi-year investment to move much of our workloads onto the cloud with a couple of different partners.” He said this was still “gathering momentum”.
Mr Comyn said the bank also was moving some third party services regarded as critical to in-house services. Staff met regularly to examine which workloads the bank was going to move over in the next 30 or 60 days, he said.
It was also boosting its battalion of software engineers who “play an absolutely critical role and technology is just such a big part of our future strategy and of our existing prospects”. The bank currently employs around 5000 engineers and plans to hire more.
David Swan 9am: NBN Co revenue up 25pc
NBN Co has posted total revenue of $2.26bn for the six months to December 31, 2020, up 25 per cent year-on-year, as the infrastructure company moves from its “build” phase to a major $4.5bn fibre upgrade of the network.
The company said it acquired more than 660,000 new customers in the half, and now has more than 7.9m premises on its network nationally. 11.9m premises are now deemed “ready to connect”.
Earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA), including subscriber costs, was $424 million, up $1.1bn from a year earlier, which NBN said was due to revenue growth and declining subscriber payments to Telstra and Optus.
Residential average revenue per user (ARPU) remained steady at $45.
NBN Co has raised $10bn in private debt over the last 12 months, and boss Stephen Ceo said the organisation was on track to meet its 2021 forecasts despite the additional free capacity provided during COVID-19, and issues plaguing the HFC portion of the network.
“Our results in the first half of FY21 are very strong and underscore the strength of the business in what has been a challenging time for all Australians,” Mr Rue said.
8am: Huawei files lawsuit to reverse US ban
China’s Huawei Technologies filed a lawsuit in the US disputing its designation as a national security threat by the Federal Communications Commission, stepping up legal challenges in the country despite a change of administration in Washington.
The lawsuit filed Monday in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit asked for a review of an FCC ruling last year that found the company poses a national security threat and blocked American telecommunications operators from accessing a multibillion-dollar fund to buy Huawei-made telecom gear.
The complaint is Huawei’s latest challenge to the U.S.’s numerous actions targeting it over the past several years. The Trump administration blocked the company from accessing American technology and sought to persuade allies that Huawei’s telecom gear presented national security risks.
Huawei’s lawsuit said the FCC’s ruling in December exceeded its authority and was “arbitrary, capricious, and an abuse of discretion, and not supported by substantial evidence.”
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