Business banking news review: week ending 19 Feb 2015
Two Royal Bank of Scotland Group banks, RBS and NatWest, have forged ahead into the 21st century by adopting thumb print reading technology from Apple.
Online banking and mobile banking isn’t new, even in the UK. Plenty of banks and building societies have their own mobile banking apps and online banking portals, but that’s late 20th century technology at the best. Even the idea of a mobile banking app accessible through a smartphone has become old hat while companies like Apple forge ahead with new mobile payment systems and bank account accessibility programmes like the Apple Pay initiative, but so far British banks have been behind the times.
At least, they were until now, at least when it comes to NatWest and RBS. The two banks have partnered with Apple to allow easy, one-touch access to banking details for their customers by allowing them to use Apple’s Touch ID thumb print scanning technology in lieu of a passcode. Anyone with an iPhone 5s, an iPhone 6 or an iPhone 6 Plus can access the service as Touch ID is built into those particular handset; users need only log in traditionally once to their banking apps before turning on Touch ID for subsequent logins.
This is an industry first for the UK, which tends to lag behind in some smartphone features like those found in Apple phones, usually because the US-based company takes some time to roll out products and services in different countries. There’s no telling if and when Apple Pay will ever hit British shores for instance, despite demand for the mobile payments system. Still, this new development tells me that maybe British personal and business bank account holders will finally begin to see some real, advanced cutting edge tech when it comes to conducting their financial business going forward, especially if RBS and NatWest’s new service takes off in popularity.
So there you have it: if you want more and better tech, make sure you adopt the ones we do have access to in order to show the powers that be that there’s a demand for it. Who knows – maybe the rest of High Street will follow in the footsteps of RBS and join the 21st century with the rest of us?