Standard Chartered launches app on all major platforms

Mobile banking app ‘Breeze’ manages customers’ banking needs on the go.

KARACHI: In a move that will allow its customers to manage their accounts through smartphones, Standard Chartered Bank (SCB) launched its mobile phone application ‘Breeze’ at Carlton Hotel on Thursday.

“The lifestyle of the people is changing and they want things to be instantly available to them and that’s the whole idea behind Breeze,” Head of SCB’s Consumer Banking for the Middle East, Pakistan and Africa, Raheel Ahmed told The Express Tribune.

First launched in Singapore about 18 months ago, Breeze is a global mobile banking app for SCB customers and Pakistan is the seventh country to have it, Ahmed said. “We intend to launch it in another 20 countries as well,” he added.

The free app can be downloaded on iPhone, Blackberry, Android phones and Symbian phones, said Yasir Khan who looks after the bank’s digital channel. All one needs is an internet connection, he said. “Through this app, we have provided online banking to people’s smartphones,” he said.

Customers can transfer money between their accounts, to another SCB customer’s account and accounts in other banks, Khan said – the app has a transfer limit of Rs2 million. They can pay their bills and locate SCB’s automatic teller machines (ATM) through the app, he added.



SCB customers holding credit cards can see their credit card details and even transfer fund from credit card to their account and pay bills, Khan said. Customers can see transaction history for the past three months, while calendar view tool can give exact details of each transaction, he said.

The SCB, according to the officials, has taken proper security measures to protect customers’ data.

“Once you log out, you are completely disconnected from the SCB account. The app doesn’t even have a cache system,” said Syed Murad Rizvi, International Grad at SCB. “This is to protect customer’s data from leakage in case his phone is snatched or lost,” he said.

While giving a demo, Rizvi pointed out that unlike online banking, users cannot add any beneficiary to their account using this app, a security measure against any unauthorised transfer.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 31^st, 2013.

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