iSentric courts customers for m-banking

Friday, June 1st, 2007, The Star Online By DALJIT DHESI

KUALA LUMPUR: iSentric Sdn Bhd, a Multimedia Super Corridor-status company, is in talks with some banking groups, including foreign players, to help them develop their local mobile banking (m-banking) business in tandem with the fast-growing mobile-phone market. 

Chief executive officer Aaron Lee told StarBiz that the company hoped to offer its expertise in m-banking solutions to enable them to be competitive locally and abroad. 

“We hope to rope in some of them this year as m-banking is an important channel and revenue source for banks apart from other channels like retail, kiosk, telebanking and Internet banking. 

Isentric CEO, Mr. Aaron Lee

“About two-thirds of the country's population have mobile phones and this figure is growing rapidly. In 2005, 14.45 million of the 23 million population are handphone users,'' he said. 

“The penetration rate of cellular phones in 2005 stood at 50.7% and for the second quarter of last year there were some 240,000 3G subscribers in the country,'' Lee added. 

Banks currently using iSentric's mobile banking solutions are RHB Bank, Standard Chartered Bank and AmBank Group. 

According to Lee, m-banking helps a bank save cost, boost efficiency and ensure more secure transactions. 

For users, m-banking provides convenience and they can conduct their transactions via a mobile phone anytime, anywhere. 

As part of its expansion plans, Lee said the company was also looking at offering its m-banking solutions to financial institutions in the region. However, he declined to elaborate. 

On investment in this technology, he said it was about RM1mil and iSentric would continue to intensify research and development efforts moving forward. 

iSentric, a mobile solutions provider, also offers its solutions to the media and corporate sectors. Tahan Insurance and ACE Insurance are using iSentric's mobile solutions. 

The company's m-banking solutions are in compliance with Bank Negara's guidelines on management of IT environment.