St George Bank of Australia has withdrawn its internet banking system as it has decided to integrate its mobile banking platform across all its channels. The bank was the first Australian bank to launch internet banking in the country in 1995 and it becomes the first to withdraw it too. CIO of the bank, Dhiren Kulkarni, said the bank has developed a framework where by 2015 it plans to be a ‘mobile only’ bank. He said banks have online teams, mobile team, an Android mobile team, and an Apple mobile team, but the industry is changing so fast and so quick it just wants to be in a position to cope and continue.”That’s why the change of strategy where we will be mobile only,” he said. He said the bank will have its first implementation for tablet in October 2014, a second mobile implementation in March 2015, and then desktop sometime in 2015, so it will have one system altogether. As part of its next step in enhancing its mobile banking offer, St George has announced a trial of iBeacon, a technology that uses small wireless transmitter devices and Bluetooth Low Energy to interact with nearby devices.
