Bank of the West Earns Recognition as a 2016 Javelin Online Banking Leader in the "Customer-First Banking" Category

SAN FRANCISCO, Nov. 30, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Bank of the West today announced it was chosen as one of the winners of the Javelin Online Banking Leader awards for financial institutions (FIs) that distinguished themselves from the competition by providing the outstanding online banking experiences for their customers.

Javelin's Online Banking Leaders awards recognized the most exceptional functionality and customer experience among the top 30 retail financial institutions by deposit size. The 2016 Online Banking Scorecard: Redesigning Online Banking as a Financial Journey ranked financial institutions based on an evaluation of more than 200 features in several categories.  

Winners in the Customer-First category — including Bank of the West — scored high on innovation and personalization (the award is assigned to only five financial institutions among the 30 surveyed). The category recognized the FIs that are more likely to pioneer the use of features that can help customers develop healthy financial habits, including recommending the use of direct deposit as an automated saving tool that can build an emergency fund or pay periodic bills, and features that can shed light on debt and financial well-being.

"The Customer-First Banking category is the most innovative and hardest to achieve, given that it brings many elements together for an overall experience," said Mark Schwanhausser, director of Omnichannel Financial Services, Javelin Strategy & Research. "Bank of the West encompasses pioneering features helping customers to spend, save, borrow and invest more wisely."

Bank of the West recently transformed its online banking platform with a major upgrade and redesign creating a simple and easy-to-use experience for its personal and small business customers. The entire infrastructure of Bank of the West's online banking platform was overhauled from front-end to back-end to ensure a customer-focused site that delivered a consistent experience across desktop and tablet.

To proactively manage the ongoing evolution of its online and mobile banking services, Bank of the West solicits feedback from customers and non-customers using a variety of feedback channels such as lab-based usability studies, user research studies and customer surveys for an iterative-based approach to the design of its online banking. Insights from the research highlight customer preferences and pain-points which inform the design of its online banking and helps enhance the platform technology, functionality and customer experience

By taking this customer-centric view, Bank of the West provides services that are most relevant to its customers helping them stay on top of their finances by:

• Finding Key Account Information and Services in One Place:   After login, customers can view a snapshot overview of their accounts, upcoming payments, and spending habits from a single place.  Bank of the West uniquely brings all upcoming eBills, payments, and transfers together that are scheduled to take place ensuring customers are aware of their financial inflows and outflows.    
• Making Secure Payments and Transfers: Bank of the West offers various ways for its customers to move money – for example, "Quick Pay," allows users to pay bills. And, with "Quick Transfers," customers may transfer money between their own Bank of the West accounts and to or from other U.S. financial institutions.
• Customizing Payment Labels: Customers may also custom-edit spending categorization by assigning nicknames to payments. This makes categorization of spending easier for tax or accounting purposes.
• Using Personal Money Management Tools: A "My Spending" area on the landing page gives customer the ability to track and monitor their spending and their budgets. A colorful pie chart provides a visual summary of spending expenses by category (e.g. groceries, entertainment, rent or mortgage), allowing comparison of budgets month-to-month, helping customers recognize where they may need to cut back.

"At Bank of the West we have a reputation for a customer-focused approach – and we are proud to receive recognition from Javelin Strategy and Research," said Jamie Armistead, executive vice president and head of Digital Channels, Bank of the West. "We will continue to provide innovative ways to meet our customers' needs in our always-evolving digital age."

Bank of the West offers a range of industry-leading digital banking services such as its mobile app that enables photo check deposit and photo bill pay ("Scan to Pay").  Bank of the West will also be a participating bank in Zelle, which will enable real-time person-to-person (P2P) payments. To learn more about the Bank's online banking services or enroll in online and mobile banking, visit bankofthewest.com.

About Bank of the West
Bank of the West is a regional financial services company headquartered in San Francisco with $82.6 billion in assets as of September 30, 2016. Founded in 1874, Bank of the West provides a wide range of personal, commercial, wealth management and international banking services through more than 600 branches and offices in 23 states and digital channels. Bank of the West is a subsidiary of BNP Paribas, which has a presence in 75 countries with more than 189,000 employees. To learn more about Bank of the West, visit About Us on bankofthewest.com

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SOURCE Bank of the West