IBM Helps ING DIRECT Canada Connect with Mobile, Social Customers

ARMONK, N.Y. and TORONTO, March 20, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- With today's digital consumers embracing mobile, social and cloud computing, ING DIRECT Canada is applying a Smarter Commerce approach to consumer banking with IBM's help in meeting the rising expectations of its 1.8 million digital customers.  IBM (NYSE:IBM) today announced that it is working with the online bank to deliver innovative financial services that improve ING DIRECT's customer experience including simplified account access across mobile devices and social media channels, voice recognition, and advanced security.

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Based on IBM software and services, these innovations support ING DIRECT's Orange Snapshot initiative, designed to provide its clients greater control to manage their accounts within their increasingly mobile and social lifestyle.  Orange Snapshot gives mobile consumers a complete and simplified view of all their accounts, as well as bill payment and email money transfers, in two easy clicks. This allows consumers to sign on once from their mobile device, saving time and aggravation from multiple log-ins.

"There is a seismic shift in what is happening in financial services," said ING DIRECT Canada CIO Charaka Kithulegoda. "Mobile banking is changing not only how people bank, but also what they expect from their banks and, ultimately, whom they choose to bank with. ING DIRECT, with IBM's help, is committed to making banking simpler, engaging and more relevant by giving customers the easy tools they need to bank whenever, wherever and however they want."

Working with IBM, the bank's latest mobile innovation allows clients to easily and securely access their ING DIRECT account information from within Facebook's social networking site. Clients who opt-in to this app are able to view their account balances, history and pending transactions as well as receive account notifications --- real time messages automatically pushed to them within Facebook.   With security and privacy always top of mind, ING DIRECT plans to expand this application further to include transactions such as transfers, bill payments and email money transfers.

Furthermore, ING DIRECT allows clients to share their experiences through Facebook and Twitter to make saving money more intriguing.  In a recent survey, ING DIRECT learned that 52 percent of consumers were able to forego non-essential purchases when they could better visualize the impact of their spending habits had on their over time.

For instance, the bank's mobile Small Sacrifices feature helps guide clients through day-to-day decisions that save them money. Clients can choose to make small sacrifices such as passing on a cup of coffee and have the funds instead transferred to their savings account.   With Small Sacrifices, clients are transferring small amounts of money little by little, quickly and securely, showing how those sacrifices add up over time.

IBM's Smarter Commerce initiative is designed to help businesses better connect with the rising tide of digital consumers who prefer to buy through online, mobile and social channels.   It is estimated that there are more smartphones on the planet than humans. According to IDC, by 2016, more than 10 billion smartphones will be in use around the globe.  In Canada, more than half of smartphone users bank from their devices – and that number grows higher when looking at users between the ages 18-34.  

With IBM's MobileFirst initiative, the company is helping clients advance mobile capabilities with new social business, security and other technology solutions to simplify how consumers are able to use the power of their mobile devices.

ING DIRECT continues to work with IBM in seeking new ways to connect to mobile applications in order to advance sales, manage secure transactions, and provide new insights about clients.

The bank has begun experimenting with new voice recognition capabilities on their mobile apps that will allow clients to conduct simple banking transactions by speaking rather than typing or the application can read account information to the customer. ING DIRECT is also exploring the use of biometrics within their mobile apps for purposes such as client login to improve the client experience while maintaining the highest standards of security.  Internal pilots are already yielding positive outcomes.

"From online to mobile to social banking, ING DIRECT Canada has led the Canadian financial services industry in connecting with clients through new channels," said Kevin Custis, IBM's global leader for mobility services.  "IBM has become an essential partner in helping ING DIRECT build a flexible and scalable online and mobile infrastructure that enables the bank to support new devices and other digital channels while responding to changing customer demands."

Recently, Forrester Research, Inc. recognized IBM as a leader in enterprise mobility services, according to the February 2013 report The Forrester Wave™: Enterprise Mobility Services, Q1 2013 [1]. Based on an analysis of 13 global leaders' enterprise mobility capabilities and how they stack up, the report indicates that IBM "brings clients a world-class design agency combined with breadth and depth of enterprise mobility consulting both in terms of technology capabilities and global presence."

About ING DIRECT Canada

ING Bank of Canada, operating under the trade name of ING DIRECT, is a wholly owned subsidiary of Scotiabank. ING DIRECT is Canada's leadING DIRECT bank with over 1.8 million clients and close to $40 billion in total assets. ING DIRECT is a bright way forward in everyday banking for Canadians, offering value added, simple products such as high interest savings accounts, including TFSAs, GICs and RSPs with no fees or service charges, low rates on mortgages and a no-fee, daily chequing account that actually pays interest. Low cost, index based mutual funds are sold through ING DIRECT Funds Limited. ING DIRECT has been operating in Canada since 1997, and has paid more than $5 billion in interest to Clients. ING DIRECT is open for banking 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, at ingdirect.ca, on mobile devices at m.ingdirect.ca or by calling 1-800 ING DIRECT (1-800-464-3473).

Get social with ING DIRECT: Facebook.com/SuperStarSaver; Twitter.com/SuperStarSaver; YouTube.com/SuperStarSaver

Follow Peter Aceto: Twitter.com/CEO_INGDIRECT; Facebook.com/savingsceo; Direct Talk blog at blog.ingdirect.ca

About IBM

More information on Smarter Commerce can be found at:  www.ibm.com/smarterplanet/us/en/smarter_commerce/overview/

For more information on IBM MobileFirst, visit:  www.ibm.com/mobilefirst

For more information on IBM services and solutions for the financial services industry, visit: www.ibm.com/banking

1"The Forrester Wave™: Enterprise mobility Services, Q1 2013, February 2013. Copyright (c) 2013, Forrester Research, Inc.

SOURCE IBM