RHB Bank continues to invest in digital platform

PETALING JAYA: RHB Bank Bhd will continue to invest in the digital platform to make online banking more convenient for customers, in line with its key product proposition, which is to build digital convenience.
However, RHB Group Retail Banking executive director U Chen Hock did not reveal the amount allocated for its digital platform, except to say that the group has set aside huge investment for its IT infrastructure.
RHB yesterday launched the Smart Account and the RHB (Islamic) Smart Account-i, which allow customers to open their deposit accounts online for which they will be rewarded with returns of 3% a year and a 1% bonus payouts when they save, pay bills online spend and invest with RHB.
The group is looking to raise RM150 million by attracting 50,000 users with a minimum deposit of RM3,000 within six months.
Since the soft launch of the product on Jan 9, the product has garnered 2.24 million sign ups, 15% of which are non-RHB staff.
RHB’s head of mass affluent and group retail assets and liabilities products, Muzir Kassim, said since some users are used to having multiple accounts to serve different purposes such as one for paying bills and the other for savings, hence the idea was to consolidate all of these uses into one account.
“Why don’t we consolidate, you do everything with us, we pay you more so that you can keep all your money in one area,” he said.
“We pay you a bit extra, hopefully, the balances will rise as well, we try to make it more convenient for customers,” he added.
On whether this will cost the bank more, Muzir said: “Obviously the trade-off is, yes we will pay slightly more, but hopefully we will bring in more customers.”
The product was created to suit the mobile lifestyle of its target group which is the middle-income professionals, managers and executives, who are time poor.
With a minimum of RM2,000 monthly deposit and maintaining a RM1,000 in this account, account holders can qualify for bonus payouts such as a basic interest rate of 0.5% on account balances above RM1,000, 1.5% when you transfer money into the account, 0.5% for debit card, and another 0.5% when you pay three bills online.
Those who invest in unit trust will be entitled for a 1% bonus payout which is capped at up to RM100,000.