Hong Leong Bank launches first transactional mobile banking app in Malaysia

The bank partnered with Kony to create the banking app for three smartphones, namely Apple iPhone's iOS, Google's Android OS and the RIM BlackBerry OS.

Kony Solutions, Inc. announced that Hong Leong Bank has deployed a transactional mobile banking app on three smartphone platforms namely Apple iPhone's iOS, Google's Android OS and the RIM BlackBerry OS. Hong Leong Bank partnered with Kony to create the new Hong Leong Connect Mobile Banking App, which offers customers access to banking accounts on-the-move, to perform instant fund transfer via their mobile phone, to locate Hong Leong Bank's points of services, and more.

"The rebranding of Hong Leong Online signifies a revolution in consumer e-banking where we can engage with our customers in a constant non-intrusive manner through multiple platforms to offer differentiated lifestyle banking," said Ms. Yvonne Chia, HLB's Group Managing Director.

"Hong Leong Connect epitomizes customer outreach based on relationship building powered by consumer technology embedded within their changing lifestyle and digital communal needs," she added.

"The new mobile banking app will also introduce a social payment feature to demonstrate new possibilities by offering customers the flexibility to pay anyone instantly via their smart phones to any mobile number, and this payment service is called PEx, short for Payment Express," explained Ms. Chia.

"HLB is the first bank to offer this innovative cash transfer mode in Malaysia, which exemplifies the essence of new convenience and secure digital banking services," she continued.

Another attractive feature for people on-the-go, Hong Leong Connect mobile banking app provides HLB customers location-aware services enabled by the smartphone GPS capability. Customers are able to locate any HLB point of presence and nearby promotional offers from Hong Leong Debit and Credit Cards, including "Kids Eat For Free" outlets.

"Besides conventional mass media, the Bank also engages social media to generate broad interest of PEx-focused content which is a fresh new payment concept to many. We will continue to bring innovation to all future digital channels for timely interaction with our customers," she concluded.

Kony is a leading mobile application vendor, powering more than 45 Fortune 500 brands' mobile websites, native applications and SMS/MMS campaigns and generating more than six billion total user sessions annually. By delivering such a functionally robust and stable product, global brands entrust Kony with providing mobile presence and commerce. Uniquely, Kony starts building in key new features of new operating system versions as soon as the new SDK is released to the developer community. Kony provides an SLA that states support of new versions of an existing platform SDK within 30 days of its release to the developer community and an SLA of 90 days for completely new device and operating system releases.

"We have a breadth of experience helping financial services and investment firms provide their customers with engaging mobile experiences," said Raj Koneru, Kony CEO. "In addition to providing financial companies with our best-in-class mobile platform, we also offer a customizable vertical application, Kony Mobile Banking, built on best practices, specifically for mobile financial services, providing off-the-shelf functionality that lets companies reach their customers and employees on any device, operating system or browser without compromises."