ABSA launches revamped online banking site, but is it enough?

“A new era in online banking.” That’s what South African online banking giant Absa is promising with its revamped online banking site.

The site, which went live today, features a new design that includes a central dashboard. The bank claims that this presents “a snapshot view of one’s day-to-day banking, investments, other assets, and liabilities — allowing customers to better plan their financial affairs”.

Arrie Rautenbach, Head of Retail Markets at Absa reckons that providing this centralised view, his bank is “putting the customer in control and empowering them to make the right financial decisions, budget more effectively, and unlock new opportunities for growth. Absa’s online banking customers hold investments and assets totalling trillions of rands.”

Absa claims that the redesign has been in development for two years and that it “represents a distinct step-change from what was a purely transactional online service to a comprehensive suite of transactional and non-transactional services, as well as tools to better manage one’s monthly spend and assist with financial planning”.

If Rautenbach is to believed this is the first phase in a series of developments the banking giant has planned for 2012.

“We have built a flexible and scalable platform that will allow us to develop new services over the coming months and years, and provide customers with a comprehensive personal financial management platform,” he says.

Thing is, when at least one of your competitors has had a smartphone app out for the best part of a year (and tools that let you pay anyone near you who also that app) and another is releasing NFC-enabled debit cards, giving your online banking a makeover might not cut it.

When Memeburn tried to grab images of the new site, it was down: