Bank of Ireland lacking behind in terms of technology and services (ApplePay, etc) an

Bob24

Opening this as a continuation of the following thread which started on the talk to forum but is not suitable there anymore as BOI has already provided the feedback they whished to: https://touch.boards.ie/thread/2057928423/6/#post109401919

It seems like to me bank of ireland is now seriously behind the curve in terms of new banking services (no mobile payments, subpar mobile app, etc ... and no date for introducing anything new). They also seem to be fairly uncomfortable talking about it and when asked questions by customers over the last couple of years their answer has always been along the lines of: we don’t have any announcement to make and we will communicated on social media when we have one.

Problem I see is that after a couple of years consistently saying this and making no announcement (taking Apple Pay as an exemple), these words are starting to sound fairly hollow to customers.

I think the banking world is changing fast and BOI are at risk of losing significant market share with younger demographics is they don’t get their act toghether quickly (both to other “legacy” banks which are better with those things and also to the likes of Revolut and N26). And losing young customers today is losing middle aged customers in a few decades and slowly becoming irrelevant.

What do people think? Am I giving to much importance to new technologies and the way banking is changing? Is it just a slow start and will they actually be fine and get their act toghether when competitive pressure is strong enough? Will they be just fine capitalising on some of their existing customer base which doesn’t can about tech? Or are they burying their head in the sand and walking towards irrelevance?

Dubliniensis

I left BOI for AIB (both personal and business accounts) about a year ago primarily for the lack of a decent app/website and Apple Pay and I haven't looked back.

BOI will catch up eventually but I've no allegiance to them. Why wait?

Bob24

Dubliniensis wrote: »

I left BOI for AIB (both personal and business accounts) about a year ago primarily for the lack of a decent app/website and Apple Pay and I haven't looked back.

Same here, I left 2 years ago and wouldn’t even think of going back.

It looks like nothing has changed since then and they answer to customers asking about those things still is the exact same standard absence of answer.

Just wondering what people think about the future of the bank; i.e. is losing people like you and I irrelevant to them as it isn’t a drop of water in their ocean of profits, or is it going to have a serious impact if they don’t change.

Prospector1989

One of the most infuriating things for me is the inability to provide accurate balances through the app/online banking (pending transactions not showing up).

I can live without Android pay (although I do use it the odd time through my KBC account).

I'm planning on leaving BOI soon, currently waiting for mortgage approval, so want to avoid having to get statements from different banks. Once we get our mortgage it will be bye-bye BOI.

Jim2007

Well speaking as someone who spent 30+ years working on the IT side of banking in Europe, I’d say Irish banks are on a par with most of Europe. Well ahead of the US, but still not great and well below customer expectations.

The problem is that banking has become a commodity industry and so cost is the key factor in all decisions, quality is optional and it is a race to the bottom. This is compounded by the fact that customers are willing to pay for services.

An industry engaged in a race to the bottom combined with customers unwilling to pay for the services will not get very far. Yes new services will be introduced, but don’t expect too much on the quality side.

With the opening up of financial services to third parties, I’d expect to see the innovation coming from such companies, but I also expect we will have to pay for quality services.

Bob24

Jim2007 wrote: »

Well speaking as someone who spent 30+ years working on the IT side of banking in Europe, I’d say Irish banks are on a par with most of Europe. Well ahead of the US, but still not great and well below customer expectations.

I don’t think all Irish banks are equal though: to talk about the ones I have used, AIB and KBC are significantly better than BOI when it comes to banking technologies (website, app, mobile payments, etc). So I guess my point is that BOI in particular has a problem, rather that talking about Irish banks as a whole.

Also I happen to have an account with a French bank and they do have very decent online banking and app, and they have been offering Apple Pay for almost 4 years (since launch in France) whereby BOI still doesn’t have it and is unable to say when it will come as they seem to still be running on antediluvian backend systems on which there is no way to support mobile payments.

But agree with you on free banking, people will have to accept that more innovative services cost money.

dotsman

Bank of Ireland are currently spending over €1 billion upgrading their systems...

...to an outdated, horrible, redundant system.

They started 3 years ago, have yet to actually achieve anything, and it will be years before it is "finished". When they are, they will only be 20 years behind modern technology & concepts. Yet they brag that this platform will last them the next 35 years :eek:

Basically, this project is the Children's Hospital of the banking world, and BOI the HSE .

I've worked in 3 different banks in the past few years and have intimate knowledge of a fourth.

Up until recently, AIB were head and shoulders above the rest of the Irish banking world in terms of IT. Yes, parts of it were ancient and bureaucratic, but other parts actually very modern (in terms of tech/concepts/people). Unfortunately, they decided to follow the other banks a number of years ago and shut all that down so they could "outsource/offshore". Basically, this involves spending a lot more money on an inferior result, longer timeframes, wrapped in layers of bureaucracy & politics and crippling your ability to effectively implement change in to the future. And if you think I'm exaggerating, please see above regarding BOI (so outsourced, you could spend a year working there and never talk to anyone actually employed by BOI).

Right now, there are no Irish banks that would impress from a tech perspective.

P.S. I forgot to mention. PTSB have been so impressed with BOI's epic disaster programme, they have decided to copy them. Currently talking to all the usual suspects consultants about getting started. So, at this stage of the programme, everybody is saying how this will be different and come in far, far cheaper and quicker:rolleyes: