Absa’s online banking transactions hit a trillion rand record high in 2011

The value of transactions processed online reach an astonishing trillion rand!

The past year has seen record numbers for online banking transactions being attained. Absa announced today that it had reached a record trillion rand mark in transaction values for its online banking service in 2011.

This figure encompasses both individuals and small businesses that utilise Absa Online Banking.

“For the first time in any calendar year, 2011 has seen us break through the trillion rand mark in transaction values, with an average of 70 million transactions being processed every month,” says Arrie Rautenbach, Absa’s Head of Retail Markets.

Of the 70 million online transactions that Absa processes every month, the most popular have proven to be in the following four groups:

• Payments – bill payments, beneficiaries, once-off and CashSend payments.
• Statements – requesting of account statements.
• Notice of payments – sending recipients notices via SMS, email or fax.
• Inter-account transfers – moving money between one’s own accounts.

“Developments such as the impact of new sources of international undersea connectivity, increased competition in the internet service providers industry which has resulted in lower data prices and the influx of affordable net-book and notebook computers are expected to bring a whole new group of South African users online,” states Rautenbach.

“It is therefore not surprising to see a sharply rising demand and market appetite for new online functionalities. Since one of the most useful internet applications is online banking, we are ramping up investment in our online channel to cater for the rapidly increasing volumes of traffic.

“During peak times, especially at month-ends, we sometimes have as many as 9 000 users at any given time,” he concludes.