ANZ: Apple the place to be for security

After quietly slipping a new mobile banking application into the iTunes App Store on Friday, ANZ's group general manager for innovation, Peter Dalton, said that its banking applications work better on the iPhone due to Apple's stringent application screening process.

ANZ's goMoney application has been released to the iTunes App Store. (Credit: ANZ Bank)

The app in question — entitled "goMoney" — integrates mobile transactional banking with new features that allow the user to pay anyone using only their phone number as a point of reference.

Dalton said that ANZ has 4 million registered internet banking customers in its database, with 2 million classed as "active" — that is, users who had logged on within the last 90 days. He highlighted that 90 per cent of mobile access to the ANZ website came from iPhones and iPod Touch devices, hence the decision to release goMoney to the App Store first.

While Dalton hinted that the process of getting an app onto the App Store was an involved process, ANZ was particularly happy with the gatekeepers making sure the App Store is safe from potentially harmful software.

"The model [for applications] that the iPhone has, which draws some criticism, actually makes security very good for us. Apps can only get onto iPhones, generally speaking, if they're through the App Store, and Apple have a pretty rigorous review process," Dalton said.

He said that ANZ didn't want other applications on a device that might interfere with its software.

"There are other models in the market that are maturing, but at the point we began this, the most popular device was the iPhone and we saw the security model as being that much better for us."

When asked if ANZ would be developing for the arguably less secure Android operating system, Dalton said that the company hadn't yet started developing for the open-source iPhone alternative.

"We're looking closely into the level of usage in Android and we're educating ourselves."

Dalton's history in ANZ saw him move into his current role after a stint as the bank's chief information officer.

His new role as group general manager for innovation sees him, among other duties, developing new ways to improve the customer experience.

"You don't always need to be first, but we do need to be doing things to improve the way we deliver services. When we bring a new service to customers it has to be customer-centric and customer focused," he said.

Dalton's ambitious view of innovation is shared by ANZ's chief executive officer, Mike Smith.

"[Smith] is very positive about [mobile banking]. A year ago he told me that 'mobile is the future, that's where it's going to be' he said."

In its first four days of release, ANZ's goMoney application received 31,000 downloads and went to the top of the business productivity section of the iTunes App store. The app now sits at third place.