Time for Banks in 3rd world to offer new practical features to assist the People!
I have on several occasions berated banks for being unimaginative unresponsive dinosaurs. Here goes again…
What has triggered this in particular is thinking about the current 2013/2014 liquidity crisis in Zimbabwe – because we rely on the US$, we cannot indulge in QE – Quantitative Easing (printing money) – which helps keep the USA. UK, global and other economies semi-functioning.
The one and only bank in Zimbabwe which operates well in my opinion is CABS – a subsidiary of Old Mutual – their electronic banking product in particular has great potential to bypass the very serious shortage of banknotes by enabling cash-free business transactions.
2 features are desirable in my opinion which are lacking in Cabs and indeed in all banks globally:
1. An electronic access with a low-privilege password which enables the user to only query current balance and recent transactions
2. A system which enables the account holder to delegate some low-level functionality to another user – e.g. spend up to US$ 20-00 per day or $100-00 per week with a certain supermarket.
3. An automatic email to the account holder for every transaction (a feature which some banks offer already)
How difficult are these 3 features to implement? Really?
Alex Weir, Gaborone, Botswana
alexweir1949 