Hong Leong Bank Has Best Internet Banking Services

Hong Leong Online named Asian Banker’s Best e-Banking Project

Hong Leong Bank (HLB) bagged Asian Banker's Best e-Banking Project 2007 with its Internet banking offering, Hong Leong Online. This was announced at the2008 Asian Banker Summit awards ceremony in Hanoi, Vietnam last month.

The refreshed Hong Leong Online, which went live to customers in March 2007, was chosen by The Asian Banker as the Best e-Banking Project 2007for the superior efficiency, convenience and speed of transaction delivered to its customers and users. Hong Leong Online bested regionalsubmissions from Malaysia, Indonesia, India, Hong Kong and China for the same category. The prestigious IT Implementation Award recognizes the bestemerging technology practices and benchmarks in Asia Pacific banks. It covers a spectrum of areas that include speed of processes, efficiency improvement,customer satisfaction, technical innovation and system design.

“This award validates the pioneering role of HLB in deploying customer-centric technology enabled financial solutions in not only Malaysia, but also withinthe Asia Pacific region,” said Mr. Victor Khor, COO for Transaction & E-Banking. “The demand for more innovative online banking solutions has grownexponentially over the past years. Today, there are over 4.5 million registered Internet Banking customers in Malaysia which accounts for 85.5% of thetotal internet population. Internet banking has a yearly growth rate of 40.6%. In today's fast-paced and constantly on-the-go environment, we offer ourcustomers e-services that are responsive and consistently reliable.”

Hong Leong Online has been registering transaction volumes growth of over 112% year-on-year. Its popularity has been on the rise - especially among theyounger generation of customers aged 34 and below which accounts for over 58% of Hong Leong Online users.

Our research has shown that 97% of Gen-Y customers today use online banking and on average spends 20 minutes/day on social networks like Facebook. InMalaysia, these sites account for 50% of the top ten most popular sites. Web 2.0 tools like social networking and blogging in this region is fast changingthe way our society embraces the web.

By tracking web trends and statistics, HLB is positioning itself to catch emerging web-trends to drive innovation in the area customer experience. Apartfrom the Asian Banker accolade, Hong Leong Online has also been ranked as the 3 rd most popular Malaysian online banking site since September 2007 byAlexa.com, with popularity judged based on the combined average mean of reach and page views. Hong Leong Online has also recently launched an interactivegame – “Kiap-Kiap” a Fly– in January 2008 to reward customers and improve mindshare amongst the web community. The innovative gamebecame an instant Internet buzz and hailed by the Malaysian blogger community as the “in”game.

The internet gives the Bank the flexibility and agility to respond to the ever changing needs of the market. With customers ever on the go, serviceon-demand has become par for the course. Hong Leong Bank takes online banking steps further than competition by constantly innovating on its offerings andintroducing even more aggressive promotions to ensure continued patronage while attracting even more new users.

Hong Leong Online comes with a comprehensive suite of features that enable customers to perform their financial transactions at any time and from any placeof their choice. The features include personal banking, funds transfer, e-bill payment, credit card services, card and account maintenance and others.Corporate Internet Banking facility is extended for small and large corporations, like the Employees Provident Fund (EPF), for services like the e-paymentsystem. Standing Instruction features are also available for all types of online transactions ranging from third party fund transfer, Interbank GIRO,credit card payment to loan repayment. This auto-pay feature enables customers to debit funds directly from their savings or checking account.

“Today, we are proud to be recognized for investing in a winning combination of technology, processes, analytics and talent to drive innovation of customerexperience and business models.”

“We endeavor to always provide customers with a personalized and rewarding Internet banking experience, where convenience, efficiency and privacy in thetransaction of financial services are of utmost priority,” concluded Mr. Khor.

HLB's lineage of pioneering e-banking innovations includes the followings:

· The first bank to launch Bulk Cash Deposit Machines in 1999 and the second to launch Retail Internet Banking in 2000 with Corporate Internet Bankingquickly following suit;

· In 2005, HLB's Mobile Money became the world's first mobile credit card which won The Asian Banker's Award for Best Credit Card Product in Asia Pacific;

· HLB pioneered the integrated telesales and teleservice call center model in the industry;

· HLB introduced the proposition of “pocket moneychanger” with cross-border ATM services to 4 countries, namely Singapore, Thailand, Indonesia and China(the first local bank to offer cross-border ATM services to all the 4 countries); and

· HLB partnered the Employees Provident Fund (EPF) to launch e-Payment Services that enabled employers to submit their monthly EPF contributions online.

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Press Release - 10/04/2008