Already one of the world’s most innovative financial institutions, New Zealand’s Westpac, announced that it is preparing to launch a mobile application from September that uses augmented reality to let customers get account information on their screens simply by viewing their cards through their phones’ cameras. According to Westpac, the augmented reality banking application will be a world’s first and will show consumers their balances, transaction history, spend locations, payments alerts and other information. Users can also scan their surroundings to find Westpac ATMs and branches.
“Not so long ago augmented reality was considered a futuristic prop in the movies, but a growing number of people believe it has the potential to change our lives as much as the internet and mobile phone,” commented Simon Pomeroy, chief digital officer at Westpac NZ . “From the moment we saw the concept for this app in our crowdsourcing competition in the United Kingdom and started to develop it, the impact augmented reality can have in adding a new dimension to mobile banking became apparent.”
Westpac has a long history of providing consumers with innovative mobile banking solutions and has already this year launched a number of wearable technology solutions that use smart watches to allow consumers to easily check their balance among other things. Given that this augmented reality application does not rely on additional hardware like a smart watch it could become very popular among consumers.
Overview by Tristan Hugo-Webb, Associate Director, International Advisory Services
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