THE City of Bridgetown Cooperative Credit Union Ltd (COB) is opening a world of new payment options for its customers through their mobile phones.
Yesterday marked the media launch of the COB’s e-Pay app, which COB President Henderson Williams explained is a mobile application built for all major mobile operating platforms.
“It is designed to deliver an all-inclusive app, catering to a user’s financial services need, with the selection of opportunities to utilize mobile phones to access several services including bill payment, mobile payment and money transfer.”
The app which is expected to be up and running on November 1, will in the first instance, allow mobile top-ups and bill payments with partner Digicel, with additional partners to be added in the near future.
According to Williams, “We are confident that the professional expertise offered by e-Solutions, a financial and technology software development company, will complement our goal in delivering innovation and technology features to our members.”
It was assured that an aggressive educational campaign will soon be rolled out for COB members with the view of getting at least 30 percent of the membership familiar with the technology, which translates to about 20 000 persons. Chief Executive Officer Steve Belle assured that the added mobile services will not negatively impact staff.
Chief Executive Officer of e-Solutions Dwayne Roach stated, “COB, like e-Solutions is a progressive, forward thinking organization and where like minds meet, great things happen.” He said the partnership is allowing COB to leapfrog the market and overcome challenges that credit unions on the island have faced for many years.
According to Roach, “Going forward, the parties have agreed to continue to build out the platform to include all forms of payments. This includes not just billing and telecom companies for their bill payments and top-ups but also many other unique entities such as airlines like Trans Island Air (TIA) 2000.
He revealed that e-Solutions and TIA are in the process of embarking on a pilot project that would allow the e-Pay platform to be used for airline ticket payments via their website.
“This would mean that users of the E=Pay service including the COB E-Pay users would not need to have a credit or debit card in order to book their airline tickets with TIA. We are also exploring similar arrangements with other regional and international carriers,” he said.
Roach also emphasized the importance of security, explaining that industry standard security is being used for the app along with other “rigourous” requirements from COB.
Marketing Manager Digicel Sonia Hunte- Hall while highlighting the evolution of mobile applications over the years, commended COB for acknowledging current market changes and for enhancing their service channels by making convenience an important aspect of their customer service experience. (JH)