The Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CBA) has extended the reach of two technology platforms, targeting the payments and financial security areas respectively.
In the payments field, the CBA – widely referred to as CommBank – has taken its PowerBoard payments platform, developed in partnership with commerce orchestration provider Paydock, to the international market.
The duo decided to develop the product after identifying an increased demand among merchants for payments orchestration platforms due to continuing growth in e-commerce activity.
Karen Last, General Manager of Merchant Solutions at CBA, said: “Consumers are becoming increasingly savvy, looking for added value in their purchases and being able to choose their preferred payment methods online, whether that’s through traditional credit card payments, local account-to-account payment schemes, digital wallets or Buy Now Pay Later.
“PowerBoard makes it significantly easier for Australian merchants to offer choice to customers and manage their payments ecosystems, without all the costly integrations.”
CommBank has taken the product live with eligible partners in the Australian payments space. Paydock has stated that a key objective of the platform was to provide flexibility and choice over payment options for merchants.
PowerBoard is a long-running joint project between CBA and Paydock, having first launched in December last year. The product was first taken live to Australian customers only by CBA, with plans to conduct a wider rollout this year.
“Our partnership with CommBank sets a global precedent for financial institutions,” said Rob Lincolne, CEO and Founder of Paydock.
“It shows not only how banks can bring flexible payment strategies to customers in record time with payments orchestration, but also it establishes a new paradigm whereby banks can become more competitive and deliver more value by working with fintech players.”
Meanwhile, in the security area, CBA has also extended the reach of its NameCheck ID technology, rolling the platform out with the Bendigo Bank and fraud monitoring company Satori.
Satori conducts anti-fraud monitoring for a range of Australian financial institutions, such as Coates as well as government bodies. The Bendigo Bank will be taking more of a B2C approach, offering the solution to the customers of its Up app.
“In May this year, we announced our intention to extend our NameCheck technology to other trusted institutions in Australia,” said CBA Group Executive Business Banking, Mike Vacy-Lyle.
“We are delighted to collaborate with Bendigo Bank and Satori, both of whom play an incredibly important role in the payments ecosystem.
“With scams and fraud costing Australians and businesses billions of dollars annually, it’s clear a whole of ecosystem response is needed to combat this problem. We are proud to be able to extend our industry-leading technology to others and contribute to protecting more Australians against cyber criminals.”
Tacking fraudsters and scammers and overall enhancing financial security has taken on heightened importance for CBA in recent months, having launched the Scam Indicator solution earlier this month.
The bank has cited research suggesting that up to 20% of Australian businesses have not taken action against scammers, corresponding to around 500,000 firms not having an active plan against such criminal activity.
Vacy-Lyle concluded: “Scammers often rely on people within a business being tricked into transferring money to accounts they shouldn’t. To protect your business from scams, remember three simple steps: Stop. Check. Reject.”
