BNP Paribas Fortis is launching a ‘first’: anytime, anywhere safe money transfer from tablet or smartphone to any Belgian mobile (GSM) number.
BNP Paribas Fortis is today adding a range of useful new features to Easy banking, the highly successful mobile banking application.
Perhaps the most notable new feature is Easy transfer, the first-ever solution in Belgium that enables clients to transfer a sum of money – up to EUR 250 per day – from a smartphone or tablet to any GSM number in the country.
Using the Easy transfer function, Easy banking users will be able to send money very quickly and easily to a member of their family or to anyone in their network of friends and acquaintances. The recipient does not need to own a smartphone (a standard mobile will suffice) or to be physically in the same place as the sender. Nor does the recipient even have to be a BNP Paribas Fortis client. These features makes Easy transfer a unique mobile payment solution that can be used to make transfers to any person in Belgium who owns a GSM and holds a Belgian bank account. Typical uses for the new service include paying a babysitter, settling up after a night out with friends or paying the children’s pocket-money.
How does it work? In three easy steps:
1. Open the Easy banking app and launch the Easy transfer function.
2. Tap in (or select from your contact list) the GSM number of the beneficiarywhom you wish to pay – who may also be a client at a different bank.
3. The beneficiary receives a SMS and then just has to couple once only his/her bank account number to his/her mobile number at www.easytransfer.be. Easy transfer payments are then automatically credited into the bank account.
Simplified connection – A second novelty is that the process for logging on to Easy banking has been made safer and simpler. Following the update of the Easy banking app, the client needs to register his/her personal smartphone or tablet one time only. BNP Paribas Fortis will take a sort of digital fingerprint from the device. This information is being used in conjunction with other safety techniques in the logon process. The client just needs to use the registered device and enter his/her password. This means that a card reader or SMS password is no longer required in order to carry out the simpler operations in a fully secure manner. For larger Easy banking transfers or transfers to new beneficiaries, the additional use of a card readeris still required.
Zoomit now integrated too – Last but not least, Zoomit, the function that enables you to manage your bills electronically, has now been integrated into the Easy banking app. From now on, users are alerted whenever a payment request – for electricity, gas, water, telecoms etc. – comes in. Then, with just a few finger movements, the client can pay the bill.
Responding to user feedback – In adding these new features, the Bank is responding to the two main needs expressed by Easy banking users. With Easy transfer, BNP Paribas Fortis is bringing to the market an innovation that makes mobile payments simple and accessible to everyone in Belgium.
Easy banking can be downloaded on Google Play and App Store. Within less than one year of its launch, Easy banking has already seen over 250,000 downloads. During the last three months, 1,350 downloads per day were recorded, i.e. around one download every minute, day and night.
Press contacts
Hilde Junius, Head of Press, +32 2 565 47 37 – hilde.junius@bnpparibasfortis.com
Valéry Halloy, Press Officer, +32 2 565 46 50 – valery.halloy@bnpparibasfortis.com
Kim Cauberghs, Press Officer, +32 2 228 37 94 – kim.cauberghs@bnpparibasfortis.com