Bank2Bank Comparison

8/4/2019 Bank2Bank Comparison

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A COMPARISON REPORT

BETWEEN HBL AND BANK

ALFALAH

BYMURTAZA MOIZ |SP11-MM-0002


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Why websites important to Banks? And

what are the rules for having a good

banking website?Why Websites for Banks?

Online banking and investment services have become big business in recent years. Whether its a tiny

local bank or a major, multi-national one, if a bank wants to be successful, a user-friendly, well-designed

website is a necessity. But that doesnt mean every bank out there has a great site. In fact, a lot of bank

websites barely manage in terms of usability and functionality, and leave a lot lacking in the design area.

Five Rules for Better Bank Websites

Internet banking is here to stay and the major banks are all busy figuring out how to expand their business

online. Online banking is all about convenience and functionality but what about the banks public

website? It is often a struggle to achieve the right balance between information and product sales, between

user functionality and marketing requirements.

Here are 5 golden rules for the design of effective banking sites:

Rule 1 - Understand your Users

The most crucial rule in designing a banking website is to understand your users. Who they are?

Why are they coming here? What is it they want to do? Most users will come to a banking

website with a specific goal, often to access online banking or find out information on a product.

All users of course want their areas of interest to be given priority.

By understanding your users needs you can decide how your website should be

structured, you can group users and understand what services and information should be given

priority and indeed which services should be offered online (users may apply for a car loan online

but will they apply for a mortgage?). You will also be able to define the balance of your website

and provide appropriate options on the homepage and related areas within the site (i.e. Personal

Business, New Customers-Existing Customers)

Understand why users are visiting your site and what they are looking for.

Rule 2 - The Visual Design is Crucial

The look and feel of any website is crucial, but it is especially so with banking websites.If the look and feel is too corporate or business-like, users will think it bland. If its too loud and

exciting, users will think that the bank is trying too hard and is out of touch with their needs

expectations.

It is crucial to achieve a balanced look and feel that is appropriate with the banks own

identity. Attention to the style of content, tone of voice and imagery used in the design is critical.

Users don't expect to entertained by bank sites, however they do need to be able to find and read

relevant information quickly and easily.

Visual design is vital in making screens easy to navigate and ensuring that relevant information

stands out. Design consistent layouts and ensure good contrast for readability. Incorporatingvisual imagery form TV campaigns can be very effective in giving the site an instant and familiar

appeal with customers.


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Rule 3 - Provide Relevant Content

Many banks see their website as a sales portal. However customers see it as an information

resource. It can be very difficult to define exactly what content to put on the site.

Many banks over emphasize the sales pitch and it can damage user trust. Online users

prefer to read all of the details and then decide for themselves. It is important that the bank

provides up-front information on all charges and is accurate when talking about interest rates.

Bank customers love facts. Provide them with clear information on products and services and they

will take notice.

Effective bank sites progressively disclose their products and offerings providing

information, interactive tools (enabling customers to assess products online) and then a call to

actioneither online or phone.

Rule 4 - Users Need to Feel Secure

Security is a key factor. Banking websites must remind users that their sites are secure; this of

particular importance with less-regular web users. However security alerts must be presented in a

sensible way.

Avoid overly alarming language and presentation. Make it immediately obvious where

the problem is (i.e. fraudulent emails, virus alerts), otherwise users may consider the problem to

be with the website as a whole and may stop using it completely.

Rule 5 - Online Banking Must Be Easy To Access

Many of the users who visit a banks website will be doing so in order to access their online

banking. It is crucial that this is as easy as possible for the user. Make sure the option is visible

and easy to find, also ensure that new customers can find out more about the service and how to

register and how it works.

Banks selected for comparisonUnder the guidelines described above, I am going to explain difference of services providing between

HBL and Bank Alfalah Pakistan, two of the best retail banks in Pakistan which are always pioneer in

adding several new dimensions to the banking aspect in Pakistan.

Introduction

Habib Bank Limited HBL

HBL was the first commercial bank to be established in Pakistan in 1947. Over the years, HBLhas grown its branch network and become the largest private sector bank with over 1,450

branches across the country and a customer base exceeding five million relationships.

The Government of Pakistan privatized HBL in 2004 through which AKFED acquired

51% of the Bank's shareholding and management control. HBL is majority owned (51%) by the

Aga Khan Fund for Economic Development, 42.5% of the shareholding is retained by the

Government of Pakistan (GOP), whilst 7.5% is owned by the general public i.e. over 170,000

shareholders following the public listing that took place in July 2007.

With a presence in 25 countries, subsidiaries in Hong Kong and the UK, affiliates in

Nepal, Nigeria, Kenya and Kyrgyzstan and rep offices in Iran and China, HBL is also the largest

domestic multinational. The Bank is expanding its presence in principal international markets

including the UK, UAE, South and Central Asia, Africa and the Far East.


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Key areas of operations encompass product offerings and services in Retail and

Consumer Banking. HBL has the largest Corporate Banking portfolio in the country with an

active Investment Banking arm. SME and Agriculture lending programs and banking services are

offered in urban and rural centers.

Rating

HBL is currently rated AA (Long term) and A-1+ (Short term) and has a balance sheet size of

USD 10.2 billion. It is the first Pakistani bank to raise Tier II Capital from external sources.

Bank Alfalah Pakistan

Bank Alfalah Limited was incorporated on June 21st, 1992 as a public limited company under the

Companies Ordinance 1984. Its banking operations commenced from November 1st ,1997. The

bank is engaged in commercial banking and related services as defined in the Banking companies

ordinance, 1962. The Bank is currently operating through various branches in Pakistan, Bahrain,Bangladesh & Afghanistan, with the registered office at B.A.Building, I.I.Chundrigar, Karachi.

Since its inception, as the new identity of H.C.E.B after the privatization in 1997, the

management of the bank has implemented strategies and policies to carve a distinct position for

the bank in the market place.

Strengthened with the banking of the Abu Dhabi Group and driven by the strategic goals

set out by its board of management, the Bank has invested in revolutionary technology to have an

extensive range of products and services.

This facilitates their commitment to a culture of innovation and seeks out synergies with

clients and service providers to ensure uninterrupted services to its customers. They perceive the

requirements of their customers and match them with quality products and service solutions.

During the past five years, they have emerged as one of the foremost financial institution in the

region endeavoring to meet the needs of tomorrow today.

Comparison between HBL & Bank Alfalah

Understanding users

HBL Bank Alfalah Pakistan

They provide following services to their

individual account holders

1. CarToCar2. Car Loan3. Credit Cards4. Home Loan5. Deposit Accounts6. Bancassurance7. Debit Card8. Phone Banking9. FastTransfer

10. Mutual Funds

They provide following services to their

individual account holders

1. Deposit Accounts2. Lending & Deposit Rates3. Lockers4. Remittance5. Hilal / Debit Card6. Credit Cards7. Home Loans8. Auto/Vehicle Loans9. Prepaid Card

10. Debit Card


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They are providing the following services to

their business consumers

1. Corporate Banking2. Commercial Banking3. Investment Banking4. Islamic Banking5. Cash Management6. Zarai Banking7. Global Treasury8. Asset Management

They are providing the following services to

their business consumers

1. Structured Finance2. Trade Finance3. Lease Finance4. SME5. Agri-Finance6. Islamic Banking Services

Visual Design

Compactness

HBL sports a complete compact and sleek

design and not taking much space on the screen

giving a calming effect to the eyes with matured

selection of colours in Green, Golden and White

Bank Alfalah Pakistan also has a sleek and

compact design, which doesnt take much space

the screen and allows the main matter in the

middle.

Font Selection

HBL stepped forward in going compact and for

the same reason they applied Verdana font sized

10px for main heading in upper case and the

same in normal case for secondary heading and

apart from that a Verdana font sized 8 for body.

Bank Alfalah also sports a clear font selection

and for gaining attention, they opted dynamic

colour selection with font selection

complimenting it to great deal.

Illustration

Theyve selected nice blend of illustrative

aspects while maintain the website, in short,

minimal but catchy. Curved rectangle with blend

of green, golden and white in such proportion

that it doesnt look awkward.

Colour combinations do compliment the overall

material, as the primary colour combination of

the site is blue, which shows stability, and that is

what portrayed during the visit to its website.

Loading time

During my visit to the website, on Wi-Tribe

1Mb broadband connection, on Mozilla Firefox

4.0 on Windows 7 Ultimate, HBL completely

loaded onto my browser in mere 8 seconds.

Because of the Ajax, Marquee and other

Javascript supported options.

During my visit to the website, on my Wi-Tribe

1Mb broadband connection, on Mozilla Firefox

4.0 on Windows 7 Ultimate, Bank Alfalah

loaded onto my browser in mere 7 seconds, it

also sports some heavy use of scripting options

which enables pages to load quickly

Navigation

Navigation was somewhat tricky here, for anAverage Joe, it might be a riddle hard to solve

when hovering over the menus for finding a

particular service or offer.

Navigation was smoother here, as all theservices they provide to their customers which

they feel their customers would be requiring

most, is up front and so less emphasize weighted

on hovered menus and sub-menus

Providing relevant information

Easy Accessibility

As I earlier mentioned that consumers love

actual facts and figures instead of ambiguous or

over-exaggerated chunks of information. At

HBL, theyve emphasized on the same but thegray part of it is that because of their menu-bar

which is minute and needs to be hovered in

order to access the information, things might get

Although compared to HBL, Bank Alfalah is

providing small number of services to its

customers, but still because of the simple

outlook of the website, its much easier for anon-tech-savvy consumer to roam around the

website with complete ease, and not getting lost

while swiveling around the website.


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somewhat difficult for an Average Joe, because

of abundance of hover and sub-hover menus,

causing irritation to a common consumer and

because of that a customer has to stay longer on

the website.

Swift Service

HBL along with certain other banks have started

to work on the internet-banking version, which

is a time saving option as it enables to have your

virtual presence to open an account. Similarly

with HBL, they also offer internet banking

facility and being the pioneer of banks in

Pakistan, majority of people opt for HBL as

theyve the largest banking system in Pakistan,

but the drawback is that because of an

ambiguous menu-bar with complicated options,users have to stay longer in order to have

selected their desired option, although this

observation is only based on the newbies and

not on regular customers whore accustomed

with the website structure.

Bank Alfalah, gains a good position in its

service providing as because of their simple

website, structure, any newbie is quite capable

of roaming around the website with quite ease of

utilization of the facilities mentioned on the

website. Options like opening of several

accounts like Current, Savings or Loan

Accounts is given up-front and so one do not

have to click here-n-there for finding a particular

service altogether.

Customer Relations

Because of their large scale of business, I

personally feel they possess the largest scale of

consumer base of Pakistan in and outside

Pakistan. But when it comes to their customer

based relationships, I felt while activating my

own Visa Debit Card, that although they

activated my Visa Debit Card on Phone but still

I in order to apply for my frequency of account

statements, I had to visit my home branch, being

a student its not a problem but still in what-so-

ever circumstances one has to visit the branch

for some purpose.

Although periodically they phone you taking

feedback off their services.

Relatively smaller in size, they provide more

quality services. You create an account on

website and in matter of hours they call you on

the number which you entered while filling out

the form, and theyll further clarify if any and

open your account on the spot, the only

condition is that youll have to visit your nearest

branch to sign the relevant documents or else the

account will be closed in 48 Hours.

They also wish you birthday by sending

cards and/or a small gift in return to strengthen

the relationship.

Security Measures

Verification

HBL online banking system is verified by

VeriSign Inc. and so one can blindly rely on the

online banking version of HBL.

Here Bank Alfalah lags as they dont support

online banking right now.

Mobile Banking

All Mobile communication to HBL is connected

and verified through Thawte Inc. which enablesconsumers to have faith on their mobile session

Bank Alfalah currently lags over here as well.


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Misc.

They provide way-through to the site from their

Quick Links Menu and Site Maps Criteria.

Bank Alfalah lags this option as well.

One thing which both sides lag is presence of a site-cum-web-search engine, which limits consumers

when they roam into their banks website.

Internet BankingEase of Use

HBLs internet banking is probably the best in

the business in Pakistan, and so they are

continuously busy in making it easier to use. I

personally feel that its online banking GUI is

way attractive than any other banks which

providing facility of online banking-via-

websites. Signing up is also like counting 123.

I didnt find any option on their website

regarding internet banking-via-their-own-

website.

Entertainment

Download OptionsThey give an option to their customers to

download HBL ringing tones, Terms and

Conditions to their Mobile Banking via Ufone,

Wallpapers, Documentary regarding life at HBL

and information regarding their corporate profile

easily accessible through their downloads menu.

Bank Alfalah also lags this option and so a

customer can get bored while roaming through

the website.

Conclusion:

I personally feel that HBL being the patron in banks in Pakistan takes privilege being the pioneer bank in

the country in every aspect of modern-day-banking.

~~The End~~

Bank2Bank Comparison

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