Kiwi ingenuity shines in financial innovation

media release

18 April 2011

Kiwi ingenuity shines in financial innovation

CANSTAR CANNEX announces first Innovation Excellence Awards

From life insurance that puts you in touch with the worlds Best Doctors to a bank account that virtually saves money for you, innovative products and services keep bursting onto the market from the financial and insurance sectors in this country.

Despite these sectors not being widely recognised for driving innovation, they continue to surprise with much more appealing and user friendly ideas for customers.

After all, where would we be without Eftpos, ATMs, net banking, mobile lenders and line-of-credit mortgages?

Financial services research group CANSTAR CANNEX has seen a flood of exciting new products and services introduced to the market in the last 12 months, prompting the launch of CANSTAR CANNEXs first-ever Innovation Excellence awards.

“These awards recognise and encourage excellence in new products and services that make life easier for customers,” CANSTAR CANNEX NZ National Manager Derek Bonnar said.

“Weve seen a multitude of products and services in the last year that have been outstanding enough to warrant consideration for an Innovation Excellence award.”

“Each of these is quite different and shows slick improvements in existing and often saturated product areas, as well as products and services that open up new frontiers,” Mr Bonnar said.

CANSTAR CANNEX concedes that comparing apples with oranges was never going to be easy but its unique methodology captured scores in the most important areas to level comparisons between very diverse products and services.

“To be categorised as innovative, a product should definitely be a first and perhaps open up a whole new market,” Mr Bonnar said.

“Degree of uniqueness and difference to existing competitors is also important, as is the disruption factor – how significant is the impact of this product or service on the market?” Mr Bonnar said.

And, of course, something thats truly innovative cant help but have that „WOW factor.

“Does it stop you in your tracks because it does something way beyond your expectations for that style of product or service?” Mr Bonnar said.

The Top 3 products and services chosen by CANSTAR CANNEX certainly tick all the boxes.

“Our Innovation Excellence winners from ASB, BNZ and Sovereign Insursurance show an outstanding degree of innovation and impact on the target market, and we are proud to give these products and services the recognition they deserve,” Mr Bonnar said.

Consumers can download the CANSTAR CANNEX innovation excellence awards on www.canstarcannex.co.nz

ASB Save the Change

Launched October 2010

Save the Change is the modern day equivalent of putting loose coins in a money jar. Its a new way to help Kiwis save money, based on a flexible, simple rounding system that encourages the savings of a small amount every time an electronic payment is processed.

In the first few months of being launched, Save the Change has helped Kiwis save an additional five million dollars! Customers choose to round up their EFTPOS and Visa debit card transactions to the nearest multiple of $1, $2, $5 or $10. The rounded-up amount is then transferred overnight to a nominated ASB savings account. Customers can also choose to round up their other electronic transactions, such as automatic payments, bill payments and direct debits.

For example, if you set your Save the Change facility to $5 and then spend $3 on a coffee, $2 would be transferred to your saving account at the end of the day. Alternatively, it could be split up against 10 different savings accounts. You can name the accounts pretty much whatever you want, such as „New Car Fund, „My Wedding Account or „My Golfing Trip fund.

ASB has thought of everything with this account. For instance, the rounding-up amounts from each transaction, or the „change, are tallied up at the end of the day and automatically transferred to up to10 of your nominated savings accounts. Doing it this way means Save the Change shouldnt affect your daily spending habits or result in a „declined message at an EFTPOS terminal. ASB also has processes in place to make sure you dont overdraw your account if your balance is low.

Existing ASB customers can go online and see how much they would have saved over the last year based on their actual transactions if they had Save the Change in place. For non-ASB customers, there is a calculator on their website which estimates the savings.

Save the Change from ASB is a New Zealand first and we love it because it demonstrates how quickly and easily small change adds up to bigger savings for everyone.

The icing on the cake is that there are no fees to sign up and no ongoing operating fees. The only proviso is that you have a transaction and savings account with ASB (you can choose the accounts to suit you from their range).

ASB’s ‘Save the Change’ makes saving small change automatic and painless. It’s a whole lot more convenient than the old coin jar or piggybank method, too BNZ LEN Counterfeit Security

Launched July 2010

Many people are nervous about shopping online or doing a credit or debit card transaction at home or overseas for fear of being ripped off if the card details are copied. The clever people at BNZ have done something about fraud that no-one else in the world has thought of.

BNZ has created a tool that helps prevent fraudsters transacting using counterfeit cards. Its called LEN or liquid encryption number. But lets go back a step and explain the current card situation. As you probably know, all cards, whether chip or not, contain a magnetic stripe. This is the target for counterfeit fraud, as the data stored on the magnetic stripe does not usually change for the life of that card.

BNZ has developed a method of changing the data on the card every time it is used at an ATM – voiding the previous data. Enter LEN. The liquid encryption number is used to change the values on the magnetic stripe. The current and previous LEN values are managed by BNZs fraud monitoring system and an alert is generated if a previous LEN is used with a transaction, as it is likely to be counterfeit.

This is a very impressive fraud-countering innovation that works on so many levels. For the BNZ customer, nothing new is required. You simply use the card at BNZ ATMs. The more often you visit ATMs, the more often the LEN value automatically changes. In fact, ATM users have now become BNZs safest customers. Because counterfeit transactions can be automatically prevented, you wont have the hassle of having your card cancelled and waiting for a replacement card to arrive.

From the banks point of view, the LEN security system can be seamlessly implemented over existing cards that have already been issued, and alleviates the need for mass reissues of cards, should a fraud problem occur. Not only is the first fraudulent transaction declined but the LEN code can also be used to identify where the fraud is occurring and thus, other cards that may be at risk.

This is Kiwi ingenuity at its best and a giant leap forward for card security worldwide. BNZ deserves congratulations for coming up with such a simple, yet effective solution.

www.bnz.co.nz

. Who would have thought that simply using a BNZ ATM more often would safeguard your credit or debit card from fraudulent transactions.

Sovereign Insurance- Best Doctors

Launched August 2010

Should you or someone in your immediate family become seriously ill or suffer an injury that requires specialist care, you are likely to have many questions and concerns relating to the diagnosis and recommended treatment. Would you not want one of the worlds most respected medical experts to look at the case and give their opinion? Now, Sovereign, New Zealands largest life insurance company has made this a reality for Kiwis.

New Zealand GPs and specialists work hard to provide clarity and support during these unsettling periods, however Sovereign recognized that additional advice and expertise is always welcome, giving the patient added confidence and peace of mind.

In a first for New Zealand, Sovereign has teamed up with Best Doctors to give its clients access to world-leading medical advice, through its specialist and tests product.

Best Doctors connects Sovereign clients and their immediate families with the world-leading medical specialists, nominated by their peers as the best in their field, to gain reassurance about their diagnosis and treatment plans.

So now through Sovereigns specialist and test product, if you were to become seriously ill, you can access a private specialist and have tests, such as an MRI, covered on your terms, instead of waiting for the public health system. And heres the best bit, you can also access one of the worlds leading medical experts to get a second opinion. This could, quite literally, change your life!

The move by Sovereign to provide the highly acclaimed second medical opinion service through Best Doctors to its clients means that something thats normally out of reach is now a reality. Best Doctors was founded in Boston, USA and is a proven benefit to 20 million people around the globe. Thankfully, New Zealanders can now be counted among those lucky ones.

Sovereign Insurance brings a world of medical expertise to your door, with Best Doctors now available exclusively in New Zealand for Sovereign policy holders

© Scoop Media