Sydney: June 28, 2007
Consumers seeking the best high interest online cash accounts should look carefully at the fine print on their conditions as well as check the security measures offered on those accounts, says the newest market entrant RaboPlus, a division of Rabobank.
According to Bryan Inch, Rabobank Australia and New Zealand Head of Financial Services, many banks are attracting unsuspecting customers through honeymoon rates and short term introductory offers which then revert to either lower rates or extra conditions.
Mr Inch said BankWest, for example, offered an introductory rate of 6.8 per cent for only 12 months and then reverted back to 6.25 per cent. Other banks had conditions such as minimum deposit amounts, limited transactions and requirements to make monthly deposits.
DIY online banking service RaboPlus has launched an online savings account with a 6.60 per cent per annum ongoing variable rate with no fees and no minimum balance or transactional requirements. This rate is applicable to all savings account types, including business and self managed super funds, making it the market leading rate across these categories.
Raboplus also offers online low cost access to a selection of wholesale managed funds and term deposits.
RaboPlus in New Zealand had already attracted over NZ $1 billion in deposits from 23,000 customers who transact online securely with a leading online banking security device - the Vasco Digipass.
RaboPlus.com.au also provides every customer a free Vasco Digipass - a state of the art handheld device which offers leading online banking security.
Mr Inch said the lack of sophisticated security devices offered by other banks was worrying.
"To protect customers against phishing and internet fraud banks have to step up their layers of security beyond just PINs and access codes," he said.
He said the Digipass security device foils internet fraud by adding extra layers of security beyond that of a username and password, and even beyond the security level of a random number generating token.
The Digipass provides greater protection against "man in the middle" attacks. These occur when the criminals position themselves between the customer and the bank and are able to read, insert and modify transactions without the customer knowing.
The Digipass is an easy to use handheld device which is activated by a PIN and is then used in conjunction with the customer's number and randomly generated number codes to access accounts and authorise transactions. New codes are emitted by the Digipass for every login and each transaction when activated by the customer, thus online criminals do not have time to capture and replicate these codes.
Mr Inch said because no logins or PINs are saved on to a computer and the Digipass cannot be used without a PIN - the chances of obtaining all three elements - account number, pin and access code on the day for each transaction - is close to zero.
"This type of manual device reduces the chance of hacking a customer's information during an internet banking transaction. The Digipass process ensures customers know they're visiting the real bank site not a fake one," he said.
Mr Inch said Rabobank's direct banking arm in Europe had devised sophisticated measures aimed to protect customers from online fraud.
He said there had been no successful online attacks against Rabobank's other direct banking operations and he expects that Australian customers would be equally protected against online criminals.
