CommBank reports huge drop in IT system incidents

The Commonwealth Bank (CBA) has lauded its seven-year technology transformation project as a key reason for significant improvements in system reliability, reporting an 83 per cent drop in “high impact incidents” between FY07 and FY13.

CBA said the number of high impact incidents had dropped from 400 to 67 over the period, while total “significant customer impact incidents” fell from 48 to just 1.

The figures were presented as part of CBA’s annual results announcement on Wednesday where the bank reported revenue of $44.8 billion for its year ending June 30, 2013, down 5 per cent on the previous year. Net profit was $7.68 billion over the period, up 8 per cent on the previous year.

Interview: Michael Harte, CIO, Commonwealth Bank.

The bank also claimed it is delivering products faster and at a lower cost by taking advantage of reusable software code.

Some of these products include the Kaching’ social payment app for Apple and Android device, which has been downloaded more than 1 million times and been used to complete more than $9 billion worth of transactions.

Contactless payments are now about 20 per cent of total card transactions and growing, the bank said.

CBA upgraded and redesigned its online presence in June 2013 and internet transactions have increased by 10 times from $40 million per annum in 2003 to $400 million this year among the bank’s 4.5 million active customers. In June, around 60 per cent of these transactions were done by mobile phone or tablet device.

The number of mobile app users increased by 250 per cent over the year with mobile devices now being users for more than 50 per cent of online account access, the bank said.

Over the past six months, CBA also said it rolled out 1016 video conference facilities across its network, providing customers with access to bank staff.