In 1996, Bankinter initiated its presence on the internet. A year later, its customers could already access their accounts in real time, carry out financial transactions, and operate on the stock exchange. Throughout this time, Bankinter has always been at the cutting edge when it comes to implementing new ways to relate to its customers and carry out financial transactions, including: Mobile Banking. In 2012, the bank launched COINC, inaugurating a new way of banking specifically focused on the natives of the internet.
Bankinter's electronic banking was set up in 1985, under the trade name “Nexo”. It gave the customers, particularly companies, the possibility of making and receiving payments, as well as many other transactions, in real-time, by connecting to the bank's mainframe.
A huge leap forwards was taken in 1996 with the creation of Bankinternet, whose first innovation was the launch of a web server capable of providing information on the bank's products and services to anyone, anywhere in the world. At the end of that same year, Bankinter would go on to initiate an ambitious unlimited and free internet access campaign, including email, for all its customers, establishing the net as the natural communication channel for these.
Starting from June 1997, Bankinter's customers could already access their statements in real-time via BKNet (Bankinternet's operational space), as well as carry out financial transactions with their accounts. Six months later, on 31 December, Bankinter became the first Spanish financial institution to allow online securities trading on the stock exchange. A year later, in 1998, this banking operations service that BKNet offered its personal customers was extended to the business sector.
Although almost from the start Bankinternet provided non-financial products and services (trips, purchases, and employment), it was in 1998 that the bank definitively boosted their e-commerce, considerably expanding the possibilities offered previously. Online payment for purchases using a credit card was made a reality, for both customers of the bank and non-customers. Always, of course, under strict security measures with respect to both the person making the payment and the payment itself.
1999 brought significant developments. Already in this year, more than 15% of the bank's total transactions were channelled via the internet, as well as more than 35% of securities transactions for customers. Similarly, in 1999, companies were provided with hosting services so that they could project their image and business to the world via websites included in Bankinter's server. To the domain www.km0.com, which existed as a navigational guide, was added content (reports and market analyses, and simulators) directed at helping the user make financial and investment decisions. And within the bank an area was set up aimed at conceiving products and services to be marketed exclusively via the internet.
All these projects emerged from a study of the real needs of individuals and companies, who later participated in their development. Another of its characteristics was security, for which all data received was encrypted using an asymmetric key system that guaranteed the identity and integrity of the customer, as well as the date of the transaction.
Since 2000, the bank has grouped all the information on products and financial services, customers' banking transactions, and whole range of other possibilities that go beyond the strictly financial, under the new brand Ebankinter, from which 25 thematic areas have been generated including Ebankinter Mortgages, Ebankinter Accounts, Ebankinter Deposits, and Ebankinter Broker, these different projects making this web portal a financial and investment reference point on the internet. Making good use of the latest technology, that same year Bankinter launched the first financial product comparison tool on the internet, which analysed the most up-to-date information on the various offers in the market for five types of products: mortgages, deposits, cards, broker prices, and investment funds.
In short, a series of landmark innovations in which Bankinter has been a pioneer, an which not only stem back to the origins of the internet, but which have also been maintained throughout time, making Bankinter an online trendsetter and the main reference point for financial activity on the net.
1975. The bank's data processing centre during its first year of activity.
Bankinter has been offering new products and services related to mobile phones for fifteen years. The bank's first experience in this field dates back to 2000, when it set up a system of alerts and notifications, informing its customers in real time of certain financial transactions, for example, payments made with their cards. Back then, many of the bank's customers were most appreciative of this initiative that allowed them to immediately receive a message whenever they withdrew cash or made a payment by card. The system even allowed them to block the card in the event of fraud.
The next step, in 2003, was to add the transactionality, so that operations could be transacted via SMS, replying to those sent by Bankinter. This innovation meant a great deal for the bank: it meant that the customer, when receiving a short message of 160 characters, could understand, reply, learn and contract products offered to them. The reception was such, that five years later the bank was sending an average of five million SMS per month to users of the service.
The commercialisation in 2004 of mobiles connected to the internet through GPRS opened up the possibilities of implementing another idea the bank had long been mulling over: the first online broker for mobiles. If this operation via SMS had seemed pretty much impossible to achieve, an online broker was an even greater challenge. That same year, however, customers were able to consult the state of their securities portfolios, operate in twenty markets around the world, including derivatives accounts, and see price fluctuations, among other things. Confidence in the tool meant that in 2007, 23,000 stock orders were executed, for the not insignificant amount of 678 million euros.
All these experiences culminated in March 2005, with a globally pioneering initiative: the launch of mobile banking, a simplified version of Bankinter.com, enabling the customer, at any time and from anywhere, to consult their integrated statement, and through which they could carry out various transactions, in a simpler way than on the computer. Just three years later, 5% of total transactions were made via mobile banking and 160,000 customers had used some of its applications, evidencing its usefulness as a banking platform, together with the company's other service channels. At the beginning of 2015, coinciding with its tenth anniversary, Bankinter proceeded to completely redesign this tool, which is now even simpler, more flexible and intuitive, making good use of the latest-generation of technological potential for smartphones and tablets.
2011 was chosen by Bankinter as the year to implement a pilot project allowing direct payments via mobiles in shops and restaurants. All you had to do was put a phone equipped with a Bankinter SIM card that had a built in Visa close to the payment point. The experience proved very positive and in the summer of 2013 was enriched by the introduction of single-use cards, a true extension of traditional cards, but safer, thanks to authentication techniques and a time limit for each transaction. This line of work is still of great interest for Bankinter, as the mobile phone is beginning to revolutionise payment systems.
When, in 1995, Línea Directa was launched, the most normal thing in the insurance world was that contracts were hammered out face-to-face in an office. Nobody believed that the telephone could someday become the business's greatest ally. And this was exactly the gap in the market that Línea Directa made good use of to revolutionise the sector, with an innovative model based on technology and the cutting out of the middleman which was initiated in 1985 in England, by Peter Wood (founder and chairman of Direct Line insurance).
The company decided to forego branches and maintain a distance relationship with its clients, generating total scepticism in the competition, which had absolutely no confidence in what Línea Directa was trying to do and were predicting a resounding failure. Those predictions, however, were shown to be wrong: two years were enough to sign the first 100,000 first policies and, a decade after its creation, Línea Directa had risen to the level of traditional insurers.
Up until 1995, Bankinter had owned one, very small one of these, dedicated to the branch of life. But the greatest leap in this economic field came that same year, by means of a joint venture between Jaime Botín, the chairman of Bankinter at the time, and Peter Wood. Since then, Direct Line has taken part in very significant landmarks and is proud to have been, for example, the first insurer to contract a policy and manage an accident report sheet through the internet.
Fourteen years had elapsed since its launch when, in 2009, Bankinter acquired the 50% that was in the hands of RBS and became the sole Línea Directa shareholder, a situation that still holds true today. At that time, the company had more than 1.5 million car, moped and home policies and its annual gross profit exceeded one hundred million euros. Competitors no longer had any doubt that Línea Directa was a model to be followed.
With Bankinter as the sole owner, the insurer has kept moving forward: in 2014, when it was about to celebrate its first twenty years of existence, it had a premiums turnover of 651 million euros and attracted 130,000 new policies, reaching a total of 2.22 million clients, the highest figure in its history.
In parallel with its growth, Línea Directa has strengthened its commitment to society and, as result of this, in 2014 created of the foundation that bears its name, the purpose of which is to promote good driving habits and reduce the number of deaths in road accidents. The board includes top-level personalities, such as former Director General of Traffic, Pere Navarro, and the journalist Matías Prats, who is the face of the company.
It is three years old and not only a financial web portal, but one that makes saving fun, without losing the security and return historically given by the banking services. COINC was launched in July 2012 with the intention of offering a dynamic environment, completely online, supported by the latest trends in navigation and closely linked to social networks. The website is open to all sectors of the public, but especially to internet natives, who are most comfortable using this kind of tool and who wish to take advantage of their savings in less traditional ways.
Become a COINC user only requires a customer to register on the page, scan in their signature and identifying document, customise their profile, and set savings goals with deadlines, contributions, and the amount to be achieved. It is therefore not necessary for customers to visit a traditional branch, nor send documentation. All registration is done 100% digitally.
From that precise moment they can track, in real time, the development of their savings goals and what is missing for them to achieve the expected results. The system is completely flexible, so a user can modify their goals at any time, change where their money is going, or withdraw it without problems if they urgently need liquidity.
Thanks to the enormous opportunities offered by social networks, COINC allows several people to save together, for a trip they will go on as a group, a shared present, to take part in a wedding list, or collect donations for charity. This ability to save socially is one of the website's greatest innovations, whose operations are practical, intuitive and very simple. Whether for individual or collective goals, the money is insured by the Deposit Guarantee Fund (like that of any conventional bank), and the returns fall above the market average, with monthly interest payments.
In the time since its launch, COINC has kept on enriching its content. Now, for example, it allows the youngest savers to start tucking their money away with Meta Junior, a sort of virtual piggy bank with similar characteristics to those the web portal offers adults. It involves no commissions and receives interest in addition giving to its great holders discounts on more than 300 brands in Club COINC, which also can also be great for older people.
COINC is a savings tool rather than a bank, with a social component. When it was set up, we wanted to understand how and why customers save. And, indeed, the web portal provides abundant information on preferred saving objectives, very useful when it comes to establishing alliances with other companies, such as those in the tourist sector, which is where of 16% of the funds obtained go.
COINC is also a useful test bed for trying out new banking processes in the digital age. Bankinter, for example, plans to simplify its client registration system to image and likeness from that used by the web portal, which is completely online, without necessitating a trip to a branch. Although it will involve the requirements and precautions necessary to prevent money laundering.
At the close of the first half of 2015, 72,000 people were using the web portal; and the volume of deposits had risen to 800 million euros. The average age of users is lower than that of Bankinter, 67% are less than 44, making COINC an interesting pool of clients for the bank.
