New account switching service to support consumers and businesses in Ireland
The imminent closure of Ulster Bank and KBC Bank Ireland means that around one million consumers and businesses need to transfer to a new bank before the end of the year. Today, Majorel, the global customer experience provider, has launched a brand new consumer platform – SwitchAGENT.eu – as part of its solution portfolio making this process as quick and easy as possible.
Majorel’s digital account switching service enables customers to move their account to a new bank in just a few minutes and, at the same time, to inform all regular payment partners automatically about the new account details. What’s more, banks can also directly integrate the solution into their own websites and offer it to new customers to make switching easy.
RTE has reported that almost 300,000 affected customers have already opened new accounts, but this is just the first step in the account switching process.
Banking expert Thomas Hoffmann, senior vice president at Majorel, explains: “The number of newly opened accounts is not the best way to measure how many account switches have been successfully completed. It’s very time-consuming for bank customers to ensure that they inform all their payment partners on their own. And since they often lack the information they need, and also the time, many bank customers give up and don’t complete the process.”
On average, each bank customer has to inform around twelve payment partners about the account switch.
“Also, our experience shows that more than 50 percent of account switches are not carried out until the final four weeks of a bank’s operation,” says Hoffmann, who has worked on many bank closures and mergers in the European market.
“These delays bog down the account switching process and can lead to failed payments. That’s why offering a digital account switching service is so essential – it’s user-friendly, secure, fast and without any upper limit for the number of account switches – and therefore offers peace of mind to customers, banks and payment partners.”