St George upgrades Business Connect

St George Bank will upgrade its Business Connect distribution network in the New Year, with the addition of cloud services and a receipt management application.

Business Connect has been part of St George's plan to regain its position as a leading SME bank. It has been designed to give business customers access to business banking specialists via video and online channels.

The use of the technology, which is available in 140 branches, has increased the business bankers' "customer facing time". The payoff for the bank was a four per cent increase in business customer numbers in the 2013/14 financial year.

St George Bank general manager of business banking, Phillip Godkin, said: "What our research told us was that SME customers valued having a relationship but it did not have to be a one on one relationship.

"The Business Connect model has allowed us to use a team approach to relationship management, which the customers are happy with, and to deliver the service in a convenient and cost-effective way."

One measure of the success of the service is that 90 per cent of videoconference meetings result in the customer taking up a product or service.

SME customers who use Business Connect use an average of 4.5 St George products.

St George contributed cash earnings of A$1.6 billion to Westpac Group results for the year to September - an increase of 14 per cent over the previous corresponding period.