Penny Bank introduces online banking

Doing business with the St Vincent Co-operative Bank Limited (Penny Bank) just got easier with the introduction this week of their online banking services.

Now, customers who sign up for online banking can pay their utility bills online, transfer money between accounts or transfer money to other persons with Penny Bank accounts, making the money available immediately at an ATM.

Interested persons may sign up online on the Bank’s website or by visiting the Penny Bank’s branch at Upper Bay Street, Kingstown.

“Here at the bank, we are always looking for creative ways to meet our customers’ needs and online banking is just one of those ways,” Savings Manager Carlita Tyrell told SEARCHLIGHT on Wednesday.

She said the Bank had initially scheduled the release of the online banking services for later this year, but in light of COVID-19 and social distancing protocols, the launch was fast tracked.

“It took like eight days to get it up and running and our IT manager was instrumental in that,” Tyrell said, while stressing that the online banking platform makes banking convenient as customers may log on from anywhere once they have a secure Internet connection.

Tyrell is encouraging persons to use the service as she notes the bank has one location and the lines can be avoided by choosing to conduct business online.

“Filling out the form online takes less than five minutes. It is user friendly, quite easy,” Tyrell said.

The Bank’s Information Technology (IT) Manager Kai Martin promises that the online banking set-up is secure.

“Security was one of our fundamental approaches in offering this service where we implemented numerous protocols,” Martin commented.

He said access to the website can only be done through a secure protocol “https” while the platform has two factor authentication built in.

“When a person logs on, they will receive a security code via email and they have to present it to the platform so there is little possibility of the account being compromised,” Martin said.

The Penny Bank, also known as “Forde Bank” (after one of its founders Ormond Forde), celebrated its 75th anniversary on February 1, 2020.