State Bank of Mauritius upgrades its banking system (including internet banking)

The most awaited upgrade is finally available to the public!

The State Bank of Mauritius has moved to a new platform during this weekend and the banking services seem to be back to the normal. After an interruption of 24-72 hours (depending on services), customers have gained access to their accounts (hopefully without any additional or missing zeros in the balance). I am not totally sure of this part but I think that SBM moved  their banking system from FlexCube to Finacle (Watch out for the browser links when surfing onto the new system).

I was probably among the first to try their new internet banking system as I was constantly refreshing their page. One thing for sure, the new system was not rolled out to the public at the announced 8am today. Well, sh*t (or last minute problems) do happen and I understand this completely, especially when a new product goes live. I still remember people complaining when MCB moved to their new core banking system known as Temenous (T24, if I’m not mistaken).

While I know that MCB (and probably other banks too) already provide such features, SBM has now the following in their new internet banking :

• Online mobile top up
• Viewing lease / loans details
• Recharging of prepaid cards
• Pay bills online

My remarks

• Extremely slow system
  Frankly speaking, the new IB takes even more time to process requests as compared to the previous one. I sincerely hope that SBM does the necessary to do the necessary upgrade or optimisations to improve this.
• Frequent errors
  On several occasions, I was literally thrown out of the system whenever I tried to click a second time while the first click was still being processed. In fact, as I mentioned, the system is so slow that it sometimes becomes frustrating having to wait. However, I did get a warning message a few times :

  

• Online SBM Chat / Live Help
  This service does not seem to work properly or fully operational yet.
  I don’t even know if I was chatting with a real person or a bot?

  

• Not mobile friendly at all
  I read that a new mobile app (Android & iOS) should have been launched altogether but I can’t find the app anywhere right now.

  

Other errors while using the system

Sometimes, people complain that I complain too much. But how can I be blamed if I can randomly stumble on errors or server crashes?

Not authorized to view my own account / No active accounts

Session Expired error – After two consecutive clicks :

Real session expiry window :

500 Internal Server error :

The verdict

I should say that as a customer, I’m very enthusiast to use the new services available. For those who have been tuned to my blog since the beginning, you might still remember the post (back in 2009) in which I reviewed the internet banking system of SBM and MCB. I know that MCB has improved a lot since their new upgrade and they are continually introducing new features (for example MCB Juice or no need for transaction passwords) but since I have closed down my MCB account, I can’t really write a detailed review (unless someone hands over their login credentials to me? Anyone???)

I noticed that you don’t need to wait for the next day or call customer care anymore if you have carelessly closed the window anymore, that’s a good move but not enough to meet the expectations of modern clients.

Remember, customers do not care if you upgrade your core banking unless

1. New facilities / services are made available -> Achieved
2. The new system does the job well and flawlessly -> Room for lots of improvement

Also, what does the picture of the bridge mean on the new internet banking home page? Is the bank associated with the Dream Bridge which governments have been promising to Mauritians? Also, why does the new personal internet banking system has a link mentioning “corp”? AFAIK, this term is normally used when dealing with corporates.

To end this review, I have not been able to find how to have a look at neither my transactions history nor my loan/leasing history. And just to tell you, I have been trying out each and every page for at least 3 hours. So, Houston, there’s definitely a problem. Either I’m very limited in computer literacy or your system is not user friendly / not self-explanatory enough. I understand that users need an adaptation / transition period but personally, I believe that in those 3 hours, I could have easily started to converse in a foreign language!

My banking expectations were probably too high! Anyway, now waiting to get hold of the mobile app…