Keen to be hip, although not as hip as the Commonwealth Bank with its flagship Brisbane branch that looks like a cross between an Apple Store, a 5-star hotel lobby and a super chic shopping centre, NAB has nabbed itself an update to its mobile banking app.

NAB first nabbed itself an iPad app way back in March 2010, and initially delivered such predictables as a branch and ATM locator, mobile Internet banking facilities and a bunch o' calculators for you to crunch ye olde numbers with.

But with the passage of time and customer feedback comes the new, with NAB's new app, set to be 'available in the Apple App Store in the coming weeks', will boost the app's capabilities, nabbing the feature of 'improved location search' which 'deciphers misspellings to make it easier to find NAB ATMs and [branches]', although stubbornly NAB prefers to call them 'stores'.

I don't know if I'd call a bank branch a store. I'd be more likely to call it a bloody nuisance, unless it was like the Commonwealth Bank's new Brisbane branch that looks like it has come from a parallel universe where banks are universally loved, instead of, well, you know.

If there are any more new features in NAB's updated banking app, it hasn't mentioned them, so presumably an 'improved location search' was enough to warrant a huge pre-iPad 2 announcement over something relatively minor.

Still, we can't decry banks from trumpeting their advances and developments - it's a tiny sliver of good publicity in a torrential downpour of normally pretty blah publicity for the 'we all love to bash 'em' banks.

Despite only seemingly ONE new feature for its app, NAB nevertheless notes some positive news: a 250% growth in mobile banking over the past 12 months, with 'millions of log-ins to NAB Internet Banking done via mobile devices every month - now reaching 12.5 per cent of NAB's total internet banking traffic.'

Let's hope no-one finds an easy way to hack Internet phone banking sessions via iPhones or Androids then - so far, end-users seem safe enough, but with cybercriminals ever vigilant for new opportunities, 2011 might well be the year of the iPad 2, and the year of banking cybercrime on a level that we've never seen before.

 

Continued on page two, please read on!

---

But that's all in the future. For now, NAB clearly wants to focus our attention on its newly updated banking app, and while it's impossible for that app to generate anywhere near the excitement of an actual iPad 2 itself, it's what NAB is working with right now.

NAB's General Manager of Digital and Direct Banking, Mr Chris Smith, says that: 'NAB is working to give our customers more choice of how they bank and make it easier for them to manage their money.

'As smartphones and tablets become increasingly popular, thousands of customers are downloading our apps every month and are enjoying the 24/7 convenience of mobile banking and access to their money on-the-move.

'NAB is investing to make mobile banking available on all of the most popular devices,' concluded Mr Smith.

NAB says its app is available to download for Google's Android devices via the Android Market, for iOS devices from the App Store, with 'NAB Internet Banking' also available 'through the Internet browser on all web-enabled mobile phones'.

NAB. It's also a little word for mobile banking app!