Banking on yahoo

[hassen1]

When the NatWest bank launched its online banking service, it wanted to achieve online credibility as quickly as possible. To do so, it approached Yahoo to take part in a co-branding alliance that gives Yahoo a strong presence on the NatWest.com web site at http://natwest.yahoo.co.uk/, as well as in Natwest branches. The Yahoo brand also features in a NatWest TV advertising campaign which broke in March.

For its part, NatWest gets an association with one of the best-known brands in the online world and a presence on the Yahoo web site. In addition, NatWest online customers are the first in Europe to be able to check their account balance and recent transactions via the 'myyahoo' portal.

The co-branding is clear from the opening page of the web site, with links to NatWest services down the left hand side and across the bottom of the page, and the Yahoo section, including quick links to Yahoo services and a web search facility, occupying the remainder of the screen.

"The approach has been to offer everything that you need online" says NatWest Group head of e-marketing, Ron Kalifa. "Yahoo is the only place you need to go to find or get connected to anything or anybody on the internet and that's the way that we've put it across to customers.

"Internet credibility was one of the key reasons for choosing Yahoo. People know the Yahoo brand and because they know it, there is a natural association of comfort. They have a very strong brand proposition and access to the online world, while we have access to the offline world. This was a mutually incentivised relationship and the whole objective is to develop further services. This is just the start."

Since the alliance with Yahoo went live, NatWest has been receiving around 1,700 applications to sign up for its online banking services, with the figure rising to around 2,000 per day in recent weeks. By mid-March, the company had attracted 150,000 customers to the service. It is aiming for one million in its first year.