KBC reports on take-up of non-banking services following wearables payments trial expansion

Man with mop and bucket
CLEAN SWEEP: KBC has added the ability to order and pay for Sodexo service vouchers to its mobile banking app

Belgian bank KBC has reported on the take-up of the non-banking services such as car parking and transit ticketing that it has been adding to its mobile banking app since launching it last summer.

It comes as the firm last week added the ability to order and pay for Sodexo service vouchers to the app.

About 255,000 customers already purchase service vouchers from Sodexo via KBC. They can now pay for them directly instead of by manual transfer and have them added digitally to their balance shown in the app or get them in paper form.

KBC launched a number of non-banking services last summer. These include the ability to pay for parking via the 4411 service, which has been used 219,200 times since June 2018.

Customers can also check their meal and eco voucher balances through the Monizze card and monitor payments made using the card, with 11,500 checks taking place in March 2019.

Last month KBC partnered with Q-Park to enable customers to pay automatically for parking using automatic number plate recognition (ANPR).

This works by customers linking their vehicle number plates to the KBC mobile banking app with payment taken automatically when they use a Q-Park car park. Since mid-March, 13,650 numbers plates have been linked.

Users can also use the app to purchase transport tickets. Since September 2018, customers have bought 232,500 De Lijn public transport tickets and since November 2018 they have bought 90,000 SNCB train tickets.

All the services are available as extra options on the KBC/CBC/KBC Brussels mobile banking app.

Separately, KBC has enabled payments via Fitbit after launching Fitbit Pay in Belgium at the start of April.

It allows KBC, CBC and KBC Brussels customers with a Fitbit smartwatch or activity tracker to pay in shops that take Maestro and are contactless payment-enabled.

This follows the bank’s introduction of Google Pay in September 2017 and Garmin Pay in October 2018.

More than 9,200 of its customers have used Google Pay and nearly 500 have enrolled on Garmin Pay.

In addition, the bank is running a more general wearables payments trial involving 1,000 participants, enabling them to pay with their watch, ring, bracelet or key holder.

This launched last December and will run till the end of 2019.

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