ME Bank inks multimillion-dollar deal with Telstra

Telstra today announced that it has signed a three-year, $4.5 million contract to provide telecommunications products and services to ME Bank (formerly Members Equity Bank), designed to support the bank’s growing and increasingly mobile workforce.

Under the agreement, Telstra will provide ME Bank with fixed and mobile voice and data services that will run on the Telstra Next IP network and Next G network, as well as Blackberry devices for on-the-road employees and senior executives.

Shane Kuret, Executive Manager IT at ME Bank, said that Telstra was chosen due to the breadth of coverage of its network, particularly in remote and rural areas. Telstra’s networks will also support ME Bank’s branch expansion program across Australia this year.

“We face ever-increasing competition in the home loans market, with customers demanding flexible and immediate responses to their banking queries. By using the Telstra Next G network, our mobile banking managers can field calls from our customer contact centre to answer queries, as well as have reliable internet access for research and email communication while on the road.

“After canvassing the market, we judged Telstra’s core network to be superior. With more than 800 employees across over 20 locations across Australia, the network will be critical to improving business efficiencies, increasing employee productivity and providing great customer service as we continue to grow the business,”  Kuret said.