Aktion MENSCH and the Stiftung Digitale Chancen (Digital Opportunities Foundation) have honored Postbank with a golden BIENE award. In Berlin on December 3, the judges awarded the golden prize for the first time in the category “e-commerce” for the best barrier-free online banking in Germany. Since November 8, all Postbank customers have been able to use the prize-winning service at https://banking.postbank.de/. The jury was delighted that Postbank's particularly broad-ranging service, of great importance to people with or without disabilities, is among the winners. “This award confirms why Postbank is one of the most popular banking Web sites in Germany,” said Dr. Wolfgang Klein, member of the Board of Management at Postbank. “We feel it is important to offer online banking for everyone, so that each individual customer benefits. Nobody should be excluded by special technology or limited offers aimed at people with or without disabilities.”

BIENE Award

The task of the BIENE Award (www.biene-award.de) is to recognize the best Web sites and hold them up as examples. The word “BIENE” in German stands for “barrier-free internet opens new horizons”. Web sites that are of equal interest and use to people with or without disabilities are awarded prizes. The Stiftung Digitale Chancen, in cooperation with Aktion Mensch, awards the prize annually.

Barrier-free online banking

People with physical disabilities, for example partially-sighted or blind people, can now use Postbank's online banking service without any problems. Now, special browsers can read out the web pages or offer them in Braille. The color settings of the pages can be modified in order to provide optimum service to those with color-blindness. Of particular benefit to all Postbank online customers is the adjustable font size of its Web sites. This means that online banking is always optimally supported irrespective of the screen resolution or the browser used.

New functions

In addition to the advantage of being barrier-free, online banking also offers new functions. One such feature is that bank statements are now shown in real time. If a Postbank customer in Hamburg makes a transfer to a Postbank account in Munich, for example, both account holders can see the transaction simultaneously. Another new feature is the fact that account transactions are balanced after each individual transaction. This allows customers to view overall changes in their account balance more easily.

Outlook

Barrier-free online banking simply marks the beginning for Postbank. The homepage, www.postbank.de, is due to be revamped in 2005.