winbank electronic banking services have gained another award in 2005. The information technology magazine RAM, after a thorough comparative test of e-banking services in its December issue, ranked winbank internet as the best service among 11 banks. This is the 23rd distinction that winbank services have received since 2000, and the 4th in 2005.

The evaluation was based on the following criteria:

Criteria

Security Print	Outs
User Friendliness	Availability
Accounts	Support
Remittances	Stock Market
Credit Cards	m-banking
Miscellaneous (Loans, Cheques, Donations)

winbank electronic banking services have been distinguished for their transaction completeness, the products they support, the easy navigation and information presentation as well as the transactional details and their history. The main services and products that contributed the most to the reward are the winbank alert functionality, the credit cards and their available transactions, the remittances as well as the revolutionary service of electronic payments, winbank easypay.

winbank easypay greatly expands and enhances the Piraeus Bank electronic banking services, as it is the only available service in the Greek market that combines payments to a large range of companies and organizations, through internet and phone, by debiting any VISA, MasterCard or Piraeus Bank Account. In the case of account debiting, the user of winbank internet can use the very same credentials (login ID and password) that he or she uses for accessing winbank.



The RAM magazine has been published for more than 17 years in Greece and is among the first technology magazines that included a comprehensive coverage of e-banking in the form of comparative tests.

Piraeus Bank's e-banking services hold a leading position in the Greek market. They are distinguished by their technological advantage, their completeness regarding the available transactions, their user friendliness and excellent quality of service.

We are constantly developing and improving our services in order to retain our leading position and innovative character. Our clients, always first and exclusively from Piraeus Bank, enjoy a unique set of electronic services such as the Alerts, Visa Direct, easypay, m-banking and many others.

Our services are designed and implemented on the principle of improved quality and better satisfaction of our customers, a fact that is proved by the constantly increasing index of customer satisfaction. In 2005 the percentage of customer satisfaction increased to 94% from 90% that it was in 2004.

The utilization and promotion of the winbank services by our clients contribute even more to our development. A fundamental element in selling a product, be it a banking one or not, is the available support through the alternative service channels, as they provide invaluable autonomy to the client regarding its control and administration.

We wish you all a Happy New Year with even greater success and more awards for our Bank.

winbank has been rewarded a European top prize!

This time the award was for its new and innovative service winbank easypay.

The Competition

The Piraeus Bank Award

In this year's "European Banking Technology Awards", Piraeus Bank was awarded the first prize of the "Best Payments Achievement" category. This is an annual competition for Banking Products and Services that are innovative and set new standards in the payments systems. It is very important also to note that the prize was awarded with one assent of the judging panel. Mr David Bannister, Banking Technology's Editor, said: "On a personal note, I would like to observe that after sitting through two awards processes in my time with Banking Technology, I can safely say that the winners of these awards faced some of the toughest assessments I have seen".

It is worthy to note also that winbank has already received the "Highly Commended" distinction in the 2004 competition for its winbank alert service and in 2001 for its winbank internet service.

The other Awards

Among the other 8 candidates, Visa Europe and the Italian company Societ? per i Servizi Bancari (SSB) received the "Highly Commended" distinctions.

Visa Europe is the globally known organization with members all European banks that issue Visa cards. It participated in the competition with its new product V PAY, which is a new platform for "smart" debit cards (chip cards) with PIN.

SSB is the largest company in Italy in the payments systems sector, with shareholders/clients most of the Italian banks. It participated in the competition with a product it developed for detecting credit card fraudulous transactions.

The 13 categories of the awards attracted 122 candidates that included big names from all over Europe, such as Citigroup, HSBC, Commerzbank, Barclays Capital, BNP Paribas, Royal Bank of Scotland, JPMorgan, Deutsche Bank, Societe Generale et.al.



Winbank easypay service is available through the internet at the address www.easypay.gr, and also as a phone service by calling 18 28 38 (in Greece) or 0030 210 32 88000 (from abroad). This revolutionary service is the result of the great experience winbank has gained in the electronic payments sector, through winbank internet (payments by debiting bank accounts) and winbank paycenter (payments by charging Visa and MasterCard credit cards and Visa Electron Debit cards).

Easypay accommodates all the e-payments needs of companies and organizations that do not have their own Points of Sale, or they want to increase their available electronic payment channels (e.g web, phone, fax). It is the only payments service in the Greek market that combines payments through the internet and phone, with Bank Account debit or Visa and MasterCard charge.

Piraeus Bank's internet banking, winbank internet, integrated with superior technology, infrastructure and a comprehensive range of services, was awarded one more time the first prize from PC Magazine (Total Grading 15,27).
This award is yet another international distinction, amongst a large number of prizes that winbank has already won. winbank is the only electronic banking and payments division in the Greek market that has been ISO 9001:2000 certified.
Specifically, winbank internet distinguished for the following factors:
- user friendliness and overall experience
- transactions functionality
- numerous online applications
- availability
- security

Also, special reference was made to:

- the process of registering and activating security codes
- winbank alert service
- the use of an extra security code, extraPIN
- the compatibility with almost all browsers

winbank internet and winbank mobile were awarded the first prize in the assessment conducted on electronic banking services, from PC WORLD magazine in the issue May 2005. (The respective grades were 90,2 and 92,5).
According to PC WORLD winbank internet, "distinguishes for the comprehensive range of services it offers". Special reference was made to winbank Alert! service, which gives users the opportunity to be informed real-time about variations on their balance according to the transactions they execute. Also the magazine distinguished the service where clients can transfer funds from one card to an email or directly to another card.
The evaluation was based on criteria such as: "Registration", "Provided Services", "User-Friendliness", "Security" and "Support".
As far as winbank mobile is concerned, PC World mentions that "the service excels in almost every aspect. winbank mobile has a user-friendly menu and there are no delays in navigation".