The Employees Provident Fund (EPF) is embarking on its journey towards digital transformation and aims to have at least 90 per cent of its members register with i- Akaun by 2021, says Head of Services Network Department, Mohd Rodzi Abu Bakar.

Mohd Rodzi said as of September 2017, about 34 per cent (4.5 million) of 13 million members had registered with the i-Akaun online facility.

"For this year, we have revised up our target to have five million i-Akaun member registrations by year-end, as we have achieved the initial target of 4.5 million by September this year," he told reporters recently.

The i-Akaun, introduced in 2004, enables EPF members to keep track of their contributions, retrieve their statements and check their account transactions online anytime, anywhere.

Mohd Rodzi said not only i- Akaun was able to enhance customer convenience, it was also a "go-green" initiative that could reduce paper usage and subsequently, lower operation costs and manpower.

"More importantly, the online platform aims to cater to the technology-savvy Generation Ys (Gen-Ys) who prefer to do things online," he said.

He said to-date, the Gen-Ys accounted for over 50 per cent of the EPF contributors and the number was expected to exceed 75 per cent by 2025.

"Therefore, while we aim to have at least 90 per cent of our members register with i- Akaun by 2021, we also hope that 80 per cent of our members would use the facility at that time," he said.

The EPF latest data showed that the i- Akaun login recorded an average usage of 1.14 million per month from January to September 2017, up from 791,728 per month last year.

On the initiatives to enhance i-Akaun, Mohd Rodzi said, the fund planned to allow members to make withdrawals via the e-Pengeluaran facility in i-Akaun without having to make the journey to any EPF counters.

Currently, he said, the e-Pengeluaran facility only allowed members to submit their housing or education withdrawal applications online and stilll neededo travel to EPF counters for thumbprint verification.

The e-Pengeluaran facility was introduced in 2013 as part of EPF's initiative to reduce counter transactions.

Apart from submitting housing or education withrawal applications, the e-Pengeluaran facility also enables members to check their nomination.

To register for i-Akaun, members will need to obtain the activation code at any EPF counters, through the EPF Kiosks or call the EPF Contact Management Centre at 03-89226000.

In order to encourage more members to register for i- Akaun, Mohd Rodzi said, the EPF mobilised its ambassador team to assist members at all branches.

For added convenience and to be relevant with the times, he said, the EPF also rolled out the "EPF i- Akaun" mobile application (app) which can be downloaded for free from Google Play Store or Apple App Store.

Since its introduction in 2014, about 1.8 million members have downloaded the i- Akaun mobile app.

"The app is a simplified version of the i- Akaun website, and we hope to achieve 42 per cent, or around two million app users, by year-end," said Mohd Rodzi.

To make the EPF I-Akaun mobile app more attractive and interactive, he said, the EPF would introduce more enhancements, which included new interface for the statement, push notifications and secured inbox.

"These enhancements are expected to be implemented by year-end," he said. - BERNAMA