Kariuki ngari StanChart CEO and Managing Director. PHOTO | SALATON NJAU | NMG Standard Chartered Bank Kenya is among top-tier lenders that have in recent years invested heavily in digitisation in line with changing preferences by clients. The country’s sixth largest lender has reported that about 90 percent of transactions are now done via its digital channels such as SC Mobile, an app.
The bank says increased digitisation has seen growth in new customers and reduction in footfall in branches resulting in closure of some outlets.
The next phase of its digitisation strategy is enabling customers to apply for and get approval for credit without visiting banking halls.
StanChart’s chief executive Kariuki Ngari spoke with Business Daily in an interview at the bank’s headquarters in Nairobi. Your digitalisation strategy has different phases.
When you start the journey of digitalising and ensuring a bank is not somewhere you go, but something you do at any time you choose, then you start to look at different touch points.
The SC Mobile takes care of one aspect, but we know this is a cash economy. So, there’s cash and there are cheques. For our corporate clients, we have installed cheque deposit machines, so whatever they get paid as cheques, they deposit and get direct value. When it comes to mobile lending, you are reaching a much wider number of people than before. Is your looming venture into mobile lending a strategy to target mass market?
We look at technology to enable us reach segments or people that we could not have served before if we did it the traditional way.
But I wouldn’t read it to say StanChart now wants to completely go down where everybody is.
We know where our strength is, it’s an area we understand and our clients connect with us.
That’s an area we will continue doubling down to ensure we continue being relevant. Nobody leaves where they are strong and try to explore because you can find your – self not standing at all after that. Why are you entering mobile lending now when your peers did so a decade or so back?
It’s been part of the development.It’s not just about the now traditional digital lending, but ‘why can’t we do everything digitally like apply for credit card digitally and get a response or apply for a personal loan’? All along, it was just a question of timing.Once we are ready with development, […]
