Covid-19 pandemic has disrupted the traditional business models and the banking industry plans to use the lessons learnt in a new digital strategy going forward. PHOTO | SHUTTERSTOCK Financial institutions are striving to adopt omnichannel capabilities post-pandemic as part of their digital strategy plans, a new report has stated.
Omnichannel banking entails making the same set of services available to customers across all the channels, both digital and offline.
Therefore, clients can perform the same banking operations, whether they use a website, a mobile app, a call centre, a brick-and-mortar branch, or any other available channels.
The technology builds on Big Data allowing clients to transact or shop with the bank through multiple channels including desktop or mobile device, telephone or in a brick-and-mortar store.
A survey conducted by NETinfo, an innovative technology company, has shown that about 93 percent of the institutions plan to adopt the omnichannel technologies after their experience with coronavirus crisis.
“Omnichannel makes sense on so many levels and it is true to say that financial institutions that do not embrace this motion will be left behind. Digital onboarding is joint second and this technology has shown just how important it is to obtain new customers without having them visit a branch,” the report stated.
“Open banking is the other second-place technology and further proves how forward-thinking African banks are.”
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The banking industry and customers’ interaction with financial organizations have been shaken to the core as a result of Covid-19.
The pandemic has made people visit bank branches less frequently and hence shift on apps, reducing traffic, especially in April and May.
But even as Kenya lead in the use of mobile phone technology at 91 percent penetration and in turn resulting in mobile banking spike, there is still a huge gap between tier-one banks and other financial institutions.Globally, Kenya is also placed with the highest share of internet usage with mobile phones compared to desktops. OPEN BANKING NETinfo business development manager Thomas Yieke said in the past two months, their absence in the digital space had affected most of these financial institutions.“However, most tier-one institutions and banks have adopted the online and open banking and therefore have been advantaged because they were able to offer same banking services to their customers,” he says.The Cyprus-based company is already reporting an influx of interest in online banking and the need for transfer of services to digital platforms […]