Traditional banks are launching a comeback to reclaim market share lost to Fintechs.The banks are not only investing over $2 billion yearly on new technology but also developing new products and services and targeting youths who are the biggest users of Fintech products, writes COLLINS NWEZE.
Martins Stevenson, 30, was leaving home for work when his smartphone beeped with a familiar Facebook message alert. It was a reminder for him to send the monthly allowance to his 80-year-old mother who lives in Ijebu Ode, Ogun State.
His wife, Victoria, had reminded him the previous night of the allowance and how badly his mother needed the money to pay her medical bills.
Two payment options came to his mind. The first was to pay through internet banking platform of FirstBank Nigeria. The other was to use Quickteller or Paga network.
Few minutes later, he went for the Quickteller option. Quickteller and Paga are Financial Technology (Fintech) providing mobile money and digital payment services to consumers and are top competitors to banks.
As little as the N100 fee from the transaction seems it represents one of the millions of revenue leakages banks are fighting back to reclaim.
Fintechs such as Quick-teller, MoniDey, Baxi, PocketMoni, Unified Payments, Paga, Remitta and Cellulant, are part of the financial system, offering banking services to both the banked and unbanked.
Like Fintechs, banks are prioritising 24/7 access and offer services available via non-traditional channels such as social media, empowering customers to a great extent.
Standard Chartered Nigeria said said it has spent over $3 billion in technology in the last three to five years .
The bank also launched a digital banking app, the Standard Chartered Mobile 2.0, to better connect with the country’s youthful population and make banking services easier for them. The app offers savings accounts, current accounts, fixed deposits, lending, and wealth management solutions.
It also offers zero charges on all inter-bank transfers, zero charge on sms notification and zero charge on all Automated Teller Machine (ATM) withdrawals.
Wema Bank has also introduced Alat, a fully digital platform to enable it capture the grassroots customers and the youth. Beyond the savings and investment options, Alat, mostly embraced by young people, offers complementary features that help improve and sustain saving habits.
FirstBank, Fidelity Bank and Union Banks have partnered PayPal to enhance online payment for shoppers. The partnership enables the lenders’ customers to register for a PayPal account from their internet-banking accounts.
By linking their-issued debit, prepaid or credit cards to their new PayPal account, customers can then shop and pay on millions of websites around the world from their personal computers, tablets or smartphones, without having to share financial information with the seller.