Navigate the future | Standard Chartered

How the digital revolution is powering real-time business

Victor Penna — Fri, 04 Oct 2019 12:21:56 +0000

If you doubt the importance of digital transformation for businesses today, then just look at the senior management team of almost any major business. Alongside the Chief Financial Officer, Chief Information Officer, Head of Human Resources and Business Heads, you will now invariably find a Chief Innovation Officer or Head of Digital Innovation directly accountable to the CEO for driving digital transformation of the business.

This is in response to several major trends including the ‘Uberisation’ of commerce, sharing economy, data as a business and the rise of platforms.

Enabling real-time transactions

Digitisation is enabling businesses to connect to suppliers and clients in new and more direct ways. At the same time, customers are demanding more of a real-time experience, challenging firms to come up with faster and more efficient ways of delivering products and services to them, both in the business to consumer (B2C) and business to business (B2B) spaces.

This ‘e-generation’ asks: Why can’t I buy business products and services online? Why can’t a business process be completed in seconds rather than days or weeks? Why can’t I get the information I need instantly?

"Businesses can capture new markets, offering clients additional services, opening new distribution channels"

To succeed in this new reality, businesses need new tools: real-time FX pricing engines to price locally when selling cross-border, alternative payment methods that are popular with customers to purchase online, and application programming interfaces (APIs) to connect bank and corporate systems to support the instant processing, reconciliation and settlement of transactions.

As a result, businesses can capture new markets, offering clients additional services, opening new distribution channels, and executing transactions faster and more efficiently. Some are driving transformation projects aimed at digitising existing processes whilst others are developing entirely new ways of doing business.

Financial services innovation

The same drive for digital innovation is reshaping financial services where the potential market size for successful new entrants is enormous. By some estimates there are more than 25,000 fintechs across the world vying for a slice of banking and finance related services. Some are focused on supporting enabling technology such as blockchain, big data, or robotic process automation (RPA) which can be applied to a broad range of financial processes whilst others are seeking to disrupt specific markets or services such as domestic and cross-border payments, debt capital raising or trade finance.

Banks have responded by embracing APIs, digitising their own processes, joining market platforms, and either partnering with fintechs or developing new ‘fintech’ services of their own.

The relevance of all this innovation to business is that there is now a raft of new financial services and tools that allow businesses to interact with their customers and suppliers in new ways, especially to support online and real-time transaction processing.

Cash management solutions

Customised cash management solutions to support digitised processes is on the rise, and these solutions are tightly integrated into core business processes and systems via real-time APIs. New cash management solutions have a number of common elements including multi-market payment gateways, dynamic FX pricing and execution, and real-time end-to-end processing.

Driving business outcomes

These new cash management solutions will help to power new real-time, digitised business processes across a range of different business scenarios. The challenge for most treasurers, however, is that these new solutions go beyond traditional cash management services and require new skills and knowledge to effectively support the business. Treasurers need to bring ideas to the table and actively participate in the ideation of new business models and digitisation of the supporting processes.

This requires a strong working knowledge of areas such as alternative payment methods, mobile and online commerce solutions, API integration and new services from banks and fintechs so Treasurers can become effective advisers to the business.

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Cybersecurity threats are much closer than you think

Invisible author — Mon, 17 Jun 2019 01:00:58 +0000

As cybersecurity threats continue to evolve, banks and financial institutions are constantly looking at ways to best tackle cybercrime. Every year, companies across all sectors experience cyberattacks. However, according to Dr Mary Aiken, a leading academic focused on the evolving interaction between information technology and human behaviour, the most damaging and continuously evolving security threat comes not from subversive outsiders, but trusted insiders: employees, business partners and contractors.

Insider threat is a notoriously difficult area to predict from a forensic profiling and risk management perspective, largely due to the complexity of motive and criminal intent. Understanding human motives when manifested in technology-mediated environments is of prime importance to tackling insider threat. Given that human behaviour can mutate or change in cyber contexts, it is essential for financial institutions to know their employees in a real-world context and to know who they are online.

Dr Mary Aiken, cyberpsychologist, academic advisor to the European Cyber Crime Centre (EC3) at Europol

Building and maintaining a strong and diverse risk culture

Everyone, from the board to the frontline, has an important role to play in mitigating insider threat. Apart from building and maintaining a strong security culture in which everyone takes security seriously, Cheri stresses that organisations also need to frame security “in the language of the business” so that it does not mistakenly get considered just a “technology issue”. Organisations cannot rely solely on technology or security professionals to keep data, assets and infrastructure safe. Instead, they must adopt a holistic approach that shows employees the benefits of behaving securely and the risks of failing to do so.

"Shared responsibility is a key theme in creating a strong culture in cybersecurity"

Cheri McGuire | Group Chief Information Security Officer

Diverse threats demand diverse solutions

In all organisations, it is important to attract talent from multidisciplinary areas. In cybersecurity specifically, diversity is essential, because of the wide variety of motivations and backgrounds among threat actors. Drawing on a diverse pool can bring a more well-rounded approach to critical thinking and problem solving. Employees with a natural aptitude in skills such as psychology, problem solving and communications can provide insight, perspectives and further advantages within cybersecurity teams.

On top of increasing diversity across cybersecurity teams, there is also room for greater collaboration between banks, financial institutions, agencies, regulatory authorities and academia to factor the human back into the cybersecurity equation. Currently, many institutions and agencies focus almost exclusively on analysing the technical and mechanical aspects of cybercrime and cybersecurity breaches – for example, dissecting malware and exploit tools, or analysing code and techniques – but few focus on social and psychological aspects of cybersecurity attacks, addressing the who and the why.

"More than 90 per cent of breaches can be attributed to successful phishing campaigns, therefore the ‘human endpoint’ arguably provides the highest security risk in any financial institution"

Dr Mary Aiken | Cyberpsychologist

Ultimately, the key is encouraging personal responsibility for cybersecurity, from making it easier to report phishing emails to improving employee awareness in all aspects of their work and home lives. Organisations need to ensure that every employee is aware of the day-to-day risks, is clear on their role in keeping client data secure, and how their actions and choices can mitigate, or increase, those risks.

To read the full interview, please download our Bankable Insights newsletter below.

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Step inside our Hong Kong virtual bank

Deniz Güven — Wed, 29 May 2019 09:00:45 +0000

When the Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) announced the virtual banking licences in 2017, we saw our chance to build a bank with a totally new operating model: new, cloud-based technology from the ground up, a new way of onboarding clients, new anti-money laundering and fraud systems designed from the client’s viewpoint, and a brand-new risk framework. With this standalone ‘virtual bank’, we’d be able to defend against potential disruptors and proactively take on incumbents to grow market share.

Everything comes down to people

We began as a team of 10, working day and night to prepare our licence application to the HKMA. Today, we’re over 100 people. We all hail from different backgrounds and areas of specialisation, but we’ve one characteristic in common: we share a passion for making a difference and achieving the extraordinary. We saw right from the beginning that, if we got the right people, everything else would fall into place. So far, this has proven to be true. We also knew that we had to be different to stand out from our competitors. Technological innovations would not be enough. Success would depend on us recognising and responding to our clients’ needs for simpler, faster and better banking.

Connecting the dots

We believe that, by working together with other leading players, we can reach a much broader customer base and help redefine the digital banking experience in Hong Kong. We’ve done this by setting up a strategic joint venture with multiple lifestyle providers in telecommunications, entertainment and travel. We’ll be able to offer clients a one-stop shop for our financial services and products, as well as a range of lifestyle products, from all our joint venture partners. Importantly, we’ll be able to deliver services that are built around our clients’ needs.

Why we’re going for ‘heart share’

There will always be other virtual banks and fintech companies, but banking is about trust, and trust is deeply rooted in Standard Chartered’s 160 years of history in Hong Kong. We’re on track to unveil our new virtual bank by the end of 2019. It’s been a fast-paced and thrilling journey, and we have learnt a lot. We plan to start by acquiring ‘heart share’ with Hong Kong clients before building up market share. We believe our existing clients will become the first champions of this exciting new offering.

Embracing disruption: the future of banking

Invisible author — Wed, 07 Nov 2018 15:54:45 +0000

How is AI going to redefine how you manage your wealth? Could chatbots really learn to talk to us as other humans would? Is blockchain the answer to all our transaction efficiency problems? We caught up with our Group Chief Information Officer, Dr Michael Gorriz, to find out how key tech trends are shaping the future of banking.

A new type of chatbot is coming. There are three words that will revolutionise instant chat with institutions: ‘natural language understanding’. While these words might not sound as exciting as buzzwords such as big data, internet of things (IoT) or artificial intelligence (AI), the ability of a computer to understand and respond in the language you use to talk to it will make a big difference. The most well-known application for this is the chatbot, which allows you to text a query to a messaging service and receive a response in the same language you typed it in. Spoken language versions of this technology will ease communication between humans and machines, meaning customers will be able to interact more quickly and efficiently with everyday banking systems.

AI: having a wealth manager at your fingertips. We can use AI to give our customers tailored wealth advice. It could be a simple question of what should I invest in? AI can help by analysing your existing portfolio, the current market trends, and the advice that our wealth management specialists provide – and then combine all this information and give you a personalised recommendation.

Blockchain: the answer to secure, real-time transactions. In the long term, blockchain is going to help make financial systems more efficient. This technology allows the realisation of verifiable, real-time transactions in and across many different areas. If you want, for example, to remit money from one mobile wallet to another in a different country and across different legal entities, blockchain technology allows this transaction to take place in real time.

The future of banking
“If we combine the trust of our customers with the convenience technology brings, we will create the banking of the future.”

Watch the film
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Saving you time: from days to minutes. Across our regions we’re experimenting with new ways of using digital to make banking faster and simpler for our clients and broadening the client segments we can serve across fast growing markets. Being digital allows us to grow quickly in fast growing markets in tandem with client needs, without having to invest in physical branches. In India, we’re now operating real-time onboarding, cutting the process from a couple of days to a couple of minutes. We can bring customers into the bank much more quickly than before, freeing up time to offer our customers a better service. Meanwhile, in Cote d’Ivoire, we’ve gone fully digital and fully mobile. There are 70 services on our app, and with just the tap of a finger, customers can choose the ones that are relevant to them. Being digital also allows us to serve clients who are used to doing everything on their mobile phones and expect banking to be delivered that way. In Hong Kong, we’ve announced that we’ve applied for a virtual banking licence to provide banking services to digitally-savvy clients.

Invent and innovate: the future of banking. For us, what’s most important is to serve clients in the best possible way. Embracing the disruption is essential. We’re working with fintechs, technology firms and industry partners to explore how we can use technology to revolutionise banking services for our clients. Reinventing the future of banking requires understanding that we won’t always have all the answers ourselves. This is just one of the ways that we’re embracing disruption, and it’s an important mindset to have. I truly believe that technology is now the core of banking, because it makes banking better.

Rewiring the DNA in banking

Invisible author — Fri, 02 Nov 2018 11:37:01 +0000

At the start of the year, we launched SC Ventures, a new group designed to promote innovation, partner with and invest in fintechs and rethink business models. We caught up with Alex Manson, Global Head of SC Ventures, to find out why disrupting ourselves is so important for future success.

SC Ventures is about introducing new ways of thinking about banking. By experimenting both internally and externally, we can generate a constant flow of ideas. Internally, this is mainly done through what we like to call our ‘intrapreneurs’; these are colleagues with an idea that could change the Bank – everything from a small efficiency change or a completely new business model. We provide the tools and environment for them to develop, experiment and validate their ideas in our innovation labs, which we call eXellerators. It’s proving successful – we’ve had more than a thousand ideas, and around 20 projects are moving to prototype stage.

We also partner with fintechs to develop products and services that make our clients' lives easier. This typically leads to partnerships being formed and sometimes even investment opportunities. Last but not least, to take our ideas forward, we are very open to experimenting with building new business models or ventures that could potentially disrupt the way we operate today.

To be clear: there is no such thing as innovation for the sake of innovation. Banking is all about serving clients in the way they want to be served. We are transforming the way we work – rewiring the DNA that underpins how we think about banking. Just as our customers are expecting the way they are served to change in the face of technological innovation, our corporate clients are also being disrupted, and they too want to reinvent themselves. We can work with our clients on building new business models and digital solutions, though with a start-up approach one might not expect from a large bank. Sometimes, we bring our fintech partners into this process to tap their technological and human-centred design expertise, but also their agile methods and start-up mindset.

Client co-creation is very important to us. We always want to experiment and learn to solve our clients’ needs, and the solutions we create have the potential to be rolled out across our global footprint, benefitting as many of our clients as possible.

We want to be courageous and empathetic – that’s what I think differentiates SC Ventures from other innovation efforts. As an established player, it takes a lot of courage to potentially cannibalise your own business to experiment, learn and move forward. Empathy plays a big role because we know how hard it is to be a start-up trying to make a breakthrough, just as sometimes it is hard to drive change or set up something that’s never existed before in large organisations.

Fundamentally it’s about people, culture and mindset. At the end of the day, SC Ventures is just a platform and we are only as good as the people who engage with us. We stand for serving clients in the best possible way, with capabilities transformed by innovation and technology evolution, seeing the opportunity to do things differently, collaboratively and more quickly.

Whether you’re interested in developing a career with us, or if you or your business have ideas that could help rewire the DNA of banking, get in touch with us at...

scventures@sc.com

Digital architects: inside the world of a UX designer

Invisible author — Thu, 01 Nov 2018 10:57:43 +0000

As UX designers, Jonathan Siegel and Olivier Soubiele see themselves as digital architects. You won’t be surprised to hear that technology is their biggest enabler, but you may be surprised to know that their work doesn’t always involve the creation of large scale, complicated technology projects; sometimes, it's all about going back to the drawing board and finding out what the real root of the problem is.

The digital treasurer of the future

Victor Penna — Fri, 21 Sep 2018 11:37:00 +0000

New technology is flooding the financial landscape and threatening to disrupt everything from markets as a whole to everyday financial processes. This should be taken as a positive, especially if you’re a treasurer.

Treasuries stand to see huge benefits if they embrace the new technologies available to them. And they should begin by asking fundamental questions such as:

1) How can digital technology better support my company’s business?
2) How can treasury leverage technology to become more efficient in the functions and services it performs?
3) What skills and capabilities do we need to develop to achieve these objectives?

"Embracing new technologies doesn’t mean transforming existing staff into ‘digital ninjas’ overnight"

Becoming a digital adviser

The key to building a digital treasury is evaluating the areas that would most benefit from improvement today and then carving out the time to do something about it. You don’t need a grand strategy. A simple ‘digital roadmap’, setting out some key objectives and milestones, can be a useful way of anchoring day to day activities to long-term objectives.

There is a core set of technologies that should be on every treasurer’s roadmap. These include: big data analytics, for more sophisticated capital forecasts; behavioural-based analytics for forecasting and scenario analysis; and increased levels of robotic automation.

But the more interesting question may be how the same technologies can be used to extend the treasurer’s remit to providing additional services or deeper analytical insights to the business.

Technology is not only reshaping the day-to-day operations of treasuries and the way they interact with financial markets, but, more importantly, it is changing the very core of how businesses interact with their customers, suppliers and markets. The ability to help the business navigate these changes will be critical to the future of the treasurer, turning the role into one that is core to developing new models, rather than being a peripheral player or governance function.

This file opens in a new windowHow treasuries can use technology to evolve. Download the report

Building the right team

Embracing new technologies doesn’t mean transforming existing staff into ‘digital ninjas’ overnight, but it does mean investing in their development or bringing in new staff with different skill sets to complement the finance-heavy nature of most existing treasury teams. Should your next hire be a finance graduate or a data scientist? A finance expert or a process design expert?

Experimentation is great way of acquiring new skills sets and knowledge. Companies don’t necessarily need to make a huge investment to learn about tools such as robotic process automation, data analytics and visualisation, or artificial intelligence. The important thing is to start the journey and keep building on key capabilities and skillsets. With much of this technology rapidly maturing, now is a good time to start.

For more on the future of digital treasuries, read our whitepaper The Digital Treasurer of the Future

Welcome to the ‘smart bank’

Invisible author — Wed, 13 Jun 2018 08:58:27 +0000

Many people in Hong Kong already manage daily life entirely through their smartphone. They want a bank that fits with this lifestyle, allowing them to manage their money on the go.

That’s why we recently announced that we’re applying for a virtual banking licence in Hong Kong.

We want our ‘smart bank’ to provide personalised services and intelligent prompts. Users will be able to understand and manage their finances at the push of a button, all on their smartphone.

“We talked to our customers in Hong Kong about the realities of their lives,” says Samir Subberwal, Regional Head, Retail Banking, Greater China & North Asia. “People don’t want another account with a different brand; they want their financial lives simplified. We believe that the launch of a virtual bank will give customers the choice of going completely digital for their everyday banking needs.”

"We want the people we bank to feel included in the financial system"

Our digital bank will not displace our traditional banking offering in Hong Kong, where our physical presence spans almost 160 years.

We want the people we bank to feel included in the financial system. That means that, although we intend to launch a fully digital service, we’ll stay committed to the branch network that is important to many of our customers, whether they have adopted digital lifestyles or not.

Our strategy is to select the right fintech partners to help us advance financial inclusion, fintech innovation and client experience in Hong Kong. Already, we’re collaborating with the likes of Paykey, Alipay, Wechat and Ripple, and are connected to big players such as Apply Pay and Samsung Pay.

“We’re supporting a new era in smart banking that will help customers better understand their financial position and how to achieve their financial goals,” says Mary Huen, Chief Executive Officer, Hong Kong. “We’re developing our virtual bank with innovation in mind so that our customers’ banking experiences cater to their digital lives.”

The virtual bank in Hong Kong is the next step in our push for digital innovation, and follows the launch of our first digital-only retail bank in Cote d’Ivoire, our digital collaboration eXellerator Lab in Hong Kong, and SC Ventures, which invests in disruptive technologies, including fintechs and start-ups.

Why bitcoin isn’t a real threat to major currencies – any time soon

Madhur Jha — Tue, 24 Apr 2018 10:12:55 +0000

Cryptocurrency bitcoin has rarely been out of the headlines.

First the price highs, then the dramatic decline, and now ongoing volatility caused by concerns over greater regulation.

Bitcoin remains the most popular cryptocurrency by some margin with a market share of around 35 per cent, despite the introduction of around 1,500 others. Although interest in them persists, we do not think cryptocurrencies will rival traditional money any time soon.

In the early years, interest in bitcoin was muted, but this has changed in recent years. The price of bitcoin skyrocketed, reaching a high of nearly USD19,500 in December 2017. Since then, cryptocurrency prices in general have tumbled by around 65 per cent, supporting claims that they had been the centre of possibly the largest speculative bubble since the global financial crisis, although prices have stabilised more recently.

Regulators around the world are taking different approaches to managing the cryptocurrency hype: while China has banned cryptocurrency exchanges and the Reserve Bank of India has recently stopped the transfer of money into bitcoin wallets, a bitcoin futures index has been launched in the US and Japan has accepted bitcoin coin as legal tender.

"A major problem is the anonymity bitcoin provides, which has encouraged its use for illegal activities"

Madhur Jha Head, Thematic Research

A digital token

The advantages of owning cryptocurrencies like bitcoin are generally held to be threefold: firstly, bitcoin has lower transaction times and costs through its peer-to-peer function; secondly, it provides a level of anonymity; and finally, as bitcoin is supposed to have a fixed lifetime supply, it is also seen as a hedge against the sort of hyperinflation that can result from central banks printing too much money.

Despite these advantages, however, we expect bitcoin to remain a digital token, at best, with little potential to rival traditional money or even a commodity like gold. To be accepted as money, bitcoin would have to fulfil three important functions. It would need to act as: 1) a stable and trusted unit of account, 2) a medium of exchange, and 3) a store of value. Bitcoin fails to qualify on most of these parameters.

It is clearly not widely held or exchanged and while it is store of value, recent price movements show just how volatile it is. More importantly, a major problem is the anonymity it provides, coupled with little or no regulation, which has encouraged its use for illegal activities, raising concerns about its trustworthiness. According to recent research by the University of Sydney (Foley et al), almost half of all bitcoin transactions are associated with illegal activity, such as drugs or terrorist financing.

Unstable and risky

The decentralised nature of cryptocurrencies implies that there are few, if any, safety nets for users in the event of a collapse in prices or panic selling, making cryptocurrencies inherently unstable. Traditional currencies, by contrast, have central banks standing ready to stabilise and defend their value, acting as lender-of-last-resort during times of systemic crisis.

Another source of concern for bitcoin is that mining or producing it requires exponentially increasing computing power. According to the head of the IMF, Christine Lagarde, mining bitcoin in 2018 could utilise the same amount of energy as the annual energy consumption of Argentina. This is clearly not sustainable and will pose severe constraints on the usability of bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies.

"While some central banks and regulators are showing initial acceptance of bitcoin, we feel they will become increasingly wary of the risks associated with it"

Madhur Jha Head, Thematic Research

So, if bitcoin can’t rival traditional money, can it rival a commodity like gold? Bitcoin has been called ‘digital gold’ in some quarters. But there is a problem here as well. Gold has the advantage of intrinsic value, but also a long-established tradition of being a safe-haven asset and a hedge against inflation and risk aversion. This in part stems from the multiple uses of gold (the main one being jewellery) that underpins its low correlation with other financial assets. Bitcoin does not have this and so it is hard to classify it as a commodity either.

While some central banks and regulators are showing initial acceptance of bitcoin, we feel they will become increasingly wary of the risks associated with it and other cryptocurrencies. As such, expect higher levels of regulatory oversight in future, which will likely dampen the attractiveness of the current breed of cryptocurrencies.

Even bitcoin, despite being the largest player in the market, might not be able to withstand increased scrutiny, at least not in its current form.

Important disclosures regarding content from Standard Chartered Global Research can be found in the Global Research Terms and Conditions.

Going digital in Africa

Jaydeep Gupta — Tue, 27 Mar 2018 14:26:10 +0000

A financial revolution is underway in sub-Saharan Africa – and it’s being led by mobile phones.

There were 277 million registered mobile money accounts in 2016, more than the total number of bank accounts in the region, according to Global System for Mobile Communications Association. 10 years ago, that figure stood at just 200,000.

Cell towers have brought together urban and rural spaces once deemed inaccessible, or uneconomic, for landline access, and a proliferation of mobile phones has followed, bringing new freedoms, new choices and new opportunities to many – from helping people handle money to doing day-to-day business in new ways.

Figures from the Global Findex Database in 2014 showed that 13 countries had achieved mobile money usage rates of greater than 10 per cent of the population. All 13 of those countries, including Côte d’Ivoire, are in sub-Saharan Africa.

With such digitally-minded people, sub-Saharan Africa has the all the ingredients for mobile money and digital banking to surge. In fact, the country in West Africa that particularly stands out is Côte d’Ivoire. We expect the country’s bank account take-up – led by digital – to rise rapidly over the next five years, with the country poised to act as a digital banking catalyst for the wider region, just as Kenya sparked East Africa’s mobile money revolution a decade ago.

It’s why, this month, we launched our first digital-only bank in Côte d’Ivoire. The country has led the way in the adoption of digital financial transactions in West Africa, a reflection of the country’s ongoing economic transformation. Since 2012, GDP has grown from USD27 billion to USD36 billion and gross national income went from a low of USD562 in 2002, to USD1,520 in 2016.

Retired football legend Didier Drogba has been announced as the ambassador for our digital-only bank in Cote d'Ivoire

Mobile-powered transformation

Increased prosperity has made Côte d’Ivoire population’s more financially savvy, with many looking for new and easy ways to handle their money. The country has rapidly embraced the benefits of mobile money, quickly becoming one of five countries in sub-Saharan Africa where more adults have a mobile money account than one at a traditional financial institution. Overall, mobile money account usage stands 34 per cent of all adults – among the highest in West Africa.

This mobile-powered financial revolution is bringing more of the country’s youthful and growing population into the formal economy. 59 percent of the population is aged 24 or younger, and competition for their business is stiff. It is no coincidence that the country’s top-five advertisers by dollar spend are telecoms providers. The benefits for people are clear: mobile money accounts offer security that cash cannot; enable easy payments and reduce the opportunities for corruption to eat away at earnings.

"As consumers become more accustomed to services coming direct to them, rather than the other way around, banks must respond"

People across sub-Saharan Africa have shown a desire to use digital means to not only make and receive payments, but also save. According to the World Bank, 42 per cent of account holders in the region are putting a little away for the future.

This new-found inclusion has brought the digitally active closer to banks than ever before. But we’re aware that it will take some disruption for traditional banks like ours to gain confidence among this new band of digital consumers.

Engaging the digital customer

Digital-only brands have rocked the retail industry. Global giant Amazon, for example, is changing how people shop, generating huge demand for delivery supply chains at the same time. As consumers become more accustomed to services coming direct to them, rather than the other way around, banks must respond. They must be ready to answer the growing call for digital services, providing key banking services without the bricks and mortar branches.

As part of our offering in Cote d’Ivoire, we have digitised over 70 of the most popular banking services, including account openings. Customers can open a new account entirely through our app anytime, anywhere – from the comfort of their own home or while on the road.

I’m excited by what our first fully digital retail bank could mean for sub-Saharan Africa, where an estimated two-thirds of adults, some 350 million people, have no financial accounts of any kind. By focusing on digital services, we want to revolutionise how Africa’s increasingly tech-savvy consumers can access financial services.

Digital banking in Cote d'Ivoire

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