Equity Bank has launched a suite of digital products dubbed Eazzy Banking that promise to give an easy, comprehensive and secure experience while supporting a convenient lifestyle for customers. Equity Bank Group CEO Dr James MWangi said customer banking trends have declared the death of the bank branch as transaction channel, as they increasingly embrace self-service technology platforms that give them freedom, choice and control.
“Further, customers have demonstrated the extinction of cash preferring to transact with digital money which is safer for transactions and more hygienic than bank notes,” he said. In response, he said Equity has reinvented itself into a digital bank in line with the government’s vision of a cashlite economy as contained in the country’s vision 2030.
The digital services will be offered through a banking app known as Eazzy App, an interoperable payment platform, EazzyPay; a mobile based loan product, EazzyLoan; a solution to help Chamas, investment clubs and groups manage their joint finances and investments, EazzyChama as well as a retail internet portal where customers can manage their bank accounts, EazzyNet.
This platform also enables PayPal account holders to transfer their funds to their Equity Bank accounts within three business days. There is also a cash and liquidity management solution for SMEs known as Eazzy Biz, and banking capabilities packaged as APIs exposed through Eazzy APIs platform.
“The bank’s strategy is to be the region’s leading digital bank delivering a remarkable client experience in key digital touch points. We have all witnessed how rapid adoption of mobile and other digital channels have transformed how people bank,” he said.
The digital journey that the bank started a year ago is already showing impressive results with the number of the bank’s active digital customers rising steadily. In the period ending September 2016, Equitel mobile loan disbursements accounted for 84% of all loan disbursements compared to 16% branch loan disbursements.
Some of the partners include Oracle who have provided the software and hardware technology (engineered platform and cloud service), Apigee who have provided the API platform to support the self-service developers’ portal for innovations, Airtel who support the Equitel MVNO capability and OpenWay who have provided the card management platform and Infosys who have provided the core banking platform. Experian MicroAnalytics have provided the bank with a robust credit scoring platform that aggregates all our data sources to analyze the customers
Other partners include Paladion for security operations monitoring, CISCO for Network infrastructure, and IBM for core banking infrastructure.
“The rapid growth of the financial technology industry in Kenya is a testament to the role advancing technology is playing in the evolution of financial services on the continent,” Dr Mwangi said. “Technology is fueling innovation and growth in the financial services sector, creating new opportunities and disrupting the way business has traditionally been conducted.”
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