Covid-19: Stanbic Bank steps up digitisation drive

Leading financial services institution, Stanbic Bank, is banking on its innovative mobile and internet platforms to ensure its clients are well served throughout the 30-day lockdown.

The bank, which last year won the Best Bank award by The Banker for innovative products that mitigated against its clients and employees contracting the Covid-19 virus, is going full circle to implement the same measures that put first the safety of its customers and staff.

Stanbic Bank Head of Marketing and Communications, Palmer Mugavha said the institution was adopting a safety-first approach and the digitisation strategy would ensure that this approach was achieved.

“This invisible creature called Covid-19 has reared its ugly head in a more deadly fashion and we have to be more alert now than ever before because of the nature of this second strain.

As a bank we have ensured that 70% of our staff work from home, albeit, with emphasis that the level of customer centricity which has been our hallmark over the years is upheld even more” Mugavha said.

He said while Stanbic Bank fell under an essential service whereby workers were permitted to come to work, the institution was relying on its highly innovative mobile and online banking platforms to ensure that customers were not compromised in any way, shape or form throughout the lockdown period.

In 2018, Stanbic adopted digitisation as a means of keeping abreast of technological advancement in line with global trends, which also became ways to mitigate against the menacing Covid-19 which broke out in March last year.

The advent of Covid-19 meant the institution had to “think outside the box” and launched contactless debit cards and POS machines, becoming the first financial services institution to introduce this technology onto the Zimbabwean retail market.

The contactless debit cards and point of sale machines are symbolic of how Stanbic adheres to its customer-centricity nature and has been accepted in 78 countries world worldwide. It is estimated that all point of sale terminals in Europe will be contactless enabled.

Apart from the contactless debit cards and point of sale machines, Stanbic Bank stepped up functionality of FCAs on digital banking platforms in addition to launching a technologically advanced application which allows account holders to pay bills and make in-store purchases from their phones using QR code scanning technology called Slyde Pay.

This lockdown comes as Stanbic Bank Zimbabwe has just taken the cost of accessing some of its digital banking platforms from the customer to the bank.

In late December last year, Stanbic Bank made sure its customers enjoyed the convenience of digital banking by taking over the internet data cost in pursuit of its customer centricity approach to implementing its digital bank strategy.

As a result, Stanbic zero-rated the platforms for its customers who are Econet subscribers in recognition of the escalating data bundles costs, among others. Stanbic is in negotiations with the other mobile

network service providers to make the same service available to NetOne and Telecel subscribers.

Mugavha said Stanbic’s recognition by The Banker for its resilience and innovation would spur the Standard Bank group’s subsidiary to maintain high standards.

The Banker “Bank of the Year” accolades are among the most coveted and widely regarded awards in the banking industry.

The Banker is a member of the Financial Times Group renowned for being one of the most trusted sources of global banking information since 1926.-BusinessTimes