LUSAKA (The Business Telegraph) – As the world grapples with disease pandemic, there is an increasing shift skew towards digital interactions in keeping with social distancing and health safety measures. Banks are noticing decreased appetite for hard cash but a corresponding increase in electronic money demand. COVID19 times have litmus tested many financial institutions digital strategies given that clients are shying away from contact type of transactions.
One bank that has embraced digitization by doing away with paper applications for loans both at personal market and small business scale (SMEs) is Stanbic Bank Zambia.
Clients now have the bank on their gadgets. Instead of visiting a branch consultant to capture physical paper loan applications, Stanbic clients can now receive loan offers across digital channels which they can then access instantly. Stanbic bank has invested in data infrastructure which leverages off machine learning algorithms to credit score clients for loans and advances.
“The solution allows customers to have access to finance anytime, anywhere and is available 24/7. The platform is available for both SME and retail clients that bank with Stanbic,” Head Enterprise Data Office Francis Mumbi said.
It is about a dry point of construction that machine learning and artificial intelligence is the future of digital banking that will not only improve process efficiency and service delivery to clients but will allow for innovation of new products especially in disease pandemic times.
The Kwacha Arbitrageur