Guarantee Trust Bank plc says the future of its banking operations will be to allow customers handle 90 percent of all transactions using their mobile phones.
Segun Agbaje, managing director of the bank, said this on the final day of the just concluded Social Media Week.
During the session themed ‘The Future of Banking in the Age of Social,’ Agbaje said the traditional banks, which used to compete with one other had to brace up and face new competitions with the biggest threat being in the payment space.
Aside from financial technology firms, also known as FinTech, technology companies like Uber, which also provides financing for its partners, had also become major competitors, according to Agbaje. Today’s banks, he said, have to become like an ‘Octopus’ providing lifestyle banking beyond financial services.
“What is important for us is partnership. Example, we have created Art 365 as a free art platform or creatives,” Agbaje said. Banks should also learn to treat data different, as an intelligence gathering tool. Segmentation has become more individual than generic.
“You must be ready to innovate constantly and fast. So, when you fail it is less expensive. Organisations structures have to change to become nimble, but you have to blend the old and new. We previously tried social banking on Facebook and it was a flop, but we learnt from it and created *737*” Agbaje said.
The bank’s USSD code *737* according to him was created with the majority of unbanked Nigerians in mind. The code, he said, could do more than it is presently doing but over-regulation by the regulator has been a major challenge.
“The *737* USSD makes transactions of N110 billion in a month. If the *737* was not as regulated today the volumes will be enormous.
“We are not afraid of the FinTechs because we have setup our own in-house team. The ultimate winners of competition are the customers who will ultimately get cheaper, better and faster banking,” Agbaje said.
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