Commercial Bank of Africa, Kenya’s largest privately owned bank last week launched a new digital banking solution based on a mobile app named Loop, making it the first of its kind in Kenya and in the region.
To develop such a digital and mobile payment solution that allows easy card issuance for MasterCard, CBA hired Tieto, a leading Nordic software and services company listed on NASDAQ in Helsinki and Stockholm Stock Exchanges.
The concept of the Commercial Bank of Africa’s digital bank is unique as it focuses on high online availability in order to become more relevant to the younger clientele. The Bank also announced this will also ensure the availability of all necessary transactions on a private smartphone, making appointments at a bank branch unnecessary.
How to get your Loop Card
CBA has set up six outlets in Nairobi where customers collect their Loop cards after registering online at www.cbaloop.com or by downloading the App from Android or iOS App Store.
Customer intimacy and human touch is an essential aspect in ensuring customers’ appeal. Loop stores are designed in a friendly manner with warm and vibrant colors, no teller cubicles (see image below), WI-FI, a charging bay Loop stores are equipped with WI-FI, merchandise sales desk and a coffee station. The most amazing thing is that these stores can also be transformed for social meet-ups after hours, a move that is aimed at attracting the young clientele.
Over the years, CBA has gained a large share of the market through catering specifically to a well defined target clientele. In November 2012, the bank partnered with Safaricom’s M-Pesa to bring into market a mobile based lending service dubbed “M-Shwari” which now accounts for a significant part of its entire lending business.
Tieto’s Head of Retail Payments and Cards Maris Ozolins also noted that they can clearly see the transformation and digitalization of the Kenyan bank and payments sector have been picking up speed over the last years.
“CBA’s initiative to serve the millenials through a smartphone app is a bold innovation and a future-proof approach to banking and payments solutions.” He said.
Related; CBA Group Launches Banking Service Targeting Millennial Entrepreneurs
