Equity Group Holdings has officially launched its fintech subsidiary Finserve, the firm that is behind Equity Bank’s Equitel and the Eazzy app. Finserve Limited has been active for the past three years.
Speaking at the launch, Equity Group CEO James Mwangi said technology has made the bank grow from offering SMS-based financial services to currently providing services based on API.
“Finserve will now be an independent commercial fintech that will provide technology solutions. Thanks to fintech innovations by Finserve, 97 per cent of all Equity transactions are now outside the branch… We have taken a deliberate strategy to make Finserve an independent commercial subsidiary that will focus its efforts in delivering solutions to propel the African economy. Equity Group now becomes one of Finserve’s clients for technology solutions,” he said.
“Plug-and-Play to keep up with us,” Mwangi advised his competitors.
Currently, most of Equity Bank’s transactions are carried out on mobile, with the first half of 2018 recording 93 per cent of lending on mobile. The bank has also seen its transaction costs drop because of leveraging technology.
In addition, the bank’s customer-base has grown from 8.4 million in 2013 to 12.5 million in June 2018 while deposits have grown from Sh195 billion to Sh382 billion during the same period.
Finserve & Jenga Payment Gateway
Finserve has enabled Equity Bank to make its digital evolution under the brand name Eazzy Banking by helping it integrate “with all major global card associations including American Express, Mastercard, Visa, JCB, Dinners and Union Pay, becoming the single largest aggregator of card payments in the region. In addition, Equity Bank has become the leader in merchant banking and agency banking. Finserve has also integrated will global fintechs like Ali Pay and Wechat” and remittance partners such as PayPal and Western Union.
During the launch, Finserve’s managing director Jack Ngare revealed one of the fintech’s latest products called Jenga Payment Gateway. This is a platform that brings together all modes of payments together enabling customers to make transactions from a single place.
The firm also offers startups and entrepreneurs a platform where they can build a wide range of APIs using the Jenga API. Some of the APIs that can be created using the Jenga API are for sending money, receiving payments, buying goods, and credit.
