AB SA GROUP LIMITED
Absa Bank: a digital bank for the African continent IN ASSOCIATION WITH
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Absa Bank: a digital bank for the African continent
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A B S A R E G I O N A L O P E R AT I O N S
Vimal Kumar, Chief Executive: Retail & Business Banking, Customer Experience and Digital – Absa Regional Operations, discusses reimagining the future of banking in Africa
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othing is going to be the same again after COVID-19 releases its grip on the world. While nobody can predict what the ‘new
normal’ will look like, Vimal Kumar, Chief Executive: Retail & Business Banking, Customer Experience and Digital – Absa Regional Operations, is clear about one 04
thing: the response must be digital. “COVID-19 has highlighted the importance of digital solutions,” says Kumar. “The investment we made over the past few years in the digital transformation of our businesses across the continent enabled us to better respond during this time of crisis. As a modern, future-forward African banking group, a key pillar in our strategy is finding scalable solutions and platforms that continue to meet the evolving needs of our customers.” Kumar believes that technology will be the driver of this new type of economy. Regional and local trade mechanisms are likely to replace global supply chains, he suggests, and the most successful financial institutions will be those which can promote digital channels most efficiently, making them cheaper to use, cutting or waiving transaction fees and enabling cashless payments and e-commerce.
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A B S A R E G I O N A L O P E R AT I O N S
“ Instead of the slow march to digital transformation in the payment space, we are going to see many years of change condensed into a few months” — Vimal Kumar, Chief Executive: Retail & Business Banking, Customer Experience and Digital – Absa Regional Operations
conversational AI. Secondly, instead of the slow march to digital transformation in the payment space, we are going to see many years of change
While being realistic about the difficul-
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condensed into a few months. Thirdly,
ties ahead, Kumar thinks the benefits
our employees must become mentally
of the Big Data and analytics journey
aligned to operate cohesively in a remote
the bank embarked on following the
and alternative working environment;
commencement of its separation from
most if not all organisations in the future
Barclays PLC in 2017 and it’s rebrand-
will need to find alternative solutions to
ing in 2020, stands it in good stead.
accommodate their workforce other
“As we come out into a new world
than physical environments for the next
post-pandemic, we are going to have to
few years. Fourthly, and central to future
accept fundamental shifts in consumer
success is the need for leaner, scalable,
behaviour. From my retail and busi-
low-cost-to-serve business models.”
ness banking perspective, I can see a
Absa Group’s new brand has been
number of positives. Firstly, massive
inspired by the African continent and its
uptake on alternative channels like
people, and the desire to unite under
e-wallet, e-commerce, contactless and
a single purpose – to bring possibility to life. The group’s shared-value approach reflects its ambition to become a purpose-driven financial services organisation creating substantial social impact through core business functions, while also delivering shareholder value.
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07 “One of the key pillars of our new
to collaborate with fintechs and startups.
growth strategy is to build a scalable
“As we progress along our digital journey,
digitally-led business,” says Kumar. “Our
we will continue to focus on change that
aspiration is to become an African bank-
brings value to our customers,” Kumar
ing group with global scalability. Our
explains. “And, because we recognise
motto is to ‘Bring Possibilities to Life’
the cultural change that a digital transfor-
and, as a result, pushing digital bounda-
mation entails, we are already taking the
ries to become customer-obsessed is
initiative to empower, engage and make
at the core of our focus.”
our 9,000+ employees in our African
There is a high degree of awareness around the fast changing landscape
regional operations future-ready. “Very much a part of this process was
at Absa Group and efforts are being
during our rebranding to Absa Bank,
made to accelerate the transformation
we unveiled the artificial intelligence (AI)
journey by opening up the group’s legacy
powered humanoid prototype called
systems through microservices/APIs
Abby – Smart Banking Humanoid in our w w w.a bs a . co. z a
A B S A R E G I O N A L O P E R AT I O N S
“ I truly believe we can become a customercentric organisation by driving personalised experiences through a combination of data and digital” 08
— Vimal Kumar, Chief Executive: Retail & Business Banking, Customer Experience and Digital – Absa Regional Operations
Mauritius market that allows customers
Kumar is also enthusiastic about the
to self-service their banking transactions
chatbot that now sits on the website
and queries at branches 24/7. It works
and is also available on WhatsApp
on both voice commands and keyboard
Messenger across the African busi-
inputs and uses advanced NLP capabili-
nesses. Powered by deep AI that
ties to understand customer intent and
supports customers through intelligent
respond accordingly. After registration,
conversations, it is capable of doing
it recognises customers through face
most of the things that mobile or internet
recognition and allows them to place
banking can do. This virtual assistant
transactions with a secure PIN set
was developed with the help of US
during the registration process. The
fintech Kasisto and the South African
humanoid also has autonomous navi-
enterprise tech company Blue Turtle.
gation capabilities.”
“We looked at many providers but liked
the Kasisto option because it was a good
been a major disruptor in the payment
fit for what we needed. It is already live in
space between traditional financial
all our markets and will soon have trans-
services providers and disruptors.
actional capabilities – you can tell it to
“They give consumers a fast, secure,
make a payment and the bot will identify/
low-cost method to use, store and send
verify you and complete the transaction.”
money over the internet,” says Kumar.
Another huge step towards becoming
“Our wallet program envisages a banking
a truly digital bank located in the cloud
app that allows customers to open an
is happening right now at Absa with the
account, apply for lending, create sav-
rollout of wallet banking, scheduled to
ings products, pay a bill, and purchase
launch in some markets from August.
airtime amongst other things – all from
Digital wallets or mobile wallets have
their mobile. I am very excited about this 09
E X E C U T I V E P R OF IL E :
Vimal Kumar Title: Chief Executive: Retail & Business Banking, Customer Experience and Digital
Industry: Finance Services
Location: South Africa
Vimal Kumar is the Chief Executive of Retail and Business Banking, Digital and Customer Experience for the Absa Regional Operations, at Absa Group Limited, overseeing the RBB franchises across nine markets: Zambia, Botswana, Ghana, Kenya, Uganda, Mozambique, Tanzania, Mauritius and the Seychelles. He joined the group as the Head of Lending in 2011, based in its offices in Dubai where he provided strategic leadership direction. He has over 25 years of experience in Retail and Business Banking, including credit cards, consumer loans, retail liabilities and wealth management, having worked in Asia, the Middle East and Africa. w w w.a bs a . co. z a
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“ We will continue to invest in emergent technologies like AI, ML, and IoT wherever they have the potential to improve life for people as well as back office efficiency — Vimal Kumar, Chief Executive: Retail & Business Banking, Customer Experience and Digital – Absa Regional Operations
the future, to be expanded and made more multifunctional. Since Absa became independent, Kumar has become increasingly
because it’s customer-centric, meet-
convinced that technology is more
ing a need that is felt in all our markets.
effectively and quickly implemented
It helps us deliver banking capability
by involving partners than by building
at a very low cost to segments that
it in-house. “We have an accelerator
are difficult to serve through the
programme where we incubate up to
branch network.”
15 fintechs at any one point. We started
Importantly, it extends financial
working with some of those companies
access, as Kumar explains. “We want
because they were building technologies
to make it easy for new customers to join
specifically to solve customer problems
the financial ecosystem. Wallet banking
in Africa. Our biggest success so far
brings together a couple of cool things.
has been Jumo, which has built mass
One is that it helps us penetrate the
data and analytics, and credit assess-
mobile money ecosystem effectively;
ment capability, working in Africa with
it creates a partnership opportunity with
mobile lending operators over the
other fintechs and with the mobile net-
last eight years. It is very smart, it can
work operators – the kind of partnership
onboard and assess customers, and
that will be so important going forward.
lend to them based on a multivariate
It also helps us onboard customers in a
scorecard that ranks risk.”
non-physical way so they can either use the self-KYC (know your customer) facility or onboard via an agent. They need never come into a branch.” Wallet banking, Kumar says, is an investment in w w w.c o mpawny w w.a we bsite. bs a . co. com za
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A B S A R E G I O N A L O P E R AT I O N S
12 This technology chimes with Kumar’s
that directly links agri-trade activity with
vision to reach new segments of soci-
financial services. The farmer can offer
ety – people who might never come
his or her supply and the buyer can pur-
into a bank branch. Absa is now work-
chase electronically at an agreed price.
ing with Jumo in Zambia, Ghana, and
Since so much of the African economy
very soon Tanzania and Uganda too,
comprises small-scale agribusinesses,
within the mobile money ecosystems
this is a sector Kumar is particularly
there, allowing customers to save and
keen to excel in, and this marketplace
borrow money.
capability is proving very successful.
The innovation accelerator,
Africa’s diaspora is marked by a
WorkinProgress, was founded in 2015
great need for effective and fast remit-
and is based at Cape Town. It provides
tance structures, but aside from large
facilities and support for startups.
money transfer operators, there are
Another highly relevant partner to have
few options, Kumar continued. “We are
come from it is Avenews-GT, an Israeli
evaluating a fintech partnership and
fintech that has digital infrastructure
in parallel have also built an in-house
on their mobile and charge it back to us.”
“ I am very excited about wallet banking because it’s customer-centric, meeting a need that is felt in all our markets” — Vimal Kumar, Chief Executive: Retail & Business Banking, Customer Experience and Digital – Absa Regional Operations
This, he says, will push mobile access, data being an expensive commodity for Africans. The investment Absa has put into data is now paying off. The bank won the 2019 award for Best Technology Initiative at the Financial Innovation Awards in London for its data analytics platform, which tackles the issue of data availability in banking, especially in emerging markets. “Customer360 (C360) presents data with a lot of visualisation and interactivity. There’s
mobile based remittance solution
gamification and machine learning
called Novo Fx. Again, this is something
capability – again, it puts customers
our customers are really in need of.”
at the heart of our strategy. I truly
Partnerships like these in a targeted
believe we can become a customer-
way reach out to a huge untapped
centric organisation by driving
customer base. In 2016, Absa was
personalised experiences through a
the first bank to offer South African
combination of data and digital. And
customers reverse billing over all big
the employees are as much a part
four networks, allowing the MNOs to
of the journey as the customers are.
charge data costs back to Absa. “I
Digital transformation is only possible
want our customers to never pay for
if we can get our colleagues on the
data either while using the Absa app or
same page,” he concludes.
website. Again, we are in very advances stage of discussions with an exciting technology company to aggregate the data customers use in accessing Absa w w w.a bs a . co. z a
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7 TH FLOOR AB SA TOWER S WEST 15 TROYE STREE T JOHANNESBURG 200 1 PO BOX 7 7 35 JOHANNESBURG 2000 T +2 7 (0) 1 1 350 4 000 www.absa.africa/absaafrica/
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