Exhibitions & Events News South Africa

The first day at Retail Banking Africa 2015

The seventh Annual Retail Banking Africa 2015, being held now at the Birchwood Hotel and OR Tambo Conference Centre, Joburg, has the central theme Transforming the Experience of the Generation of Customers in Banking...
The first day at Retail Banking Africa 2015
© Dmitriy Shironosov – 123RF.com

This forum opened with opening remarks from the event chairman, Vimal Kumar, Barclays Africa - Regional Head of Retail Banking followed by a formal introductory session where participants introduced and interacted with each other to know fellow participants.

Rajal Vaidya, Consumer Banking Director - Rest of Africa at Barclays demonstrated about using digital disruption as an opportunity for innovation and defined the role of banks in financial inclusion versus the government's role.

The Annual CEO Panel elaborated on what retail banks need to do to catch up on competitiveness while keeping profitability in mind. The panel also looking into answering to the role of the banking sector to bridge the gap between the 'banked' and 'unbanked' population, facilitating greater fertilisation of ideas in terms of retail banking technology and innovation, managing risks while catering to the demands of retail banking customers, improving channel innovation and customer reach, identifying benchmarks and best practices emanating from different situations, internalising different possible responses to global retail banking trends.

This panel comprised Andrew Mashanda, CEO - Standard Bank Malawi; Ramesh Motee, COO - National Commercial Bank; Tineyi Mawocha, CEO - Urwego Opportunity Bank; Dave van Niekerk, CEO - GetBucks and was moderated by Vimal Kumar.

Yolande Steyn, CEO (eWallet Solutions) - First National Bank in his presentation Your bank in your pocket: affordable financial services, focused on convenience and service excellence and e-money, while raising financial inclusion. A session on Nigeria 2020 road map was explained by Temitope Akin-Fadeyi, Head of Financial Inclusion Secretariat - Central Bank of Nigeria. Jero A Omare-Ogah, MD - Fortis Mobile Money presented about the hard-to-reach segment, mass market trajectory, the Fortis strategy and the way forward.

The role of emotion

Tineyi Mawocha, CEO - Urwego Opportunity Bank highlighted on digital financial services for the low income segment. Ravi Venkataratna, Lead Product Manager - Finacle Product Strategy & Pre-sales - Infosys Finacle spoke about banking renewal for the digital age. Whilst Peter Gross, Marketing Director - MicroEnsure demonstrated about role of emotion in retail banking growth, John Schlesinger, Global Chief Enterprise Architect - Temenos in his presentation explained about the characteristics of a modern retail bank.

Emmanuel Aihevba, Zone Head Personal and Business Banking - Stanbic IBTC Bank presented about digital disruption and its impacts on customer experience. Zahid Mustafa, Consumer Banking Director - Barclays Bank Kenya Limited spoke about attracting small customer deposits through Barclays Kenya zidisha bonus saver. Agrippa Mugwagwa, Executive Director (Retail Banking & E-commerce) - FBC Bank Limited explained the needs of different market segments.

The first day of the event concluded with the GURU Panel Discussion. Vimal Kumar, the event chairman acted as the head facilitator. The Focused Round Table Group Discussion emphasised on surviving the convergence of the digital and physical worlds, navigating the new battleground in 'digi-cal' innovation, understanding the needs of the next generation - 'Customer 3.0', designing a superior business model to serve them - 'Bank 3.0', winning in the new generation of financial services, what role will FinTech and MNOs play in the disruption of financial services technology. The panel featured Neal Macintyre, Customer Experience Retail Banking - BancABC, John Schlesinger, Global Chief Enterprise Architect - Temenos, Jero A. Omare-Ogah, Managing Director - Fortis Mobile Money, Agrippa Mugwagwa, Executive Director (Retail Banking & E-commerce) - FBC Bank Limited.

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