- It was also recognized for the support to customers in coping with the headwinds brought about by the pandemic
- Meanwhile, yesterday, the bank launched the paperless, end-to-end digital opening of accounts by customers.
Co-operative Bank of Kenya has been named Bank of The Year in Kenya, in the Financial Times, Banker 2020 Awards.
The lender was recognised for its digitisation strategy plans that have improved efficiency and enhanced digital offerings to its customers.
some of its digital innovation includes E-credit, a mobile-based automated end-to-end loan origination system that handles applications, appraisals, disbursements and recoveries.
It uses a credit-scoring engine that was developed in-house and offers short-term loans to those in urgent financial need, as long as they have a salary.
Originally, customers needed to have borrowed previously from the Co-operative Bank before they could use E-credit, but now the system is able to score and allocate credit to any bank customer, as well as pre-qualify customers based on their score.
This has made improved the efficiency of loan turnaround, a meaningful advantage, considering the mounting competition from fintech and telecom operators.
The tier-one lender was also hailed for its Mcoopcash product, a mobile-based bank account which can also provide access to an existing bank account. Recent upgrades include the introduction of two-factor authentication.
The product has a provision for those who make frequent multiple payments and allows payments directly to recipients’ Co-op bank accounts or Mcoopcash mobile wallets.
Co-op Bank was also recognized for the support to customers in coping with the headwinds brought about by the pandemic.
''Despite the difficulties during the pandemic, the bank has strongly supported its customers and employees,'' Financial Times said.
Co-op Bank MD Gideon Muriuki said the bank will continue to actively engage customers to support them through this period, by re-aligning the servicing of facilities, funding and transactional needs as the situation unfolds.
As at the close of the third quarter this year, a total of Sh46 billion in loans had been restructured to support customers impacted by the pandemic,” Muriuki said.
Meanwhile, yesterday, the bank launched the paperless, end-to-end digital opening of accounts by customers.
With this digital account-opening, customers will no longer have to fill account-opening forms.
Only the National ID will be required, with the other Know Your Customer (KYC) documents automatically generated by the bank system, which will also confirm and validate the KRA PIN, take clear photos, and enable electronic signatures.
When a customer opens an account, the system instantly sends a text message to the customer, providing details of the account, instantly enabling the customer to transact such as making a cash deposit to the new account via mobile phone.
According to Muriuki, the paperless opening of accounts has come in at the right time when there is a need to reduce contact as a result of Covid-19.
It will also do away with the bulk of paperwork that the customer had to fill, reducing error rates that come with manual interventions.