The appointment of Sugendhree Reddy as Access Bank SA’s new CEO bodes well for the bank at the start of a new year after a successful launch in South Africa last year. With her 20-plus years of experience in the financial services sector, we extend a warm welcome to Ms Reddy and look forward to
Through its popular UCount Rewards programme, Standard Bank managed to put money back into the pockets of its customers over the 2021 year-end spending period, helping to stretch the holiday budgets of millions of South African consumers amid a challenging economic environment. Fayelizabeth Foster, Head of Loyalty and Rewards at Standard Bank South Africa, says
While 2020 brought significant disruptions to many industries on the back of the COVID-19 pandemic, 2021 has been a year of recovery. Many sectors saw an uptick from a payments perspective, sustained despite impediments to business such as looting, loadshedding, port and rail disruptions, and further waves of COVID-19 infections. Hopefully this bodes well for
Cloud technology specialists, 1Stream, has launched a new customer relationship management platform, 1CRM. This innovative new offering is designed to manage customer experiences and drive sales from one centralised, omni-channel platform. 1Stream’s co-founder and joint CEO, Jed Hewson, says a growing number of successful businesses are realising the value of delivering an excellent customer experience.
Infobip, a global cloud communications company for businesses and a leader in omnichannel customer engagement, has implemented a WhatsApp-based chat banking solution for fintech start-up Afridig Wallets. Afridig founder and head of product development Zwelabantu Ntsubane says the Eastern Cape-based company is set to start operating in January next year, bringing to market a host
Standard Bank has enabled near real-time payments for Lesotho and Eswatini. This means that money sent by South African clients to accounts in these countries will only take two hours to arrive. In the past, payments would take a minimum of 24 hours and a maximum of 48 hours (about 2 days) to clear. “South
ATMIA has announced the launch of its 25th anniversary year logo to help the association commemorate a quarter of a century of service to the worldwide ATM industry. Founded in humble circumstances in Louisville, Kentucky, the not-for-profit association has expanded year on year to represent over 650 companies in 70 countries from all sectors of
The informal economy in sub-Saharan Africa accounts for 38% of the region’s GDP[1]. What’s more, according to the International Labour Organization, retail and wholesale is the second biggest employer across the region after agriculture. However, informal retail Micro, Small, Medium-sized Enterprises (MSMEs) are largely underserved and underbanked. Plus, they face a distinct challenge: their scarce
Proparco is collaborating with South Africa’s third largest bank by assets, Absa Bank Limited, by granting it a senior loan of $20 million to contribute to its support plan for Corporate SMEs in the context of the continuing Covid-19 crisis. South Africa’s small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) represent more than 98 percent of all businesses,
Fintech has gone mainstream and is no longer a niche sector. There are now over 26,000 fintech companies globally that employ half a billion people. The pandemic has changed consumer behaviour substantially, with 30% of banking consumers now using app banking and 64% of consumers using one or more fintech platforms. The future of fintech
