Foremost Nigerian bank, Standard Chartered Bank, has launched its digital banking app, the SC Mobile 2.0, to better connect with the country’s youthful population and make banking services easier for them.
The digital banking app is initially expected to offer savings accounts, current accounts, fixed deposits, lending, and wealth management solutions. But other offerings like mutual funds and even lifestyle benefits are expected to follow soon.
“We are pleased to launch our digital app in Africa with the support of the CBN,” Standard Chartered CEO, Lamin Manjang said.
“This is a key milestone on our digital journey as a bank and underlines our commitment to investing and growing in the market. Digitising Africa remains at the heart of our business strategy for the region and we look to continue to grow our business in Nigeria being the best financial partner to our clients.”
The SC Mobile offers zero charges on all inter-bank transfers, zero charge on sms notification and zero charge on all ATM withdrawals. You can also perform funds transfer without adding beneficiaries, request to manage your account and generate soft tokens for all transactions as well as free card delivery nationwide.
“Our digital Bank was developed with our clients in mind,” Head of Retail Banking, David Idoru said. “We have also taken into consideration the feedback received by our clients at each stage of the design process and have incorporated innovative technology to allow them execute all banking activities from a mobile device.”
As the drive towards financial inclusion, banking the unbanked and serving the under-banked continues to gather steam, Standard Chartered is jumping on the trend. However, the bank has a different target in mind with its digital app: the youths whose daily existence deals with digitisation. In essence, Standard Chartered appears to be wading into the realm of Fintech.
However, Standard Chartered doesn’t consider Fintech platforms its competition. This is because it hopes to team up with Fintechs in areas they could collaborate on to test their technology.
Standard Chartered has invested about three billion dollars in digital technology over the past 3 to 5 years. According to the bank, “We are spending what we need to spend to ensure banking that is easy, secure and convenient for our clients.”