Stanchart Launches Digital Only Retail Bank in Ivory Coast, To Migrate Offering10 other Africa Markets....

BRITISH Bank, Standard Chartered - Stanchart launched its first digital-only retail bank in Ivory Coast, saying it will use the west African country as a testing ground for a global launch of digital services.

The move is part of a fightback by banks in Africa, where telecoms and financial technology companies have grabbed market share from banks by offering services such as mobile money and mobile payments, often to previously unbanked customers.

In Ivory Coast, where it has no bricks-and-mortar retail presence, the new StanChart bank will offer clients 70 digital services, including money transfers, bill payments and balance tracking. The French-speaking west African country of 24 million people, which has been growing at about 7 per cent a year for several years, has the fifth-highest mobile money penetration in the world, according to StanChart.

There are an estimated 9.8 million mobile money accounts in the country registered with telecoms companies, including MTN of South Africa, Orange of France, and Moov, a subsidiary of Etisalat, the Emirates provider, and technology platforms, such as Celpaid and Quash Services.

To raise awareness, StanChart is partnering with former Chelsea soccer star Didier Drogba, the country’s most famous football player, who will sign up to be the first customer of the digital bank.

For us, this whole rollout in Ivory Coast is part of a much wider strategy to capture the digital initiative said Sunil Kaushal, StanChart’s chief executive - CEO for Africa and the Middle East. We don't have a legacy retail business in Ivory Coast and it was very important for us to pilot this launch in a country where you had a clean slate.