Thursday, February 26  - Nairobi, Kenya

Building a sustainable yet competitive retail banking environment

East Africa’s retail banking industry is growing at a rapid pace with technology being the key to access customer segments that were once too costly to serve. Non-traditional competitors have grown significantly in the marketplace providing services traditionally exclusive to banks. These developments require a stronger infrastructure and comparative rules than currently exist in order for the industry to be sustainable over the long run.

The neglected bottom part of the pyramid and where banking penetration varies significantly from one country to another are some of the bigger challenges that Africa’s retail banks must face along with the cost of maintaining extensive branch networks. Banking services are overshadowed by the ever growing presence of payment solutions companies and mobile operators in providing low-cost alternatives. What can banks do to catch up while keeping profitability in mind?

As technological solutions gain prevalence bringing down the barriers to market, banks must focus on a customer-oriented culture and push the envelope of innovation in customer service. While banks seek to boost their market presence in the unbanked regions of Africa, they will need to leverage on the right solutions to address current trends.

The Asian Banker, a leading provider of research and intelligence in the financial services industry, will be organising the first international retail banking roundtable in Nairobi, Kenya for the benefit of decision makers in the East Africa region.

The dialogue will bring together an advisory panel from other parts of the world who will contribute their own insights into the experiences of leading decision makers in the region. These include Martin Buchholz, Managing Consultant at Synertek Asia, an experienced technology consultant having vast experience of heading many technology and payments projects in different financial institutions across Asia. Ciko Thomas, Managing Executive: Consumer Banking, Nedbank, and innovation expert; Wioletta Senda, heading Digital Transformation for the Europe, Middle East & Africa regions of Citi Consumer Business.

The dialogue will be supported by in-depth research from The Asian Banker.

This dialogue will focus broadly on the following goals:

• 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 in emanating from different situations.
• Internalizing different possible responses to global retail banking trends.