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Moneyhub Makes Open Banking Payments The Default Way to Pay

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Moneyhub, the market-leading Open Finance data, intelligence and payments platform, has today made its cutting-edge Payments system available to all its white label clients.

The functionality allows all businesses to build tailored products and services that incorporate card-free payments, as well as offering content-driven access to financial analytics and insights.

Moneyhub API clients already benefit from the ability to embed plug and play payments into their own front ends. Now everyone using the Moneyhub platform, including white label clients, has access to the same Open Banking card-free payments protocol, allowing their users to easily transfer money between accounts using just one service rather than a number of different apps or portals. Payments can be secured with a thumbprint, eye scan, or pin number, depending on the customer’s choice.

The update is a key milestone on a roadmap that will fast-track the transformative nature of Open Banking and make “sweeping” money with rules such as rounding up, matching a spend, or beating a budget the new normal. When Variable Recurring Payments (VRPs) are introduced, it isn’t just card payments that will no longer be needed: standing orders and direct debits will also become redundant.

Moneyhub’s full implementation of Open Banking’s Payment Initiation Service will democratise savings and investments for everyone and save Moneyhub’s enterprise clients millions of pounds in the process. It will be a customer-centric transformation on all levels.

Moneyhub’s new Payments update also resonates with its wider mission to enhance the financial wellness of consumers and businesses by providing immediate clarity and holistic control over their finances.

Moneyhub has already established itself in the wealth, insurance and retail markets in the UK, and boasts clients including Mercer, Aon, Nationwide, Hometrack and Standard Life.

It has established the largest number of native Open Banking connections in the UK of any provider in the market, with 200 financial services providers covering 584 specific UK payment accounts, as well as a further 3,500 connections in Europe. Now white-label clients will be able to take advantage of this unique, vast and ever-growing network to power payment solutions.

The combination of Moneyhub’s platform, team and clients allowed it to secure a number of prestigious awards in July 2021. It was awarded the Best Open Finance Innovation prize by a panel of industry experts at the Open Banking Expo Awards. Moneyhub also secured Best Open Banking Partnership in the Consumer section for its work with Mercer to develop a Financial Wellness proposition in the workplace, savings and investments sector. It went on to win Pensions Tech of the Year and Wealth Tech of the Year at the UK FinTech Awards.

Financial services institutions that use Moneyhub’s services already enjoy greater engagement from their customer distribution channels. In the pensions space, for instance, Moneyhub has been used to create applications that have prompted younger people to engage with their longer-term savings with unprecedented frequency.

Any business, including pension providers, wealth managers, employee benefits consultants (EBC) and so forth can now offer their own customers the game-changing ability to perform core banking functions inside their own offerings, driving further engagement and offering enhanced, personalised customer experiences.

Dan Scholey, Moneyhub COO, carried out the first-ever Open Banking payment by a member of the public at the Altus Platform Efficiencies Event on 19 September 2018, using payment initiation services (PIS) to enact an instant and direct bank to bank payment.

“Moneyhub Payments enables any business to provide end-to-end digital journeys that result in actionable positive outcomes that are effortless for people. We can finally help our clients exceed, not just meet, their customers’ ever-increasing expectations for high-quality immediate delivery of products and services.” Scholey said.

“This is an important release for Moneyhub, but it also has a wider significance across the industry. Embedded financial services are here and companies that are not in the tech space can now offer their customers access to advanced Open Banking payments inside a single service that also offers total visibility and control of their finances at all times.

“Banks are becoming excellent utilities because money management is now an integral part of any product and service for people in today’s ‘always on’ digital economy. Aggregation of accounts combined with payments means important financial transactions are no longer limited to banks and can now be performed inside any app with immediate effect, enabling a truly outstanding customer experience.

“We’re excited to give all Moneyhub clients a new industry-leading ability which will improve their customers’ financial wellbeing and open up new ways of managing their finances.”

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Banking Sector

Unity Bank, CashToken Rewards Promo Produces New Millionaire

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A Unity Bank customer, Mr. Amadi Chinmenem Gift Chike, has emerged as the latest winner of One Million Naira in the ongoing Cash Rewards Promo by Unity Bank Plc and CashToken Rewards Africa.

CashToken Rewards Africa is a Cash-Reward-as-a-Service company that rewards customers for their patronage and loyalty.

Mr. Amadi, a customer from Unity Bank’s Aba Road Branch, Port Harcourt, Rivers State, won the cash prize after completing qualifying transactions on Unity Bank’s digital banking channels including Unifi, *7799#, and on his Unity Bank-issued Verve card. Through these transactions, he received CashTokens, which entered him into the weekly national consumer draw, where he was selected as the lucky winner of the N1 million prize.

The grand prize winner, Mr. Amadi is the second customer to claim the N1 million grand prize in the rewards promo, which commenced in November 2023. Since the launch, Unity Bank customers have collectively won over N6 million in cash rewards.

Unity Bank and CashToken Rewards promo offers guaranteed instant cash rewards and life-changing opportunities for loyal customers who transact on any of the Bank’s electronic payment platforms, including the Unifi mobile banking application and the *7799# USSD platform. Every card transaction earns customers CashTokens, which qualify them for the weekly national consumer draw, with prizes ranging from N5,000 to N100 million.

Presenting the cheque to the winner in Port Harcourt, Unity Bank’s Regional Manager for Port Harcourt/Uyo Region, Mr. Etop Ikpe, congratulated the winner and reiterated the Bank’s commitment to building a sustainable loyalty platform for customer engagement and satisfaction.

He said, “We are happy to see another one of our loyal customers win a substantial cash prize through the Unity Bank and CashToken Rewards Promo. This initiative aligns with our mission to reward customer loyalty while providing a seamless and rewarding banking experience. As we continue to innovate and enhance our digital banking platforms, we are committed to creating more opportunities for our customers to benefit from their relationship with Unity Bank.”

In his reaction, an elated Mr. Amadi said, “This is a reward for my steadfastness. I have been banking with Unity Bank for a long time and I am really happy to win the cash prize. I commend the bank for the initiative and Unity Bank has always come through in keeping their promises both in terms of service delivery and meeting expectations of customers.”

Also commenting on the development, Simi Adeoye, Chief Business Development Officer for CashToken Rewards Africa, added: “We are proud to partner with Unity Bank in bringing life-changing opportunities to their customers through our Cash-Reward-as-a-Service model. We aim to make every transaction meaningful by turning regular banking activities into chances for customers to win significant rewards. We congratulate Mr. Amadi on his win, and we look forward to creating more millionaires as the promo continues. Mr. Amadi just like other beneficiaries can easily cash out his win by dialling *6700#, following the prompt and transferring his wins directly to his Unity Bank account.”

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Banking Sector

Zenith Bank Enhances E-Channel Services for Customers

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Zenith Bank, one of Nigeria’s leading financial institutions, has restored improved services across its electronic transaction channels, ensuring customers have seamless access to banking services.

In a statement released on Thursday via its X handle, the bank confirmed that customers can now conveniently conduct transactions across various platforms following a recent upgrade. These enhancements follow temporary glitches caused by routine IT maintenance aimed at optimizing service delivery.

Zenith Bank reiterated its commitment to providing improved services and highlighted the various channels available for customer transactions, including:

– Zenith Bank Debit, Credit, and Prepaid Cards
– Automated Teller Machines (ATMs)
– Point of Sale (POS) Terminals
– Zenith Bank Mobile App
– Internet Banking Platform
– Zenith Agents nationwide for agent banking

Customers are also encouraged to visit any of the bank’s branches across the country for in-person transactions.

Zenith Bank reassured further improvements in service delivery following the IT infrastructure upgrade. Customers with bulk payments and salary requests are encouraged to present payment mandates at any Zenith Bank branch nationwide for expedited processing.

Zenith Bank remains dedicated to enhancing customer experience and ensuring reliable banking services across all platforms.

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Banking Sector

Nigerian Banks Face Soaring Wage Bills Amid Rising Inflation

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First Bank

Many Nigerian commercial banks have been spending more on hiring staff, fresh data has revealed.

Following worsening inflation in the country, some banks have to pay more for their newly hired workers, thus doubling the banks’ wages and salaries in just over a year and putting pressure on their operating costs.

The data showed that wages and salaries incurred by 10 banking groups in the first half of 2024 (H1 2024) stood at N615.8 billion, representing a 96 percent growth from the N314.4 billion incurred in H1 2023.

The banking groups are Access Holdings, UBA, FBN Holdings (First Bank), GTCO (GT Bank), Zenith Bank, Stanbic IBTC Holdings (Stanbic), Wema Bank, FCMB Group, Sterling Holding Company (Sterling), and Jaiz Bank.

It showed that Access Holdings incurred the highest wage bill among the banks, with N151.5 billion, up by 145 percent from the N61.9 billion reported in H1 2023 while First Bank’s personnel expenses for H1 2024 hit N134.2 billion, marking a 110 percent year-on-year increase from the N63.9 billion personnel expenses incurred in H1 2023.

For UBA, its wage bill grew by 92 percent year-on-year to N126.6 billion during the six months, up from N65.9 billion as of H1 2023. Also, Zenith Bank’s wage bill soared by 64 percent year-on-year to N63.5 billion, from N38.6 billion in H1 2023. Stanbic incurred wage expenses of N40.6 billion during the six-month period, up from N28.2 billion in H1 2023.

GT Bank’s wage bill almost doubled, increasing by 98 percent year-on-year to N39.3 billion, up from N19.9 billion in H1 2023. FCMB Group’s wage bill grew by 74 percent to N26.6 billion in H1 2024, up from N15.2 billion reported in the corresponding period of 2023.

In the same vein, Wema Bank’s wage also went up by 77 percent to N15.6 billion, from N8.8 billion in H1 2023. Sterling Bank’s wage bill also jumped by 41 percent year-on-year to N12.5 billion, from N8.9 billion as of H1 2023.

Jaiz Bank’s wage bill went up by 78 percent to N5.5 billion, from N3.1 billion in H1 2023.

The data showed that for some of these banks, the increase in employees also contributed to their rising wage bills, though, marginally.

For example, Zenith Bank increased its employee count by 511 to 8,146 between H1 2023 and H1 2024. UBA’s employee count between H1 2023 and H1 2024 increased marginally by 3 percent or 338, from 9,751 to 10,089.

While some companies downsize their staff strength, due to the harsh economy in the nation, the few available workers have been overloaded with work.

With inflationary pressures hitting hard on individuals and businesses, companies have been forced to substantially increase the wages for the few available staff.

For banks, apart from their staff wages, they have also had to incur increased outsourcing costs. Outsourcing costs relate to expenses incurred when a bank hires third-party contract staff.

GT Bank’s outsourcing costs increased by 69 percent year-on-year to N14.5 billion during the half-year, in contrast with N8.6 billion in H1 2023. First Bank’s outsourcing costs jumped by almost 300 percent year-on-year during the half-year to N16.4 billion, from N4.3 billion in H1 2023. Wema Bank also saw a dramatic increase in its outsourcing costs, posting N8.85 billion for the category in H1 2024, representing a 272 percent year-on-year growth from N2.38 billion as of H1 2023.

The jump in labour costs for banks has positioned some of them as the top-paying employers in the country. For instance, in H1 2024, Stanbic IBTC Holdings posted a wage per employee of N2.11 million per month. Zenith Bank had a wage per employee of about N650,000 per month, a stark comparison with UBA’s N2.09 million per month. However, UBA’s foreign operations employ about 4,150 staff members.

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