E-Financial
25% of Consumers Favor Smartphone Banking – study
Nearly one third (30 percent) of U.S. adults would feel comfortable using a voice-activated conversational interface (e.g., Siri from Apple or Alexa from Amazon) to pay a bill or transact other banking business if their financial institution were to provide the service.
Young adults and high-income earners are especially interested in using such an interface; roughly half of them would feel comfortable doing so, according to results from the banking and channels portion of the annual CustomerMonitor Survey series by Mercator Advisory Group.
The Mercator report, Digital Banking: Shift to Smartphones May Require New Support, reveals that consumers are performing more banking activities online and by mobile — especially by smartphone — and 1 in 4 prefer to use a smartphone for bank transactions.
The fastest growth in digital banking is in mobile banking, which consumers use both to communicate with their financial institution and to perform banking activities.
The percentage of U.S. consumers who perform banking activities by smartphone or tablet rose from 58 percent in 2014 to 60 percent in 2015 to 65 percent in 2016.
The percentage using mobile for bank transactions — e.g., paying bills from an FI’s website, transferring funds to another person’s account, depositing checks — has risen to 45 percent of U.S. adults, up from 41 percent in 2015 and 36 percent in 2014.
Young adults drive this shift and are nearly twice as likely as the average consumer to prefer a smartphone for bank transactions. They are less likely than in previous years to prefer using a computer for transactions; a preference for tablets, which is shared by few young adults, showed little change.
“Consumers increasingly prefer using their smartphones to interact with their financial institutions, manage their accounts, make just-in-time transactions at their convenience, but more complex tasks that they would like to perform often require more support such as conversational interfaces,” Karen Augustine, author of the report and senior manager of primary data services at Mercator, said in a press release.
Findings in the report are based on responses to a Mercator online survey of 3,000 U.S. adults with banking relationships, which was conducted in November 2016.
E-Financial
Lagos State Appoints MoneyMaster as Payment Partner for “Ounje Eko” Programme
“Ounje Eko”, the food price discount initiative of the Lagos State Government, has appointed leading payment service bank, MoneyMaster Payment Service Bank Limited (MMPSB), as its collaborator in the bid to ensure ease of payments at the market.
MoneyMaster is one of the Central Bank of Nigeria-licensed Payment Service Banks (PSBs) to promote financial inclusion across Nigeria.
Under the partnership, MMPSB will apply its cutting-edge payment solution to engender easy payment and reconciliation in order to make the experiences of Lagosians who will be getting their food supplies from the markets pleasurable. Its payment solution is also all-encompassing and ensures real time value to payment destinations.
The mobile bank was appointed as the collection and payment partner for “Ounje Eko” Food Markets programme which is a government initiative serving the five divisions of Lagos State. Consequent on this, MoneyMaster Payment Service Bank will collect payments in 57 LCDAs in the state.
The partnership gives credence to the quality of payment solutions that MoneyMaster is reputed for in its services to its growing business clientele in private and public sectors.
E-Financial
CBN, EFCC Probe Banks, Firms over Alleged Forex Racketeering
Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), is investigating irregular foreign exchange transactions and forward contracts valued at approximately $2.4 billion.
The inquiry follows an extensive audit by Deloitte, which scrutinized $7 billion in dollar debts accumulated under the bank’s previous leadership.
In the aftermath of the 294th Monetary Policy Committee meeting in Abuja, Yemi Cardoso, governor of CBN, disclosed to journalists that the investigation, supported by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, among other security bodies, aims to clarify the legitimacy of these FX allocations identified as problematic by the audit.
“It was determined that a number of these transactions did not qualify…they were outright illegal. The law enforcement agencies are now looking into those transactions that as far as we are concerned, are not valid to be paid,” Cardoso detailed, emphasizing the unlawful nature of these forex deals.
The crux of the investigation lies in the audit findings that a significant portion of the scrutinized transactions lacked proper documentation and, in many instances, were deemed outright illegal.
However, the unfolding investigation has raised concerns within the organized private sector, with some entities contemplating legal action against commercial banks for unresolved forex bids.
Despite these tensions, Governor Cardoso reassures that the foreign exchange market remains open and transparent, inviting stakeholders to address their forex needs through the official channels.
Furthermore, Cardoso clarified the distribution of fertilizers to farmers as a one-off measure and not indicative of a shift back to direct interventions by the CBN, underscoring a commitment to strategic, regulatory governance rather than direct market involvement.
E-Financial
CBN Urges Banks to Expedite Action on Recapitalisation
Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has directed deposit money banks in the country to expedite action to increase their capital base from the current ₦25bn.
Olayemi Cardoso, governor of CBN, stated this during the apex bank’s 294th meeting of the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) on Tuesday in Abuja, when the MPC hiked the interest rate by 22.75% to 24.75%.
The apex bank chief said the MPC examined developments in the banking sector and expressed satisfaction that the industry remained stable. The committee, however, said to guard against risk, commercial banks in the country should accelerate their recapitalisation efforts.
Cardoso said, “The MPC also reviewed developments in the banking system and noted that the industry remains safe, sound, and stable. The committee thus called on the bank to sustain its surveillance and ensure compliance of banks with existing regulatory and macro-potential guidelines.
“The MPC also enjoined the banks to expedite actions on the recapitalisation of banks to strengthen the system against potential risks in an increasingly globalised world.”
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