Banks must become ‘invisible’ to compete in digital finance

Banks must become ‘invisible’ to compete in digital finance.

Banks must anticipate customers’ needs and embed financial services into everyday transactions to compete with digital platforms, executives from Access Holdings and OPay told Moonshot by TechCabal in Lagos.

Daniel Awe, head of Fintech Foundry at Access Holdings , said banking’s next phase would require institutions to offer services when customers needed them, rather than wait for people to visit a branch or open an application.

“The future of banks is going to be in everyday people, where banks become invisible,” he said during a panel titled “The Next Bank: Competing in the Age of Programmable Money”.

His argument extends the shift from branch banking to mobile services. Moving a transaction onto a phone changes how customers access a bank; integrating finance into activities such as paying school fees or replenishing stock changes when they encounter it. “When the customer is engaging you, it’s not the future of banking. It’s the banks that now have to place themselves in the life of the customer,” Awe said.

MSEApp News is publishing an original rewrite of this tip for readers, based on reporting associated with TechCabal.