Segun Agbaje, the managing director Guaranty Trust Bank (GTBank) Plc, asserted that banks and financial technology (FinTechs) need to partner to create more value for their customers.
The bank’s MD said this while speaking at the ongoing Social Media Week (SMW), at the Landmark Event Centre, Lagos. He said the meeting was also about collaboration with the FinTechs, which have huge potentials in the financial services space.
According to him, such partnership will eventually turn to competition since both the banks and FinTechs have same customers as their targets.
“Today, it is collaboration. I think eventually it would become competitive. That is because once the FinTechs become big enough and have enough of your customer base, you will become competitors. I think it is collaboration, but it would migrate to competition,” he said.
Agbaje explained that the bank is building a sustainable business model that enable customers to buy goods and services within the lender’s ecosystem.
“To build a business model where you create a platform and partner with anybody who has a service to offer, so that if as a customer, you come into our ecosystem, you can just buy anything, you can do your banking business, you can buy your tickets, you can buy insurance, you can travel, if you want to get a 10-day loan, you can come in and do it. So, really, we want you to come into our ecosystem, maybe five times a day to do something more than banking,” he said.
The GTBank boss said the level of transactions that are susceptible to fraud is low. “Let me honest with you, the percentage of transactions that are susceptible to fraud is immaterial to the larger level. So, I don’t think people should be scared. We are beginning to build more security around it and I think there are more transactions that are carried out without fraud,” he said.
He said GTBank joined other thought leaders, innovators business practitioners, entrepreneurs, among others from Nigeria and around the world to mark the 2018 Social Media Week because it believes it will contribute to better future for the people and economy.
He added that to keep up with the times, GT Bank has evolved a number of initiatives to provide far-reaching solutions to its customers beyond the regular services.
Those initiatives include SME MarketHub, Ndani TV, and Art365, among others, and they were created in the spirit of strategic flexibility in reaction to different times and the reality of new, ever-changing demographics, Agbaje said.
The future of banking is beyond brick-and-mortar financial institutions, to a time where banks are full-service institutions that cater to needs of their customers.
Agbaje said he often needs to remind himself of this fact, as Guaranty Trust Bank develops to stay ahead of the times.
