The 7th Annual Retail Banking Africa 2015 presents a platform for Africa retail bankers to come one step closer into redoing their retail banking strategy to serve customers better and make profitable business.

Johannesburg – South Africa, 9th September 2015: The 7th Annual Retail Banking Africa 2015 commenced yesterday at Birchwood Hotel & OR Tambo Conference Centre - Johannesburg- South Africa. Revolving around the central theme “Transforming the Experience of the Generation of Customers in Banking” , the 2 day of the event promised unique exchange of ideas about digital strategy, channel optimization and new market penetration.This forum opened with opening remarks from the event chairman, Vimal Kumar, Barclays Africa - Regional Head of Retail Banking followed by a formal introductory session where participants introduced and interacted with each other to know fellow participants.Rajal Vaidya, Consumer Banking Director - Rest of Africa at Barclays demonstrated about using digital disruption as an opportunity for innovation and defined the role of banks in financial inclusion versus the government’s role.

The ANNUAL CEO PANEL, elaborated on what retail banks need to do to catch up on competitiveness while keeping profitability in mind. The panel also looking into answering to the role of the banking sector to bridge the gap between the banked and unbanked population,  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. This panel comprised of Andrew Mashanda, CEO - Standard Bank Malawi; Ramesh Motee, COO  - National Commercial Bank Ltd; Tineyi Mawocha, CEO - Urwego Opportunity Bank; Dave van Niekerk, CEO - GetBucks and was moderated by Vimal Kumar.Yolande Steyn, CEO (eWallet Solutions) - First National Bank in his presentation "Your bank in your pocket: affordable financial services" focused on convenience and service excellence & E-Money, while raising financial inclusion. A session on Nigeria 2020 roadmap was explained by Temitope Akin-Fadeyi, Head of Financial Inclusion Secretariat - Central Bank of Nigeria .

Jero A. Omare-Ogah, Managing Director - Fortis Mobile Money presented about the hard to reach segment, mass market trajectory, the fortis strategy and the way forward. Tineyi Mawocha, Chief Executive Officer -  Urwego Opportunity Bank highlighted on digital financial services for the low Income segment.

Ravi Venkataratna, Lead Product  Manager – Finacle Product Strategy & Pre-sales - Infosys Finacle spoke about banking renewal for the digital age. Whilst Peter Gross, Marketing Director - MicroEnsure demonstrated about role of emotion in retail banking growth, John Schlesinger, Global Chief Enterprise Architect - Temenos in his presentation explained about the characteristics of a modern retail bank.Emmanuel Aihevba, Zone Head Personal and Business Banking - Stanbic IBTC Bank presented about digital disruption and its impacts on customer experience. Zahid Mustafa, Consumer Banking Director - Barclays Bank Kenya Limited spoke about attracting small customer deposits through Barclays Kenya zidisha bonus saver.

Agrippa Mugwagwa, Executive Director (Retail Banking & e-Commerce) - FBC Bank Limited explained the needs of different market segments.Misys partnered at the event as the Platinum Sponsor,  Infosys Finacle as the Knowledge Partner, Temenos as the Gold Sponsor, Nucleus Software as the Bronze Sponsor, Newgen Software Technologies ltd as the  Associate Sponsor &  both CR2 &  Milpark School of Investment and Banking were onboard as Exhibitors. Embodied with deep industry knowledge the sponsors provided solutions and services and paved a path for restrategizing retail banking in Africa. The first day of the event concluded with the GURU Panel Discussion. Vimal Kumar, the event chairman acted as the head facilitator.

The Focused Roundtable Group Discussion emphasised on surviving the convergence of the digital and physical worlds,  navigating the new battleground in “digi-cal” innovation, understanding the needs of the next generation – “Customer 3.0”, designing a superior business model to serve them – “Bank 3.0”,  winning in the new generation of financial services , what role will FinTech and MNOs play in the disruption of financial services technology. The panel featured Neal Macintyre, Customer Experience Retail Banking – BancABC, John Schlesinger, Global Chief Enterprise Architect – Temenos, Jero A. Omare-Ogah, Managing Director - Fortis Mobile Money, Agrippa Mugwagwa, Executive Director (Retail Banking & e-Commerce) - FBC Bank Limited.The second day of the event today will feature key panel discussion on the new distribution channel network: Improving the bottom line through channel optimization & how to make the SME & micro segments profitable for commercial banks? Sessions today will cover broad themes looking into digital strategy to enhance client experience across alternate channel networks and consumer credit and the small client segment.

These sessions will see speakers like Abdulmajid Nsekela, Head of Personal Banking - National Microfinance Bank (NMB) Plc who will demonstrate on loyalty strategies to drive Customers and improving the customer experience, Sean Emery, Co-Founder & CEO - RainFin will explain on how digital loans are raising the bar in client experience and Percy Thaver, Vice President & Head (Africa Sales) - Nucleus Software will speak about global trends in retail banking for Africa.Additionally, Edwin Otieno, Head of Agent Banking - Kenya Commercial Bank is scheduled to demonstrate about enhancing client experience across an extensive alternate channel network.

Sonny Zulu, Head of Retail Clients (Zambia and Southern Africa) - Standard Chartered Bank will come up with strategies for penetrating new markets. Ritesh Varma, Associate Vice President (Consulting Practice :EMEA) Newgen Software Technologies Ltd, In his presentation will share the outline of the digitally reformed bank which amalgamates the physical, virtual, social and human aspects of the bank in one. Johan Bosini, Managing Director : MFS - afb.com will explore the challenges & opportunities about unsecured credit in Africa.

Michael Hill, Group Head (Retail and SME Credit) - BancABC will present case studies about retail & SME credit innovations in Africa.The Third day of the conference will have professional learning workshops with key themes "Adopting an outside-in approach to truly transform banking: Harnessing the power of customer-driven sales" hosted by Misys and "Moving away from the transactional branch" hosted by CR2.

Contact:
Gaurav Roy
T: +971 46091570 | E: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
W: http://finance.fleminggulf.com/retail-banking-africa