The Co-operative Bank of Kenya has been named the 2020 Bank of The Year in Kenya, in the prestigious FT Banker 2020 Awards run by the Financial Times of London.
The bank was hailed for its leadership in digitising banking services which have improved the customer experience.
"As Co-op Bank implements its digitisation strategy plans, it is enjoying gains from increased efficiency and enhanced digital offerings to its customers.
"Products such as E-credit and MCo-op cash are continually upgraded," the award citation reads in part.
The Bank of the Year Award by the Financial Times also recognised the bank’s firm support to customers in coping with the headwinds brought about by the pandemic.
"While the bank increased its assets by 10.5% and net profits by 12.4% in 2019, unsurprisingly Covid-19 is expected to take its toll on profitability this year. Despite the difficulties during the pandemic, the bank has strongly supported its customers and employees," the international body stated.
The Financial Times, also referred to as FT is one of the most reputable business newspapers in the world. It is published in London and has been read around the globe for 132 years.
Meanwhile, the bank’s digital transformation journey hit a new milestone today, when the bank launched the paperless, end-to-end digital opening of accounts by customers. With this digital account-opening, customers will no longer have to fill account-opening forms.
Only the National ID will be required - with the other Know Your Customer (KYC) documents automatically generated by the bank system, which will also confirm and validate the KRA PIN, take clear photos, and enable electronic signatures.
From today, when a customer opens an account, the system will instantly send them a text message, providing details of the account, instantly enabling the customer to transact such as making cash deposits to the new account via mobile phone.
The paperless opening of accounts has come in at the right time when there is a need to reduce contact as a result of Covid-19. It will also do away with the bulk of paperwork that the customer has to fill, reducing error rates that come with manual interventions.
“We continue to actively engage our customers to support them through this period, by re-aligning the servicing of facilities, funding and transactional needs as the situation unfolds.
"As at the close of the third quarter this year, a total of Kshs. 46 Billion in loans have been restructured to support customers impacted by the pandemic,” Co-op Bank Group CEO Dr Gideon Muriuki noted when releasing this year’s third quarter
He observed that the bank's work-from-home model and had increased the pace of digitisation of internal processes and customer touchpoints.
