Atlas Mara Brochure – November 2018

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BANKING ON DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION


Atlas Mara: Banking on digital transformation 02


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w w w.a t l a sma ra . com


We speak to Teza Ngulube, Country Head, Retail and Digital Banking, at AtlasMara Zambia to see how the bank is making a success of its digital transformation‌

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anking is undergoing nothing short of a technological revolution. With every aspect of the financial sector undergoing

dramatic overhauls of internal operations to provide up-to-the minute customer-facing offerings, there

Official opening of the 1st Atlas Mara Branch

is not a corner of this market that is not reconfiguring its infrastructure, strategy and processes. Atlas Mara is a bank focussed on investments and operations within sub-Saharan Africa and it too has radicalised its business to keep up to spin with all the latest disruptive technology in the sector. The person charged with overseeing this sometimes tricky transformation for Atlas Mara Zambia is Teza Ngulube, Country Head Retail and Digital Banking. Having previously served with Zanaco and Standard Chartered Bank, Ngulube joined Atlas Mara Zambia to take charge of its Retail & Digital operations after the merger of Finance Bank and BancABC. From the very onset, the need to leverage

A member of the Atlas Mara staff with Group Chairman, Mr. Bob E. Diamond Jr.


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technology to drive retail customer relationships was apparent and required swift transformation of our capabilities to allow us remain a credible choice for both our new and existing clients. “I joined Atlas Mara in February this year,” Ngulube explains. “And it’s really been about making sure the bank has high-quality products that are working to meet customers’ expectations. The banks went through an important amalgamation that saw two banks become one. Each had very different profiles in every aspect. The technology from both sides also had to come together for a digital banking solution that


Atlas Mara staff with management and the group’s board members 06

worked for the new consolidated bank.”

very stable on Flexcube,” he says. “And

The starting point of the journey was

it has given us room to now focus on

to ensure we had a single core banking

the peripheral infrastructure.”

system. We had to prioritise the migra-

One area where Ngulube directed

tion of customers that were sitting on

his efforts was that of the bank’s ATMs.

a lower version of the core banking

“There’s a new culture at Atlas Mara

system to the higher version that today

and we needed to make sure that we

stands as our core banking system. “It

have an ATM network that works and

was a difficult process but we are now

delivers expectations from an uptime

Chris Mwelo Head of Global Markets and Treasury

Bonaventure Mbewe Head of Legal

Betsy Nkhoma Head of Corporate Banking


“It’s really been about making sure the bank has highquality products that are working to meet customers’ expectations” — Teza Ngulube, Country Head Retail and Digital Banking perspective, so we decided to replace

procurement and deployment of

90 of our ATMs out of a fleet of about

these 90 ATMs, which they were able

175. Additionally, we have also migrated

to deliver in good time.

to a new ATM switch powered by CR2, which gives us better connectivity,

DIGITAL BANKING

better response, and ultimately,

Mobile banking is now a given for any

a better customer experience.” The

financial institution in modern times and

local NCR team supported Atlas Mara

enquiries such as balance checks are

Zambia with the whole process of

critical, as is the ability to move money.

Otis Zulu Head ofAudit

James Koni Managing Director

Hele Lunda Public Sector & NGO’s

07


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Staff during branch launch


“There’s a new culture at Atlas Mara and we needed to make sure that we have an ATM network that works and delivers expectations from an uptime perspective” — Teza Ngulube, Country Head Retail and Digital Banking

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Core Banking Implementation

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“We had two separate mobile banking platforms for the two banks prior to the amalgamation and for each, we had

an agency banking solution, covering both the app and USSD.” “So, as of 1 August, we have delivered

some critical failure points. It became

the mobile banking application, which

relevant for us to define a fresh mobile

is currently the best mobile app in the

banking platform that compensated

market. It has a very easy first self-reg-

for both banks to give us the right

istration process, and you are logged

positioning as Atlas Mara Zambia. We

on, it presents a user friendly landing

have rolled out a new mobile banking

page that is easy to navigate. You can

platform, provided by a company called

move money about with ease within

ModefineServer, which has given us

Atlas Mara and to other bank accounts

three different solutions. They’re giving

and you can also move funds between

us the mobile banking solution that

your prepaid cards.”

covers both USSD (unstructured

“The biggest partner right now is

supplementary service data), as well as

ModefineServer, whom have been able

the app. They’re also going to give us

to deliver our mobile banking solution;

a wallet solution, covered in both USSD

which includes the wallet as well as the

and an app. And they’re also giving us

agency banking. They have really stood

E X E C U T I V E P R OF IL E

Teza Ngulube Teza Ngulube has over 12 years of retail banking experience covering both middle management and senior level. Teza’s experience covers retail branch network management driving sales productivity, client experience and governance to drive revenue and balance sheet growth whilst leading a highly motivated and engaged team.

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“We are working on building an agency banking model that reflects our aspirations. We are going to be building a model based on partnerships” — Teza Ngulube, Country Head Retail and Digital Banking

out over that last couple of months and 12

they’ve just been fantastic, and we have achieved quite a bit with them. I would

Atlas Mara’s Katete Branch

also like to mention our Oracle support team, who have been holding our hand

initially we had most of the downloads

throughout these projects.”

coming through on the app. But then, all of a sudden, we saw a strong shift on the

SUCCESS

USSD side. In this case, that’s where we

Ngulube is proud to announce at the

expect most of the traffic. So, we made

time of writing that the service has just

some good traction there. Right now, we

hit 10,000 downloads on the Google

are still at the stage of trying to get more

Play store. “The total registrations today

and more customers onto the platform

were 22,000. So, 12,000 on USSD

given our customer base of 150,000.”

and 10,000 on the apps is considerable

Atlas Mara Zambia is just starting

progress, given that we have spent

the migration of its customers to the

a lot of time without a functioning mobile

new wallet solution, Tenga; a low KYC

solution. It is also interesting to see the

product that anybody with a mobile

growth on the USSD channel, because

phone can register on via USSD or even


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the app. This game changing product

in the country, Zoona. We are in discus-

is available to everyone with a mobile

sions with them – they have in excess of

number and Zambian National ID – you

2,000 agents right across the country,

don’t have to be an existing customer

and we are looking to see how we can

of Atlas Mara bank to be eligible.

leverage their network,” says Ngulube.

“Tenga represents the birth of our

With Tenga, we will be fulfilling a criti-

mobile money solution and to support

cal need to allow financial inclusiveness

its relevance, we are working on building

at all levels of society irrespective of

an agency banking model that reflects

geography across Zambia.

our aspirations. We are going to be building a model based on partnerships. We have a couple of partners already on the cards, and one of them actually has the largest agency banking network


Atlas Mara Ritter House, 6th Floor, Wickhams Cay II PO Box 4041, Road Town, Tortola VG1110, British Virgin Islands T +260 211 232 404 | www.atlasmara.com


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