Bad data throttles innovation in banking
In banking where service providers are under pressure to deliver anywhere, anytime solutions, the need to scale out digital services is a business priority. Modern applications allow banks to empower users with a new level of end user self-service that is critical at...
Hollard digitalises customer onboarding
SilverBridge Holdings has replaced the manual- and-paper based process of onboarding new customers at Hollard Namibia with a digital environment across its intermediary and call centre channels to improve new business turnaround times and conversion rates at the...
Financial services need to keep improving the customer experience
Financial services continue to be one of the most competitive markets, especially now that it has opened its doors to a global audience via the Internet. By Nick Durrant, CEO of Bluegrass Digital With many clients having already moved to a digital environment, they...
Financial services need to accelerate digital transformation
"Go digital or go dark": Companies that fail to heed this advice, irrespective of sector, run a great risk in the age of technological revolution. By Greg Gatherer, account manager at Liferay Consumers prioritise convenience and will often not see the need to step out...
Platform technology boosts democratisation of payments
The concept of platforms is nothing new. Our railways, phone networks and even our shipping industry are all examples of networks which operate under agreed universal standards and can be described as platforms. Today, we participate on tech platforms every day when...
Cash is king – but digital payments are coming for the throne
Even with a high banked population and a multitude of electronic payment options available, the average South African still use cash for daily purchases and payments with an estimated 78% to 80% of transactions being in cash. Anton van der Merwe, the...
Predictions for SA’s payments landscape
The silver lining of the Covid pandemic for many businesses has been the acceleration of online shopping in South Africa. Faced with fewer choices, shoppers adopted new spending habits. They also embraced new payment options, like interest-free buy now pay later...
Insurers embrace disruption with reskilling of talent
Over the past 16 months, the ways people work and live have been fundamentally impacted. The expectations are that even following the Covid-19 pandemic, organisations across industry sectors can no longer revert to their traditional approaches. By Annalie Terblanche,...
Tech-led agri insurance will broaden inclusivity
Despite a myriad of setbacks caused by Covid-19, optimism in South Africa's agricultural value chain recently reached a six-year high. This suggests that the industry is bouncing back, although the full impact of the lockdown is still coming to the fore. Farmers have...
Intelligent automation drives operational insurance improvements
Insurers looking toward digital innovations to drive operational improvements in their processes would do well to consider the benefits of intelligent automation (IA). By Kelly Preston, data analytics manager at SilverBridge Holdings For example, the recent...
Can microinsurance close Africa’s insurance gap?
Africa has traditionally been the world's most uninsured, and underinsured, continent. That's rapidly changing, as the booming popularity of microinsurance gives millions of Africans access to life and hospital insurance for the first time. By Marius Botha, Group GEO...
SWIFT eliminates friction in international payments
SWIFT has announced the go-live of a service that will enable banks to verify payee account details before an international payment is sent, removing a key point of friction in cross-border transactions. The new Payment Pre-validation service is a core building block...