Access Bank SA has appointed Network International SA as its payments partner, handling all its payments processing as part of a growing relationship between the two companies.
The partnership was announced on the back of a competitive RFP process issued in March this year. Network International now assists Access Bank SA with its debit and credit cards, e-commerce and tokenisation offerings, with more services planned.
“We continue to rely on Network International to partner with us on our digitisation journey and growth in retail banking in South Africa and across the continent. Network has already worked closely with us to implement our current debit card system and we have been impressed with their partnership approach to both delivery and the commercials,” comments Meagan Rabe, Executive Head: Retail and Alliance Banking at Access Bank South Africa.
Nigeria’s Access Bank acquired Grobank (previously Bank of Athens), last year to trade locally as Access Bank South Africa. At the time of the acquisition, the bank said it would initially focus on entry-level to middle-market consumer banking, providing a transactional account with a debit card to individuals. This is now expanding to be a lending-led strategy with a broad spectrum of lending products, including credit cards.
The move away from cash continues and card growth in South Africa is on the rise. Research firm, Global Data, is expecting card payments for 2022 to show growth of 8.2% to reach ZAR1.54 trillion. What’s more, Mastercard’s New Payments Index 2022 found that 95% of South Africans have used at least one emerging digital payment method over the last year.
“We are particularly proud of the work we have done with Access Bank SA as we deepen our partnership across the continent. Delivering rapid innovation to financial institutions while minimising the risk and costs of the deployments puts banks and other institutions in a unique position to dynamically react to customer needs without having to overhaul their infrastructure or expand their tech departments. Access Bank’s goals make us the perfect delivery partner,” comments Chris Wood, Regional Managing Director, Southern Africa and PALOPS at Network International.
Looking ahead, the leadership of Access Bank SA said they saw opportunity in business banking in the local market and that the bank aimed to provide a full-service transactional banking offering for organisations with an annual revenue between R5 million and R750 million. Future lending products in traditional trade finance and structured commodity finance would also be considered.
“We believe that relying on technology experts like Network International will give us the ability to design and deploy services our customers need and want at a faster rate than our competitors. The more than 3 million registered customers who are part of the African diaspora living and working in South Africa have a strong appetite for fast, simple, cost-effective banking solutions and through partnerships like these we are able to help millions of people realise their aspirations through meaningful financial inclusion,” Rabe concludes.
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Network International SA
Network International is a FTSE-listed PSP offering businesses of all sizes end-to-end payment processing capabilities across the entire value chain, through a single payments platform and managed services model. This includes issuing and acceptance solutions with VAS, and proprietary acquiring solutions. Relying on its experience, scalability and proven product stack, Network helps banks, retailers, telcos and fintechs participate in the broader payments ecosystem, improving delivery and boosting revenues. Founded in 1994, Network serves 150,000+ merchants, 200+ financial institutions and fintechs, and manages 16m+ customer credentials in 50 countries across MEA. In Africa, it operates in over 40 countries with offices in SA, Nigeria, Kenya, Ghana and Egypt.
Access Bank Plc
Access Bank Plc (the “Bank”) is the largest bank in Nigeria by customer base. It is a full-service commercial bank operating through a network of more than 700 branches and service outlets, spanning three continents, 17 countries and over 45 million customers. The Bank employs over 6,800 people in its operations in Nigeria, Sub Saharan Africa, and the United Kingdom, with representative offices in China, Lebanon, India, and the UAE. The Bank’s financial products and services include corporate and trade finance operations, treasury and investment services, retail banking products and services (including current and savings accounts, credit cards, ATM services, electronic banking and retail lending), money market activities and private banking services/wealth management. The Bank is admitted on the NASD OTC Exchange and the Bank's debt instruments are listed on the London Stock Exchange. For further information please visit www.accessbankplc.com