Standard Chartered bringing world-class digital solutions to its clients: Dada

Standard Chartered Pakistan has heavily invested in technology aimed at bringing world-class digital solutions to its clients and meeting the upcoming challenges. The bank is also planning to invest significantly in the bank's internal ecosystem in coming years to enhance the digitisation. Standard Chartered has already become the first bank in Pakistan, which has integrated with fully automated e-baking platform Straight2bank with the central bank's system and launched Real Time Gross Settlement (RTGS) automation for its corporate clients drastically improving the turnaround time for incoming and outgoing amounts.
Talking to Business Recorder on technology upgradation, Shazad Dada, Chief Executive Officer (CEO), SC Pakistan said that presently, a few corporate clients are using Straight2bank platform, however we are convincing other corporate clients to avail this system for fastest transfer of money as it's a very secure and easier paperless solution.
Previously, there was a manual process for the money transfer via RTGS and a proper form was required to make such transactions, however with digitisation of RTGS through Straight2bank, corporate customers can conveniently and swiftly transfer money without any manual intervention.
Talking about the security of this system, he said that everything is encrypted and there are several security checks before initiating the transaction under RTGS. "Definitely, with digitisation of the system, cyber security is an issue for the entire banking industry, however Standard Chartered has invested a lot to secure the system and avoid leakages," he said.
For the last few years, Standard Chartered has focused on digitisation to enhance capabilities on online banking and Breeze - Standard Chartered's flagship mobile banking application and today, majority of all transactions in the bank are done digitally. Presently, 94 percent of corporate payments and 68 percent retail transactions are digital, while after the launch of new initiatives, the bank's 80 percent transactions will be digitalized. In addition, with 200,000 online active accounts, the bank is also leader in internet banking and is focusing investment in technology to facilitate its customers, he maintained.
"We are also going to launch another paper-free product of account opening. Everything will be online with proper verification and bank account will be opened in few minutes," he added. Talking about the banking sector investment in government securities, the CEO Standard Chartered said that during the last couple of years banks have heavily invested in government papers as the industry feels it is a secure investment. However, now the ratio in being changed as the corporate sector requirements are increasing, he added.
Responding to SBP's ease in monetary policy stance, he said that a lower policy rate will definitely hit the banking sector's profitability and force banks to focus on other income resources besides interest. In addition, banks will be required to adopt digitisation to sustain profits, Dada said. "We have also recently obtained a special approval from the State Bank of Pakistan for a strategic tie-up with the central clearing house (NIFT) for collections in non-presence locations at a reduced turnaround time," he said.
Standard Chartered has structured cash management solutions for its clients by leveraging investments in products and technology. In addition, Standard Chartered footprint in the local market and presence in the retail, commercial and corporate segments help cater to the client's ecosystem.
On the collections front, the bank has launched state-of-the-art Straight2bank Receivables solution to automate clients' receivables reconciliation through customised matching rules and pattern recognition, he added. The CEO Standard Chartered said that in line with our drive towards digitisation and continuous innovation, the bank launched Liquidity Management (LM) solutions with focus on enhancing the working capital efficiencies for clients.
"Due to our strength as the largest foreign bank in Pakistan, and the only one providing a comprehensive suite of banking solutions (retail, commercial and corporate), we were awarded more multinational company mandates this year including speaking of the market's confidence in our presence in Pakistan," he added.
Standard Chartered also enjoys partnerships with some of the largest local banks in the country and recently added a largest local bank as a collection partner, increasing footprint by over 1,500 branches. In addition, presently 186 ATMs and 18 cash deposit machines are also installed to facilitate customers, he said.
Talking about the new solutions, he said in line with strategic focus on delivering value added propositions through digitisation. "We are also rolling out Direct Debit Initiation capability which will give clients the option of collecting from their distributors by directly debiting their accounts held with other banks," he said and added that Direct Debit facility on Standard Chartered accounts is already available.
Dada said that upcoming roll-outs also include electronic fund transfer to beneficiaries that do not hold a bank account or a mobile account, by using their national identity card number as an identifier. Beneficiaries will be able to withdraw funds from any Easypaisa outlet. These payments will be made via Straight2bank. Standard Chartered is also working on mobile money collections which will facilitate unprecedented coverage all over the country even in the most remote areas where there are no physical branches, he said.