Neat Android apps from local banks are all the rage right now. We saw slick ones from Chase Bank Kenya (Mfukoni) 2 years ago and KCB and Equity Bank (Eazzy 24/7) last year. We are barely a quarter way into 2017 and we already have two other outstanding ones: from EcoBank and the Commercial Bank of Africa (CBA).
The latter’s Android application was unveiled at an event in Nairobi on Monday morning and its main reason for existence is going after the youth segment of the market, millennials. It is basically the entire bank’s core financial services delivered through an application that can be easily downloaded and installed from the Google Play Store.
The entire digital banking platform is referred to as Loop and it incorporates a money manager to help users to analyze their spending patterns, budget and plan their finances, send money to other Loop users, other banks and even mobile money service M-PESA, pay for utilities, make payments at retail outlets and merchant stores using MasterCard’s MasterPass (after acquiring the Loop card which is powered by MasterCard), make investments and even save.
After downloading the app, users can open a Loop account straight from their Android smartphones by filling in their details in the registration window and later applying for a card at a CBA branch before finally being able to activate the account by loading money.
Through activities on the app, users will be able to be scored in a credit system that will then be used to decided whether to grant them a loan or not.
