Chase Bank Kenya, an innovative and fast-growing bank with an ambitious strategy across Africa, has successfully migrated its full card portfolio to the WAY4 payment software platform from Electra Card System.
The new card management system enables Chase Bank Kenya to grow its cards business by integrating omni-channel capabilities and enhancing fraud management systems.
The solution is developed by OpenWay, the market leader in software solutions for bank card issuing and acquiring, payment processing and omni-channel services and WAY4 will support the issuance of prepaid, debit and credit cards — under the MasterCard and Visa brands.
The new card management solution will enable Chase Bank Kenya to grow its cards business, gives the bank full control over its new product development process, decreases time-to-market, integrates omni-channel capabilities to enrich the customer experience and enhances fraud management.
“Chase Bank Kenya chose the WAY4 platform because of its security, flexibility, cost-effectiveness, scalability, and high availability. OpenWay also has a long term experience in migrating data from the Electra Card System platform and is well known for its commitment to clients,” Chase Group Director of Information Technology and Operations Raj Singh said.
In line with the huge presence of mobile money in Kenya, Chase Bank launched several innovative card products which combine payment functionality and mobile wallet features, including supermarket loyalty cards, University ID cards with wallet features, and traveller cards with bonuses features, among other prepaid cards products.
“The partnership with OpenWay is in line with Chase Bank’s strategy of developing innovative opportunities of digital banking and omni-payments, which provide the best possible quality of service and financial solutions for clients across the African region. OpenWay is at the forefront of card management solutions in the world and by utilizing the WAY4 platform, the bank is demonstrating that it is a forward-looking business, always on the lookout for new technologies, which will provide our clients with an enhanced customer experience,” Mr. Singh said.
Mr. Raj noted that to be a disrupter in the mobile space and support continuously changing payment trends in Kenya, the bank decided to replace its existing Electra Card System with a new in-house processing solution as the legacy platform the bank was running on had become a barrier to launching new financial products due to the costs of customising it.
“Delivering within the strict project timeframes was really important for Chase Bank Kenya and OpenWay was able to meet these timeframes due to the excellent cooperation between the Chase Bank and OpenWay teams. We believe the platform will help Chase Bank achieve its ambitious goals within a short term,” said Serge Robyns, Head of Pre-Sales EMEA, OpenWay Group.
According to the Central Bank of Kenya and the Communications Authority of Kenya, 76% of the country’s population is registered for mobile money (27.7m). $24 billion worth of funds was transacted through mobile money in 2014 and $101 billion since the introduction of mobile money in Kenya. The majority of adult Kenyans use mobile money for services ranging from P2P-transfers and bill payments, to donations, savings and loans.