Russian online bank speaks to SMEs via Facebook Messenger

Tochka, an online bank for Russian SMEs has hooked up with Facebook Messenger as a new customer communications channel.

  8 1 comment

Russian online bank speaks to SMEs via Facebook Messenger

Editorial

This content has been selected, created and edited by the Finextra editorial team based upon its relevance and interest to our community.

The Otkritie Financial Group subsidiary says the service enables clients to use the Messenger service to check their accounts, find nearby ATMs using geolocation, call the bank, contact customer support and make payments

Over 12,000 clients used the bot on the first day, says Tochka Bank chief Boris Dyakonoy, and 50% of those initiated a payment from the app.

“Almost all our clients are Facebook users solving their business issues, finding business partners and even conducting transactions through this social network," he says. "That is why, within a couple of days after the API was ready, we developed a solution to seamlessly combine the Internet banking, prompting and human interaction capabilities into the familiar Facebook Messenger interface."

Facebook says that every month, over 900 million people around the world communicate with friends, families and over 50 million businesses on Messenger. It’s the second most popular app on iOS, and was the fastest growing app in the US in 2015.

Bank of America, TD Bank and AXA were among a dozen companies who signalled their support for the Messenger Platform launch at Facebook's FS Developer conference in April when the API was released.

Sponsored [New Report] The Future of Payments 2025 – Digital, instant, profitable?

Comments: (1)

Hitesh Thakkar

Hitesh Thakkar Technology Evangelist (Financial Technology) at SME - Fintech startups (APAC and Africa)

“Almost all our clients are Facebook users solving their business issues, finding business partners and even conducting transactions through this social network,"  Shows that, Bank's business and IT team aligned towards opportunity of bringing sensible value for social media interactions and customer services. 

[Webinar] PREDICT 2025: The Future of AI in the USFinextra Promoted[Webinar] PREDICT 2025: The Future of AI in the US