UK bank Standard Chartered is planning to roll out its video banking service to more than five million users across Asia, Africa and the Middle East.
Standard Chartered claims the initiative will be the biggest ever roll out of video banking. The service is already active in Malaysia and Singapore and wil now be extended to Bangladesh, China, Hong Kong, India, Taiwan, Kenya and UAE before the end of 2016.
The video banking service will enable clients to speak with banking consultants via a secure video connection and to carry out the majority of traditional branch-based services such as opening accounts, applying for new cards, arranging mortgages and receiving investment advice.
The roll-out of video banking is a continuation of Standard Chartered's policy to provide more digital services for retail banking customers that are choosing to transact outside of the branch.
In 2015, the bank announced that it will invest $1.5bn in technology over the next three years as it focuses on the growing trend for digital rather than bricks-and-mortar banking. Standard Chartered has closed 175 of its 1,000 plus branches across Africa, Asia and the Middle East since 2014 and aims to generate 30% of sales and 40% of payments online by 2018.
In addition to the video banking roll-out, Standard Chartered has also piloted a new mobile and online banking platform to eight African markets and more than 1 million clients and earlier this year launched an iPad-based digital sales and service tool in eight African and Asian markets.
“Video banking is about giving our clients more choice and more convenience," said Karen Fawcett, the bank's CEO of retail banking. "Now you don’t have to come in to a branch to talk to somebody face-to-face. We are investing in technology that makes banking secure, simple and personal for our clients.”
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