Asim Bashir, Country Head – Digital Banking at Askari Bank Limited shares the journey of adapting the “New Normal” in order to cope with COVID-19 and its impact.
Mr. Bashir said, “In the future, I see that a branch will not be considered a primary channel for banking rather it will become right channel for the right communication with the customer and the basic banking will be fully digital, because as far as I can see, going digital is the new normal for the banks.”
Discussing the core focus of Askari Bank during their transformation journey, he said that, “Our transformation journey is focused on customer preferences, to provide customers what they want rather than offering something on the basis of assumptions. We keep track of customer reviews and make sure to infuse their say in our offers.”
In a conversation with Daily NewsPK for an exclusive series of interviews ‘Digitization: Embedding and Embracing the change’, Mr. Asim Bashir shared his point of view on the new trends in financial and services sector and how COVID-19 has changed practices of the industry.
1. How do you see the overall environment in context of consumer behavior post COVID-19? And how do you imagine financial & services sector on the whole will change?
COVID-19 has effected every industry and business in every possible way. For the banking sector, the amount of digital transactions has risen. Our bank has seen steady increases in the beginning to a major bump in the transactions once COVID-19 took full effect. In branches, we have seen a gradually declining traffic to a big drop throughout the pandemic, which is in the recuperating stage now. The change in customer inclinations for banking during the pandemic has made digital banking more than just a value added service. It has now become part of the core banking services the bank offers.
2. How would you describe your digital journey and what sets it apart from the peers? And what is driving this transformation journey?
Askari Bank’s digital journey started in the year 2000. Askari was the first bank to offer internet banking in Pakistan. In the beginning, we offered only the non- financial transactions online but with the acceptance of digital platform among the consumers, we went digital with the financial transactions in 2011. Since then, we have on boarded many billers and vendors to provide the best and most expedient digital experience to our consumers. In 2016, we launched our mobile App to cater the market of smart phone users. We have recently updated our desktop as well as mobile application as the need for convenience in digital banking amplified. In addition, we have launched SMS banking for the market sector not having access to smartphones yet, and we have USSD service, so that our customers can go digital no matter what sort of telecom connection they use. From the very beginning, we have tried to offer our customers the digital banking in a secure and trustful way. We believe in continuous improvement and innovation with security being our first priority.
3. What sort of new challenges and opportunities do you see emerging in this new normal kind of scenario? Will it be a challenge or can it be an opportunity to shift client towards digital?
As we are adapting the new normal, digital banking is surely going to enhance and advance in contrast with the conventional banking. It’s surely a great time for the FinTech companies to emerge in the market and for banks to invest in digital services now more than ever before. The challenge here is to manage the physical branch network. We see more than half of the Pakistani consumer market is now using smartphones. It is obvious, if we go fully digital in the future, customer visits to branch will decline. To make branches an accurate channel for right communication, is what we have to focus in the future.
4. Do you think technologies such as; Open APIs, Block chain, AI, Robotics, etc. are making easier for institutions to drive growth and efficiency? And what is your strategy to adopt such technologies to reach full potential?
It is obvious that these technologies have changed the world so far and have made it easier not only for the consumers but for the businesses as well. Now businesses collaborate with each other, use each other’s data and come up with far reaching technological products & services. These technologies help to track consumer behavior which in turn helps to deliver consumer centric products. Our strategy is to inculcate these technologies, especially AI to forecast consumer behavior and to use that information to bring novel products in the market.
5. How necessary is the superior understanding and operational excellency for a business to be innovative? And how are you making sure that the workforce is aligned with the roadmap?
No organization can succeed if its workforce isn’t aware of the strategy it follows. To achieve synergy in processes, the understanding of the game plan is essential for every employee in the organization. For that, we conduct surveys and offer rewards for the basic knowhow of our products & services. We make sure everyone is on board for the strategy we follow.
6. What is your Bank’s FinTech strategy and how important is to team up with the FinTechs and new entrants coming to the market?
As I said earlier, going fully digital is the new normal for the banks. Our strategy is to syndicate our efforts with those who offer the best services in the market and provide our customers with convenient digital experience. Not only this, we want to make sure that more and more customers adapt our digital platforms as the means of their day to day banking.
7. How are you encouraging your customers to switch from cash to other payments solutions and do you think this recent crisis has exponentially impacted the future of payments?
We have recently upgraded our mobile App to provide customers with better platform for their banking needs. We have introduced many new features such as QR & NFC payments, and Cardless cash withdrawal that help customers to go cash-less or even card-less if they want. The pandemic has forced consumers to interact less and less. Customers preferred online buying for everything they could. Keeping that in mind, we are moving towards an era where you will see transactions not only cash or card less but touch less.
8. How do you reckon digitization of processes will progress in Pakistan? Do you think we will be able to offer same kind of seamless experience as developed markets are offering all the while making sure customer is secure?
The pandemic has forced every industry, every firm, every business to go digital. From official meetings to daily business operations, every single thing went digital for a while. This showed us how our economy had the capability to use the digital and online channels as a means to everything. For sure, Pakistan can be among those economies and offer secure online platforms and services.
9. How do you think the industry will look like in next 3 years?
If we take into consideration the lessons from this recent pandemic, we can build a strong foundation for a digital- tech-savvy industry. The change in the consumer behavior illustrates that if we can adapt new ways in the span of three months, what we can adapt in three years is quiet astonishing to the mind. The future for banking is completely different and is better for sure.
