LAGOS, AUGUST 15, 2016 – SunTrust Bank will formally open for business today as it seeks to reshape the Nigerian banking space and the way consumers interface with their banks.SunTrust Bank will operate the branchless banking model where it will deliver financial services outside conventional bank branches.
It hopes to eliminate the need for costly brick-and-mortar branches and hope to to use agent networks to reach its customers more efficiently.
The prototype banking hall at the bank’s headquarters in Lagos looks more like an airport lounge.
The banking hall is completely different, no kiosks or cashiers, signalling a total dependence on technology in its service offerings to the public.
According to Muhammed Jubrin, SunTrust Bank’s CEO, “our vision is to offer high quality retail and commercial banking services in a modern and innovative manner. We will use technology and a new way of thinking to provide banking services to many people and businesses in Nigeria for whom access to a bank account has previously been impossible.
“We will offer telephone, mobile and Internet banking underpinned by the traditional banking ethics of probity and integrity.”
SunTrust Bank became the only bank in Nigeria to be granted fresh licence to operate as a commercial bank with regional authorisation since 2001.
This is after meeting very stringent conditions set by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).
The bank’s competitive edge will be the strong reliance on technology and the bank will be encouraging customers to access its services from the comfort of their homes and offices and as such the bank will not be engaging in a proliferation of branches.
“Our services will be available to our customers 24 hours daily, seven days a week and from anywhere in the world where there is a good Internet service.
“Even our data centre is outsourced, this way we will not have the overbearing requirement to put on the generator at our locations,” he explained.
By adopting a branchless strategy, SunTrust will save the N100m-N120M required to build a modern branch and the about N2.5m it costs to run the generators at a typical bank branch.
Customers of SunTrust will be encouraged to use any bank ATM because the bank will not be charging them the fee charged by other banks for using ATM machines belonging to other banks.
According to the CEO, “we will not be emphasising physical security as we are making serious investment in cyber security instead.”
“In the years to come, the developments at SunTrust should have far-reaching influence in the banking sector specifically and our nation generally,” said Jubrin.
