Emulate the example of UT Bank -GhIPSS Boss
Banks are being urged to explore the wide range of services that they create out of e-zwich to increase their float and broaden their deposit base. The advice was given by the Chief Executive of Ghana Interbank Payment and Settlement Systems (GhIPSS) Archie Hesse following the presentation of the maiden e-zwich award to UT Bank.
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He said the effort by UT Bank to promote e-zwich usage was highly commendable and challenged other banks to do the same.
The most active e-zwich bank of the year was the newest category to the Ghana Banking Awards and is intended to motivate banks to offer the service at branches.
UT bank was adjudged the most active bank based on five different areas. They are the percentage of bank’s branches offering e-zwich services, the total number of transactions performed in the year, and the total number of e-zwich cards issued. The rest are total payments made by banks’ corporate clients using the e-zwich Payment distribution System (PDS) and total value (float) on bank’s e-zwich client cards.
UT Bank placed 1st in four of the categories and recorded as much as 79,000 transactions with the second bank performing 37,000 transactions in 2013. The bank has also been in the forefront of promoting e-zwich through its advertisements.
Mr. Hesse told the media, that there are several ways banks can use e-zwich to enhance their service delivery and urged the business development unit of the banks to be innovative with the product. He said Ut Bank was doing so well in that area and said GhIPSS will continue to work closely with the financial institutions to ensure that they derive more benefit from the biometric electronic payment system.
He said banks should encourage their corporate clients to adopt e-zwich in paying, particularly their commission based staff. He explained that the most effective way of paying staff who are not stationary is the e-zwich biometric card, because they can receive payment on their cards wherever they are and can access it from different outlets. “If you have a sales team which is all over the country and constantly on the move, your best bet to pay them is through e-zwich and same applies to media correspondents and construction workers who move from project to project” he emphasized.
He intimated that payment of national service allowance from next year could be through e-zwich and therefore advised the banks to position themselves appropriately to benefit from this national project.
Mr. Hesse commended UT Bank and urged them to continue to explore newer ways of using e-zwich to improve on their business and encouraged other banks to also work hard to be in good stead for the most active e-zwich bank during the next Ghana Banking Awards. GB