Barclays will roll out its mobile phone payments system ‘Pingit’ in Kenya in a bid to expand its retail banking services in African country and diversify its revenues channels.
Induction of the new solution will enable the UK denizens to remit money to Kenya by just using the recipient’s mobile phone number, thus eliminating the risk of any kind of personal information exposure, as reported by the Financial Times.
The UK lender said that its African retail banking segment fetches approximately 6% profit. The bank has initiated a lot of measures to enhance its share in the market.
More recently, the rate rigging scandal has claimed Barclays’ three top executives, leaving the bank in a peril, the newspaper reported.
FT quoted Antony Jenkins, head of the retail business and a potential successor to Barclays’ chief executive Bob Diamond as saying that Barclays was keen to tap into the "corridors of African expatriates" who are living in the UK but regularly send money back to their families.
Jenkins estimated there were about 200,000 people living in the UK who were born in Kenya.
The UK bank will launch its mobile-to-mobile banking services in Kenya, as well as in other African nations such as South Africa.
The bank is also gearing up to make the service available in European countries including Spain, Italy, Portugal and France, in 2013.
Customers will be able to reduce the money sending cost by half, if they use Barclays’ new service, which will be floated for customers on charging commission on the currency exchange but without any fee.
The bank anticipates that the transfer of £100 to Africa will cost less than £3, which is much cheaper than traditional money transfer, which charges in between £5 and £10 for a £100 transfer.
Barclays currently trades in almost ten geographies in Africa and also has a majority stake in Absa, a South Africa bank.