United Bank for Africa (UBA) Plc has launched a chat banking personality named Leo that enables its customers make use of their social media accounts to carry out key banking transactions.
How does Leo work
Customers of the bank can make use of Facebook chat function to enjoy banking services through chat sessions, thus representing a way of delivering lifestyle banking. Also, users would be able to perform other transactions using the chat banking; including payments of bills, data top-up, mini-statements, loan applications; cheque confirmation, account freezing, among others.
With the launch of the chat banking, which has already taken-off in the Facebook Messenger, the bank explained that it customers would be able to open new accounts, receive instant transaction notifications, check their balances on the go, transfers and airtime top up.
The Group Managing Director, UBA, Mr. Kennedy Uzoka, who spoke at the event, said as part of initiatives aimed at putting the customer first, the bank was continuously developing strategies aimed at easing transactions for the bank’s numerous users, while ensuring utmost safety of their transactions.
He said: “The formulation of this product, is consistent with the bank’s customer first philosophy, where we are doing things not the way we like, but exactly what the customers want, where they want it, and in the exact platform they want.
“And so, we have been working with technology giants from around the world because for UBA with so many customers, we have to deal with those who have the global capacity.
Uzoka argued that this was the first time this kind of solution would be coming up in the continent, he expressed believe that with the huge number of customers the bank has as well as its growing customer base in all the 19 countries of operation, customers would be served using technology, and not just traditional technology, but modern and forward looking technology.
The Bank’s Group Head, Online Banking, Mr. Austine Abolusoro, who took participants on a step by step procedure of the process for working with Leo, explained that Leo is not only a chat machine, but is an artificial intelligence service as well a personality meant to address any type of banking concern.
“Leo is ready and waiting to help with most transactions and to deliver any form of banking services. Leo is operating a lifestyle banking platform on facebook messenger to assist with your transactions while chatting with your friends and business partners. The security with this platform is that for every transaction, an OTP (One Time Password) is generated to the phone number that is registered on the account.”
He explained that the UBA chat banking with Leo is not just the typical products that we see, it comes with the product that anybody will understand to ease transactions and help to keep up the lifestyle of individuals, adding that it is designed from the customer’s standpoint.
United Bank for Africa (UBA) Plc is one of Africa’s largest financial institutions with operations in 19 African countries and 3 global financial centers; New York, London and Paris. UBA has more than eight million customers and 700 business offices globally.
