Absa Bank Kenya received the award for Best Cash Management and Transaction Bank in Kenya at the Middle East and Africa Transaction Finance Awards 2020

• Absa Bank Kenya augmented liquidity and margin compression with volume and product enhancements to preserve franchise sustainability
• Absa rolled out digital enhancements such as RCC solution and API
• A dedicated pandemic-related advisory on matters about cash management was set up to address customer queries

Absa augmented liquidity and margin compression with volume and product enhancements to preserve franchise sustainability

Absa Bank has maintained the profitability of its transaction franchise and supplemented the general business slowdown on account of tightening liquidity and margin compression through growth in volume flows and product enhancements. The bank was able to meet new customer propositions that cut across liquidity management, payments, and diverse collections solutions to ensure increased efficiency, visibility, and return on investment.

The bank's mandate propositions were largely centred on remote cheque capture (RCC) solutions that were implemented for multinational corporates. The bank noted increased participation in public sector collections which drove volumes for business. The bank’s cash revenues rose by 23% while its fee income rebounded strongly by 15% after contracting 6% in 2018.

Absa rolled out digital enhancements such as RCC solution and API

The bank implemented several digital enhancements such as RCC solution, application programming interface (API)-based collection services, and same-day clearing services. These innovations helped clients with reporting shorter days sales outstanding (DSO), process efficiency, transparency and finality of the transaction, security, and better overall relationship with their partners on account of improved and timely bank reconciliation. The RCC service enables clients to scan cheques within their offices via a web-based portal which reduced their DSO by a day as cheques can be scanned on the date of receipt. The 24x7 access to cheque images from the portal further eliminates the dependency of the customer on the bank for cheque images. The bank rolled out an API-based capability that enabled it to resume offering post-paid electricity collections with real-time updates and generation of receipts.

A dedicated pandemic-related advisory on matters about cash management was set up to address customer queries

The bank identified liquidity management advisory as one of the most integral ways to make an impact on its corporate clients during the pandemic that compressed liquidity severely. Absa's advisory on liquidity management was disseminated through cash managers who analysed the account balances across all the clients to see what balances should hold in the various accounts to meet their payment dues. The decline in branch footfall due to virus transmission risks prompted the bank to channel its resources from branches to online capabilities. The bank ramped up its Africa Access migration and onboarding teams that focused on getting clients onto its single sign-on online platform - Absa Access. A total of 123 clients were onboarded and migrated for liquidity management services.

About Transaction Finance Awards

The Asian Banker Transaction Awards Programme, refereed by prominent global bankers, IT consultants and academics, is the most prestigious of its kind in the Asia Pacific. Recipients of the awards are honoured in a gala event to recognise their efforts in bringing superior products and services to customers. A stringent and comprehensive evaluation process determines the awardees. For specific details relating to description of the awards, evaluation criteria and process, kindly visit https://www.asianbankerawards.com/transactionawards/index.php

Sue Kim

skim@theasianbanker.com