The Digital Economy: A glance at some digital banking products in our digital economy!

It is safe to say that banks are among the first adopters of digital transformation. Ghana’ banking sector has seen a lot of transformations over the past years. One may attribute this change to the digital drive from the regulator demanding that bank’s standardize their operations and to ensure that customers’ data are protected.

Also as a competitive advantage to satisfy customers for fast, secure and convenient way of banking has led to innovations we see in the sector.  No bank wants to be seen today as falling behind in this digital era.

Our banks are usually perceived as racing behind the telecommunications companies and some FINTECHs in the mobile financial space. However the banks have not backed out on their efforts to provide Ghanaian consumers with various digital products that can best serve their banking needs.

Here are some examples of the digital banking products on the market today taken from some providers’ websites accessed on 5/08/21.

Zenith Bank’s Digital banking Suite

Zenith’s  Internet Banking Benefits include; having real-time access to your account, ability to print your account activity report, carry out intra and inter accounts transfers and paying bills.

The bank has various card products you can choose per your need: There is the Zenith Visa Classic Debit Card which can be used on any Visa enabled ATM or POs.  The debit card as usual is linked to your account and so all deductions are directly made from your own funds.

Another debit card that one can obtain from bank is the Zenith Visa Platinum Debit Card. A customer having the latter has an added advantage over the normal debit card, because he or she is given a higher withdrawal and purchasing limit.

The bank also offers a credit card called Zenith Visa Classic Credit Card. With this a customer is given a credit limit within which he/she can spend and repay later.

There are Visa and Master Prepaid cards also on offer. All you need to do is to load your card in any of the bank’s branches and you ready to go. It is very important to note that, you don’t need to be an account holder with the bank to be able to obtain this.

Others are the Zenith EasyPay Card, which is a cash card you can only use on the bank’s own ATMs and the Zenith e-Zwich Smart Card with a biometric verification can be used for various retail functions.

Customers of Zenith bank can also do various banking transactions on their mobile phone. The bank’s mobile banking App named Zmobile allows customers to do instant transfers, pay bills, do mobile top-ups, check account statements, etc.  You can download the Zmobile App from the App store or Google Play store.

Fidelity Bank’s Digital banking Suite

Under the Digital Banking heading is the promise: ‘Freedom to manage your money according to your transactional needs’

The Fidelity Mobile App is described as another bank branch in your palm. The app can be downloaded from App Store and the Google Play store.

Some of the top features on the App are as follows:

• You can make payments for goods at retail points
• Increase or decrease the limit on your Fidelity Visa card
• Transfers within Fidelity network is free
• Airtime topups for all mobile networks
• You can transfer money both ways between your mobile money wallet and your Fidelity account.
• Bill payments to: Dstv, Gotv, GWCL & ECG post-paid

The bank also provides an electronic platform for transaction initiation and reporting which business clients can integrate into their own existing system.

Fidelity also offers its cusntomers a wide range of card products for the unique needs. These include:

Fidelity Visa Classic Debit Card:

One can be issued instantly at any branch and can be used for online payments and cash withdrawals at any VISA branded ATM

Fidelity Visa Gold Card:

Also used for online payments and withdrawals, but might take about weeks, with higher daily spend limit.

 Fidelity E-zwich Card

This works on the e-zwich platform with biometric verification

And the Fidelity Visa Platinum Debit Card

DIGITAL DIGEST: Know your banks USSD for Mobile Banking