As stakeholders in the financial sector awaits the official commencement of open banking service, Nigeria premier financial institution, First Bank of Nigeria Limited, has taken the lead by expanding discussion on benefits of open banking to customers and the financial ecosystem at large.
This was one of the key highlight of the 2021 edition of FirstBank Fintech Summit, the fifth in its series, tagged Fintech Summit 5.0, with the theme “Open Banking And Its Derivative Opportunities For The Financial Ecosystem”
In his remarks at the well attended virtual event, the Chief Executive Officer of FirstBank Dr Adesola Adeduntan noted that the theme recognizes the increasing pervasive role open data, cloud technology and artificial intelligence play in the financial ecosystem.
According to him “Open banking today demonstrates the practical fusion of these variables, presenting remarkable potentials that can redefine product development, customer experience and overall value creation; with multiplier effects for both players and consumers”.
Adeduntan pointed out that as an institution of 127 years and having traversed series of regulatory transformation over the years, FirstBank will continue to play its role in furthering conversations to refine regulatory frameworks and shape thoughts on industry and societal developments.
He said “We will also continue to demonstrate our support for start-ups and innovators in the fintech space by providing them the relevant data support and infrastructure to enable them scale appropriately”.
Stressing that “Every step we take continues to be geared towards strategically positioning us as the bridgehead and reference point for fintech and financial services providers across the African continent, as we will continue to lead the charge towards realizing the future of banking”.
However, open banking is a financial service term used to describe the use of open technologies by third party providers to build services and applications around financial institutions. Its simply means that no matter how many accounts and financial products a customer has, he/she can view and manage them from a centralised location.
Meanwhile, the regulatory framework for open banking in Nigeria was issued in February 2021, by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN). The framework establishes principles for data sharing across the banking and payments ecosystem, which will promote innovation, broaden the range of financial products and services, and deepen financial inclusion.
The regulatory framework also stipulates, among others, data and Application Programming Interface (API) access requirements, principles for API, data, technical design and information security specifications.
First Bank of Nigeria Limited (FirstBank) is the premier Bank in West Africa and the leading financial inclusion services provider in Nigeria for over 127 years. With over 750 business locations and over 130,620 Banking Agents spread across 99% of the 774 Local Government Areas in Nigeria.
FirstBank provides a comprehensive range of retail and corporate financial services to serve its over 30 million customers. The Bank has international presence through its subsidiaries, FBN Bank (UK) Limited in London and Paris, FBNBank in the Republic of Congo, Ghana, The Gambia, Guinea, Sierra-Leone and Senegal, as well as a Representative Office in Beijing.
The Bank has been handy at promoting digital payment in the country and has issued over 10million cards, the first bank to achieve such a milestone in the country. FirstBank’s cashless transaction drive extends to having more than 10million people on its USSD Quick Banking service through the nationally renowned *894# Banking code and over 4.5 million people on FirstMobile platform.
