ChatPay bags global award, to rev up e-payment system

A three-month-old payment platform introduced into the Nigerian market, ChatPay, has bagged the Silver Award in the Digital Distribution category at the EFMA-Accenture Global Banking Awards, in Barcelona, Spain.

The solution, according to a statement from the promoters, offers users the capacity to perform various transactions ranging from fund transfers, airtime purchase, bills payment, location of Automated Teller Machines (ATMs), to viewing movie listings and trailers over an artificial intelligence driven service like Twitter, Facebook Messenger, Telegram, WeChat and Skype.

At the awards, over 200 financial institutions from 61 countries with more than 460 innovative products and services were considered across 10 categories.

The EFMA–Accenture Banking Innovation Awards is a joint initiative from EFMA and Accenture, aimed at recognising the most innovative projects in the banking sector at a global level.

The winners were selected by a combination of votes from a panel of judges comprised of senior bankers from around the world and online votes from EFMA members and non-members.

Presenting the Award to the Chief Evangelist for Chatpay, Gbenga Adams, and the Global Managing Director of Accenture Distribution and Marketing Services, Piercarlo Gera, noted that the “awards showed that banks are now embracing digital innovation; using it to create ‘Phygital’ distribution models- combination of physical and digital channels.”

He added that “these reduce the cost to serve, while also differentiating the customer experience.”The Chief Executive Officer of EFMA, Vincent Bastid, said: “We can see that more banks are now fully behind the concept of digital transformation, as demonstrated by the range and volume of innovations we’ve reviewed this year.

“It’s exciting to see them taking advantage of such innovative technologies to differentiate themselves from the competition, improve their business and offer exciting digital services that truly engage with a new generation of customers.”

But Adams added that the award is in recognition of the next generation payment system that ChatPay embodies; a combination of Artificial Intelligence, Social Media and Open Banking all rolled into one.

According to him, it will further motivate the ChatPay team to continue to break new grounds in providing cutting edge payment innovation for the digital customer.