National Bank Invests in Card Personalization Facility

Fast transforming listed Kenyan lender National Bank (NBK- NSE) has launched an in-house card personalization facility that will enable the bank issue high security chip cards to its customers faster and within 24 hours of application.  This makes National Bank one of the first banks in Kenya to achieve this milestone, as the Kenya banking sector deepens the adoption of EMV Chip  and PIN technology.  The bank’s in-house card personalization centre will help stabilize card issuance at the bank and improve the turnaround time from card production to issuing.

Speaking during the launch, National Bank of Kenya Managing Director Munir Ahmed said, the facility would accelerate the bank’s debit/ credit card business. “We now have market leading efficiency in card issuing and the whole process will be done within the National bank’s premises.  The period within which cards are delivered to customers at the requesting branch will be reduced significantly from the current 10 days to only 24 hours,” he said.

National Bank was among the first banks in Kenya to embrace the new high security Europay Mastercard and Visa (EMV) Chip card technology for ATM, Debit and Credit cards. The bank is also introducing Pin-less technology for all new debits, credit and prepaid cards where customers are no longer issued with peel-back or scratch off pin mailers but instead receive a one-time pin during activation of their cards at any National Bank ATM.  “This will greatly reduce the environmental impact of printing and cut the time taken to sort and deliver pin mailers as the banks leverages technology to improve customer convenience,” said Mr. Muhammad Abid – Business Director for Financial Services- North, East and West Africa who represented Oberthur Technologies during the launch.

These new milestones are part of the bank’s 5-year strategic growth plan aimed at providing distinctive client services by increasing turnaround time for all services.

National bank has invested in technology massively since embarking on its restructuring strategy in 2013 under the leadership of Mr. Munir Ahmed. In addition to a successful countrywide re-branding exercise, the bank had grown its brick and mortar presence countrywide with over 27 new branches in the last 2 years, and invested in 40 off site ATMs in strategic locations. The bank has introduced Internet and Mobile Banking platforms dubbed Natconnect and NatMobile respectively.

Recently the bank reported doubling of its half-year profit before tax (PBT) in 2015 at Ksh. 2.48 billion compared to Ksh. 1.25 billion posted in a similar period in 2014.