One of East Africa’s biggest lenders, KCB might evolve its technology prowess by being among the first banks to roll out near field communication technology (NFC). Now days several smartphone especially smartphones come with NFC chips embedded and his would easy banking. The plans to roll out NFC technology were unveiled yesterday as they announced their first quarter of the year profits after tax rose 28.6 per cent and declared plans to in future follow its closest rival Equity in venturing into various telecoms market.
The bank’s profits increased to Sh3.9 billion up from Sh3.03 billion, uplifted by a 13 per cent growth in interest income to Sh8.3 billion and a 12 per cent climb in fees and commissions to Sh2.7 billion, chief financial officer Collins Otiwu said.
“Going forward, our strategy is to increase income from non-funded streams from the current 36.5 per cent to 40 per cent by the end of the year,” Otiwu said. CEO Joshua Oigara said plans to venture into telecoms were “on cards” while it hopes by end of this month to conclude a deal to deepen presence in Near Field Communication-supported card payments with entry into the PSV sector.
“This is the space that the whole of the industry will be moving into going forward and we already have plans which we will announce at an appropriate date,” he said. Equity bank said mid last month, it will be rolling out telecoms services through its mobile virtual network operator license later this month.
NFC technology is widely foreseen as the future technology in the banking sector, can be used as the wireless CHIP-N-PIN used in VISA cards. It’s also a secure over-the-air technology for remote management enables immediate remote blocking of the payment application.
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