The bank wins two awards: Best Mobile Banking Adaptive Website – consumer category and the digital Best Trade Finance Service – corporate category

• Pierre Finas: We work hard for the future to continue to lead the transition into a new world of digital banking services
• Walie Lotfy: Crédit Agricole customers used the bank’s digital services 4 million times in the first seven months of 2020

 Cairo, September, 2020 – Global Finance, the leading internationally-renowned media institution, announced that Crédit Agricole Egypt has won 2 digital awards Best Mobile Banking Adaptive Website – consumer category and the digital Best Trade Finance Service – corporate category

The announcement of Global Finance Awards for the best digital banks, in its 21st session for 2020 comes in recognition of the leading banks providing digital banking services worldwide, and as a culmination of Crédit Agricole Egypt’s continuous efforts to innovate digital banking services for both the consumer and corporate sectors. Global Finance is a major media institution with a focus on banking and financial sectors providing studies showing new business trends for corporate leaders, bankers and investors in 163 countries.

Mr. Pierre Finas, Managing Director of Crédit Agricole Egypt, commented: “I would like first to congratulate the bank’s staff for their continuous efforts to accelerate the implementation of our plans for digital transformation. Building on the recently received awards ‘Most Innovative Bank’ award from Global Business Outlook and ‘Best Private Bank for VIP Clients’ from Global Finance, we are proud that every year we receive a number of important awards that we consider a confirmation of the pertinence of our strategies to serve all customer segments including companies, individuals and VIP customers. We, at Crédit Agricole, work hard for the future, and seeing our plans come true prompts us to deploy more efforts to lead the transition into a new world of digital banking services.”

Finas added: “as the satisfaction of our customers is our top priority, the bank’s plans are based on meeting their needs and aspirations, now and in the future. Therefore, the digital development and transformation is a key pivot in the bank’s plans. And, we are keen to ensure the cohesion of our plans with the directions of the Central Bank of Egypt, to serve the goals of the Egyptian economy and community. Over the past few years, we were able to build – for the first time in Egypt – an integrated multiple digital services platform for individuals and companies.”

On another hand, Mr. Walie Lotfy, Deputy Managing Director, stated: “The circumstances that were seen worldwide this year due to the COVID-19 pandemic contributed to a rapid transition in digital banking services. We always think about the future and set ambitious goals for ourselves, but this time the future has come to us faster than we could imagine. The bank recorded a significant increase that exceeded all expectations, with the number of customers’ login to our digital services have reached around 4 million times during the first seven months of 2020, recording an increase of more than 100% compared to the same period in 2019. We also have registered more than 650,000 digital transactions during the same period, both for retail and corporate clients. Digital transfers also saw an increase to reach 85% of total individual transfers since the emergence of the coronavirus crisis, which confirms the resilience and efficiency of the bank’s digital services platform, as well as the strong national transition into a cashless society.”

Lotfy added: “to achieve this success, we are keen to continuously develop our services. In 2020, we have introduced – for the first time in Egypt – the concept of ‘banki Lite’ as an adaptive mobile banking service for individuals, to offer a new banking experience for customers who can now enjoy the mobile application through their computers. This reinforces the idea of the omnichannel, where the same services are made available through different channels, and customers enjoy the freedom to choose between them according to their convenience”.

Lotfy added: “as part of the bank’s strategy to serve all customer segments and digitilize all banking transactions, and in conformity with the direction of the Central Bank of Egypt, we continue to develop solutions that cater to the current needs of corporate clients and which support the Egyptian economy. Therefore, we have focused on commercial transactions that represent a key development point for our corporate clients, especially those operating in the field of import and export. We launched, also during this year, the Digital Trade Finance service as a new addition to the online banking service ‘banki Business’ that enables our corporate clients to easily manage their accounts day to day. The new Digital Trade Finance service will facilitate the endorsement of documentary collection and the issuance of letters of credit and guarantees digitally for commercial activities. This is in line with our efforts to support our corporate customers and to achieve their convenience and time saving from one side, and to spur trade activities and support the national economy from the other”.

The Global Finance awards jury, which includes international banking and technology consultants and Global Finance editors, mentioned in its report that winners’ selection is based on the strength and clarity of their bank’s strategy. They also highlighted banks’ efforts to constantly introduce new digital banking services and to encourage customers to use digital services, justified with the continuous increase in the number of the bank’s customers using its digital services.