Standard Chartered Plc is opening its first online-only retail bank in Ivory Coast, where it will test the waters prior to a global launch, the Financial Times reported March 14, citing the bank's CEO for Middle East and Africa, Sunil Kaushal.
The bank intends to expand its digital bank operations into Kenya, Nigeria, Ghana and other African countries after the Ivory Coast project has bedded in, Kaushal said.
In Ivory Coast, the bank plans to provide 70 digital services, and automated services mean it will be able to operate with between one-seventh and one-fifth the workforce, Kaushal added. The digital services will include money transfers, bill payments and tracking of balance, the newspaper said.
The digital bank will sign up the football player Didier Drogba, formerly of London's Chelsea football club and an Ivorian, as its first customer and to drum up awareness, according to the report.
Standard Chartered operates in Ivory Coast via Standard Chartered Bank Côte d'Ivoire SA.
