Infobip Case Studies HF Group: Digitizing Banking for Enhanced Customer Experience and Growth
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HF Group: Digitizing Banking for Enhanced Customer Experience and Growth

Infobip
Platform as a Service (PaaS) - Application Development Platforms
Robots - Wheeled Robots
Finance & Insurance
Retail
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Sales & Marketing
Machine to Machine Payments
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HF Group, a leading banking group in Kenya, was faced with the challenge of encouraging its customers to adopt digital and mobile banking channels. The goal was to reduce the workload of branch visits, increase efficiency, and offer innovative solutions and products via electronic and mobile channels. The bank also aimed to improve the banking experience of its customers and reduce in-branch waiting times, thereby improving profitability. However, they were losing some business opportunities as not all customers had access to a smartphone or a sufficient data connection. Additionally, security was a major concern for the group as they wanted to prevent fraud and ensure the safety of their mobile app users.
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HF Group is one of Kenya’s foremost full-service banking groups with an offering spanning retail, corporate, insurance banking, and mortgage services. The group has a vision to digitize its services and offer innovative solutions and products to its customers via electronic and mobile channels. In 2017, the bank began to develop a digital platform encompassing all types of banking transactions and also launched HF Whizz, a mobile banking app for customers. The group's goal was to improve the banking experience of its customers, reduce in-branch waiting times, and increase profitability.
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To address these challenges, HF Group implemented Infobip’s turnkey business messaging platform. This solution covered all of HF Group’s messaging needs and offered a highly flexible and secure communications gateway to engage and notify customers. The bank deployed SMS messaging to notify customers about any account activities and transaction alerts, in real-time. Security for customers was increased by introducing One-Time PINs (OTPs). An OTP SMS delivery was integrated to allow new customers to access the app for the first time, adding an additional security layer to the platform. Furthermore, customers were given the ability to apply for loans via easy-to-use USSD codes, even without a smartphone. With complete integration into back-end banking systems, loans could be auto-approved and customers notified.
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The implementation of Infobip’s solution has been extremely successful for HF Group. The bank's mobile app is currently the leading banking app in Kenya. The digitalization and communication strategies have significantly increased digital and mobile channel adoption and reduced in-branch visits. The use of OTPs has not only increased the security of the platform but also decreased the number of fraudulent attempts on customer accounts. The USSD channel has become the preferred choice for customers to apply for loans. Encouraged by this success, the bank now plans to extend its USSD channel offering to other banking products and services, and to deploy channels such as 2-way SMS and chat apps like Viber, to engage and get closer to customers.
300% increase in the retail customer base
Over 320,000 OTPs were delivered via SMS within just seven weeks
More than 60,000 loan applications were received via USSD within three months of launch
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