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Absa has joined forces with investment platform EasyEquities in one of the bank’s first partnerships struck by its personal and private banking franchise under new CEO Sitoyo Lopokoiyit as the lender looks to strengthen its offering to clients.The bank, which wants to regain lost ground in retail banking, said the partnership will give its 12-millon clients access to invest via its app. About 125,000 EasyEquities clients are already linked to the bank via its app.“The two client bases already overlap significantly. EasyEquities’ data shows that approximately 125,000 EasyEquities clients are linked to Absa through an Absa bank account, Absa Pay or registered Absa banking details,” Absa said in a statement. “EasyEquities is also home to around 30,000 Absa shareholders and nearly 20,000 investors who hold Absa investment products.“For Absa, the partnership strengthens its ambition to make financial services more accessible, convenient, and integrated into the digital channels clients already use. It reflects Absa’s customer-led strategy and its purpose of empowering Africa’s tomorrow, together, by creating simpler, more seamless ways for people to transact, grow and protect their wealth.”Absa earlier this year poached Lopokoiyit from M-Pesa, the mobile phone-based money transfer, payments, and micro-financing platform, to head its pan-African personal and private banking business.M-Pesa, regarded as Africa’s “super app”, was established as a joint venture between Safaricom and Vodacom. It has grown to be one of Africa’s biggest fintech success stories, with more than 60-million clients, processing about $1bn a day in transactions.Lopokoiyit said the partnership also supports Absa’s broader focus on digital innovation, ecosystem partnerships and human-centred experiences that place customers’ needs and stories at the centre of the business.“This partnership builds on a natural connection between Absa and EasyEquities. Many Absa clients already invest through EasyEquities, while many EasyEquities users are connected to Absa as shareholders, clients, or investors in our products. By bringing the experience into the Absa app, we can make investing simpler and more accessible for more of our clients,” he said.EasyEquities is owned by JSE-listed Purple Group, which reported a sharp jump in profit for the six months to end-February, driven by strong growth in its EasyEquities platform. CEO Charles Savage (Picture: SUPPLIED) Charles Savage, CEO of Purple Group and EasyEquities, said the partnership with Absa follows similar integrations with other banks, which have helped drive growth in registered and funded EasyEquities clients, as well as the value of assets held on the platform.“Our mission is to make access to markets available to more people, because markets remain one of the most effective ways to grow and protect wealth over time,” Savage said.“This partnership gives Absa clients a simple way to start investing directly through a platform they already trust and use.”Business Day
