Absa Group says its technology investments are increasingly translating into measurable customer and business outcomes, with artificial intelligence, automation and digital platforms helping the bank improve service speed, credit access and operational resilience.
According to the Group’s H1 2026 technology performance update, one of the biggest improvements has been in SME banking, where account-opening turnaround times have fallen from two days to under 30 minutes.
Absa says straight-through processing has reduced SME onboarding time by 98.96%, allowing business customers to transact almost immediately.
Credit decisioning has also improved significantly. Financial spreading, which previously took between two and five days, can now be completed in around four hours, representing an improvement of up to 97%.
“Technology only matters when it changes the experience of customers and the performance of the business,” said Johnson Idesoh, Absa Group Chief Information and Technology Officer.
